Richard & Judy Introduce The House in the Woods by Mark Dawson

A stunning crime and mystery novel with a superb plot. Christmas Eve, and police are called to an old farm house in the woods where four people have been murdered. Father, mother, son and daughter. Only one member of the family is left alive and he found their bodies. He is the obvious suspect and brought to trial. But only one man, a private eye called Atticus Priest, has the expertise to discover what really happened. And it’s a shock.

Judy's Review:

I loved this book. Intelligent, gritty and perceptive, it takes a complicated family murder apart with eloquently readable prose.

Four members of the Mallander family are murdered in their own remote home on Christmas Eve. Ralph, the only one left, found the bodies of his father, mother, brother and sister when he returned to the house to apologise after a festive family row.

At first police believe it’s a murder suicide committed by Ralph’s volatile brother Cameron. Then new evidence implicates Ralph as the killer and he’s arrested and charged.

His prospects at trial look grim, and his wife, Allegra, hires a private eye to find evidence to clear her husband.

Richard's Review:

The private eye she hires is the spectacularly named Atticus Priest, a disgraced former police detective sacked after several indiscretions, such as smoking weed and having an affair with his senior officer.

Atticus is a maverick; an odd but extremely intelligent man, possibly on the spectrum, with observational powers reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes.

He’s irascible and impatient but, for all his flaws, an enormously attractive character. He soon realises that although his client is heavily implicated, the evidence doesn’t quite add up. His instincts and hunches are a joy to read.

The writer, Mark Dawson, has a hypnotic way with words and we predict Atticus Priest will be a big hit and the star of many future novels. A new fictional detective is born, and this is a dazzling debut.