Review of Devil's Kitchen by Stephen Pulleston.
Detective Inspector Ian Drake is a newbie. Wet behind the ears and he wants to prove himself. He's neat, tidy and precise, keen to follow the book. His shoes always polished, his car spotless. Snowdonia in North Wales is his patch, a place where he grew up and once knew well. He knew of his new partner, Detective Caron Waits, but he didn't know her well. She will want to prove herself to her new boss.
One month into his new promotion and he gets a murder and a second body. In the mountains where the lofted peaks gather close, in an area better known as the Devil's Kitchen, two bodies have been found in Cwm Idwal, in the valley below the mountain. Two murders or one murder and one suicide. A first glance he is not so sure. They have fallen from a great height, their belongings scattered. The local police are on site as are the mountain rescue rescuers. Ramblers of all sorts are regularly in these mountains. Some are dressed in all the modern equipment, others less so.
Ian Drake's job is not made easier by the banks of fog that drift across the mountains, or the hazy memories of those he can account for. Anyone could have seen what happened, almost everyone heard something but no group could recollect seeing many others on the mountain.
AS a story, it has almost all it needs to make it readable. As a work of artistry, it is truly lacking in descriptive content. It's like the story has been stripped of grit and personality to make it intentionally shorter than it originally was. I could not warm to any of the police staff and started to feel sorry for Ian Drake's wife. The clues are all there apart from the twist at the end.
YOU ARE READING
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