| Publisher | Severn House |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 31 December 2015 |
| ISBN-10 | 0727884654 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0727884657 |
| Format | hardcover |
| Pages | 224 |
| Price | £ 19.99 |
Green and Pleasant Land
by
Newly retired cops Fran Harman and Mark Turner don’t get much of a chance to put their feet up as they are called in by West Mercia police to investigate a cold case – but their welcome is less than warm.
Review
I’ve read several of the earlier Fran Harman books and liked her a lot – she’s a feisty senior cop with realistic personal problems, who finds love later in life. She and former colleague Mark Turner are now married, but their recent retirement is anything but quiet.
West Mercia police summon them up from their comfortable home in Kent to investigate a cold case as consultants. But they’re hardly made to feel welcome when they arrive, as the person who hired them has been made redundant, and his replacement seems keen to get shot of them as quickly as possible. They’re given a bare bones team to work with them, but they seem distinctly underwhelmed to be involved.
The case concerns the disappearance of a woman and her son on a country lane 20 years ago, leaving another child dead in the abandoned car. But the lack of enthusiasm from the police extends to the family and friends of the missing woman who seem positively hostile to the new investigation.
Green and Pleasant Land is set in Worcestershire – and Judith Cutler makes sure you know that. And thereby is the problem facing most of her books – far, far too much information, relayed in a faintly twee tone that never seems quite right unless you read children’s stories on R4 in the 1950s!
Her strength is vivid characters, even though their dialogue tends to be as verbose and unconvincing in places as the narrative can be. Fran and Mark are the kind of people you’d want on your side in a crisis – no-nonsense, efficient and focussed, and with a self-deprecating sense of humour. They’re very much roll your sleeves and get on with it investigators, so there’s no danger of them letting this strange case drop.
The book is set amidst the heavy rains of 2013, and immediately conjures up those images of huge tranches of the UK countryside under water. And there’s enough tension from both the elements and the cold case to keep Green and Pleasant Land afloat and sailing serenely, even if a tough edit would have stopped it listing to port occasionally.
West Mercia police summon them up from their comfortable home in Kent to investigate a cold case as consultants. But they’re hardly made to feel welcome when they arrive, as the person who hired them has been made redundant, and his replacement seems keen to get shot of them as quickly as possible. They’re given a bare bones team to work with them, but they seem distinctly underwhelmed to be involved.
The case concerns the disappearance of a woman and her son on a country lane 20 years ago, leaving another child dead in the abandoned car. But the lack of enthusiasm from the police extends to the family and friends of the missing woman who seem positively hostile to the new investigation.
Green and Pleasant Land is set in Worcestershire – and Judith Cutler makes sure you know that. And thereby is the problem facing most of her books – far, far too much information, relayed in a faintly twee tone that never seems quite right unless you read children’s stories on R4 in the 1950s!
Her strength is vivid characters, even though their dialogue tends to be as verbose and unconvincing in places as the narrative can be. Fran and Mark are the kind of people you’d want on your side in a crisis – no-nonsense, efficient and focussed, and with a self-deprecating sense of humour. They’re very much roll your sleeves and get on with it investigators, so there’s no danger of them letting this strange case drop.
The book is set amidst the heavy rains of 2013, and immediately conjures up those images of huge tranches of the UK countryside under water. And there’s enough tension from both the elements and the cold case to keep Green and Pleasant Land afloat and sailing serenely, even if a tough edit would have stopped it listing to port occasionally.
Reviewed 10 January 2015 by Sharon Wheeler
