Cry of the Children

November 4, 2013
Early in Gregson’s solid 26th Lambert and Hook mystery, Matt, the personable but disingenuous man who has replaced Lucy Gibson’s father in her mother’s affections and bed, takes the seven-year-old girl to a fair near Hereford. An inattentive Matt is dismayed when Lucy disappears from a ride that he was watching her on shortly before. The later discovery of the girl’s strangled corpse in the river Wye makes Matt a leading suspect. Det. Chief Supt. John Lambert and his trusted aide, Det. Sgt. Bert Hook, also investigate a slow-witted, hulking woman who craves a child’s love; a belligerent carny roustabout; a sly elderly pedophile; and Lucy’s dreadfully overwrought father. As Lambert and Hook accumulate evidence and weigh motives, a little boy is snatched off the street, so they find themselves racing to prevent a second murder. Within the framework of a stock British police procedural, Gregson keeps the reader guessing whodunit.

September 17, 2012
In Gregson’s gripping 25th Lambert and Hook mystery (after 2011’s Die Happy), Det. Chief Supt. John Lambert and Det. Sgt. Bert Hook investigate the murder of Dennis Cooper, the curator of Westbourne Park, one of the great gardens of England, after the discovery of Cooper’s strangled body in a remote part of the property. The surprising number of suspects includes Cooper’s wife, who’s carrying on an affair with an unscrupulous businessman; the head chef at Westbourne’s cafe, who desperately wants to hide a repellent secret; a young apprentice gardener with a volatile temper; and a volunteer docent, whose past with Cooper bears looking into. Each person of interest, memorable in his or her own way, is interviewed by Lambert and Hook, who, with their subtle interplay, elicit much more than they realize. The interviews are so polite, so civilized in that British way, readers can’t help feeling rewarded.

October 15, 2012
Chief Superintendent Lambert and Sgt. Bert Hook (Die Happy, 2011, etc.) investigate the death of a National Trust curator. Living at Westbourne Park suits Dennis Cooper down to the ground. He loves being in charge of the gardeners, like young Jim Hartley, whose qualifications for such a prestigious horticultural post were a little thin, but who's proved himself a steady, dependable fellow. He also loves supervising the restaurant, where hundreds of tourists enjoy top-notch meals every day under the direction of Hugo Wilkinson, despite the head chef's tendency to fly off the handle and hurl racial epithets at the busboys. And directing the volunteers is enjoyable, even though sharp-tongued spinster Lorna Green does have a regrettable habit of correcting him in public. He even likes mentoring young interns like Alex Fraser, who finds Westbourne a lifeline out of the hardscrabble world of Glasgow. Too bad Cooper's wife, Alison, sees life at Westbourne as so dull and isolated that she's moved to take up an affair with shady Peter Nayland. Is that illicit affair the reason Cooper turns up dead in a pond at Westbourne's outer edge? Or is there another grudge, real or imagined, that prompts someone to put paid to Cooper's country idyll? Once again, Lambert and Hook tread ground already better trod by DCI Percy Peach in Gregson's alternative, slightly edgier series.

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 1, 2012

The steady British duo of CS John Lambert and DS Bert Hook mix horticulture with their golf when their 25th case (after Die Happy) involves a murder on the grounds of Westbourne Gardens.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2012
The venerable Lambert and Hook series, now celebrating more than 20 years of dependable service, keeps rollin' on. Lambert and Hook, the Gloucestershire cops (they're a chief superintendent and detective sergeant, respectively), investigate the murder of a National Trust curatorin terms familiar to North American readers, he's basically the curator of a national historical sitewho, by all accounts, seems to have led a pleasant enough life. Although, as Lambert and Hook discover as they dig beneath the surface, and as they have often discovered over these many years, the most peaceful of lives can conceal unexpected dark corners. As usual, the characters are solidly constructed (and not just the two familiar series leads but the supporting players as well), the setting is well imagined, and the story offers readers enough surprises and misdirection to keep them on their toes. Although it might exist under the radars of many readers, this series is well worth a look.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)