Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of Rainstone Fall by Peter Helton. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
Rainstone Fall by Peter Helton
A Chris Honeysett Mystery
Soho Constable (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-56947-525-3 (1569475253)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-525-6 (9781569475253)
Publication Date: September 2008
List Price: $25.00
Review: Artist and private investigator Chris Honeysett, together with fellow artist and lover Annis Jordan and best friend Tim Bigwood, a former safecracker and thief, take on a situation that involves danger, treachery, and murder in Rainstone Fall, the third mystery in this series by Peter Helton.
Honeysett’s new job has him working for an insurance agency in Bath. He is to follow a man with a limp in order to prove fraud. While on the job, a single, seemingly poor woman comes to him and pleads with him to help find her son. The boy is fifteen years old and has been kidnapped. Chris hears from the kidnapper who tells him he must do exactly what he is told or the boy will die. The orders include safecracking (a job for Tim) which fails, stealing a supposedly priceless stamp (which turns out to be not so priceless), and last but not least, to steal a Rodin statue from the Bath Museum. Although Chris thinks these demands are bizarre, he agrees for the sake of the boy's mother. The pursuit of these demands takes Chris, Annis and Tim through shadowy fields, over down-trodden paths, and sloshing in flooded footpaths during a grim autumn. Soon they find themselves meeting head-on blackmail and murder.
Helton has created three acerbic, yet engaging characters in Chris, Annis, and Tim. The story takes place in the city and surrounding area of Bath, England, during the chilly, rainy season of the year. The visions the author generates along the rustic countryside and the heavily travelled dirt roads with ruts filled with muddy water, trees with fallen branches, broken down fences and green hedges surrounding the farms is astounding. Rainstone Fall is a compelling, memorable story of greed, blackmail, kidnapping and murder set in a rustic atmosphere.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Rainstone Fall and to Soho Press for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
If you are interested in purchasing Rainstone Fall from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right.
Synopsis (from the publisher): For Chris Honeysett, artist and private investigator in the city of Bath, autumn threatens to bring down more than just the roof of his studio. An exceptionally stormy October forms the backdrop to Aqua Investigation’s strangest case yet.
When Chris downs brushes to take on what looks like a simple surveillance job he finds himself in a frenetic world of murder, abduction and blackmail. Dark problems sometimes require drastic solutions – why else would Honeysett suddenly find himself on the wrong side of the law?
Cracks are beginning to show in his private life too, just when the triangle that is Chris, Tim and Annis should be working together to keep them all out of jail. In Rainstone Fall first impressions count for nothing and appearances are always deceptive.
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