Roy Lewis (2) (1933–)

murder, murder-investigation, local-politics, law-enforcement, amateur-sleuth, first-in-series, small-town, rural, farming****

Arnold Landon has a passion for wood. Not in the scholarly sense, but the real deal. He knows and has been to the library to study the particulars of a peculiar piece of roofing and has dated it to a precise time in that woodworker's life. 1349. But the greedy builder wants it torn down, the publicity hound professor thinks he's nutz, and the local council isn't sure if it is a Historic property or not.
This book meanders along like Slow-TV in Norway but it certainly keeps interest through all the twists and red herrings.
I see that this is a re-issue of the first book in series and it is set in the 1980s.
I bought the audio done by award winning narrator Steven Crossley!… (meer)

Originally published in 1980 as A Certain Blindness, this is the first Eric Ward mystery. I first became acquainted with Roy Lewis's writing by reading his Arthur Landon series. Landon is a medieval architecture expert and researcher in Northumberland, and I really enjoyed the history and landscape that Lewis put into the books. That same landscape figures prominently here in The Sedleigh Hall Murder. It was refreshing to read a mystery where there are no cell phones and no DNA. One of the secondary characters, former jockey Jackie Parton, complains that it's almost impossible for him to reach Ward because Ward never seems to be in the office by his phone. You don't see that happening in current mysteries.

Although Lewis's writing style is a bit dry and the book is plot- rather than character-driven, I enjoyed it. The mystery had plenty of twists and turns, and Eric Ward-- like Arthur Landon in the other series-- is a strong central figure. His chronic glaucoma can hit suddenly and put him out of commission for quite a while, so that unknown factor adds tension to the story. Another character tells Ward that he was "always a good liaison copper," and what made him a good police officer makes him a good lawyer. He knows how to deal with people from all walks of life. He knows how to talk with them to get the information he needs.

Although I do prefer mysteries that are more character-driven, The Sedleigh Hall Murder was a good change of pace and a reminder of how much I've enjoyed Lewis's books in the past. Something tells me I'll be meeting Eric Ward again in the future.… (meer)