DEATH AT DEAD MAN'S STAKE

A London police officer is surprised to find her new rural post equally challenging and dangerous.

A suspenseful prologue follows octogenarian Bart Morrison wandering away from his nursing home and drowning after he meets an apparently dangerous unnamed person. From there, Oldham’s new novel runs on parallel tracks. Sergeant Jessica Raker’s first day on the job in Lancashire, on the Irish Sea in the northwest of England, is far from routine. She’s been at her new station for only 10 minutes when a distress call comes from Dead Man’s Stake, a farm where a fireman’s being held hostage. Jess and Samira Patel, her new partner, arrest Bill Ramsden, the armed, drunken farmer who’s responsible for the fuss, but not before being subjected to harassment from the hostage. “I was going to say, thank God you’re here,” the firefighter says. “But is this the best the police can offer?” Jess’ backstory, unfolded in alternating chapters, explains her abrupt transfer from London to Lancashire. While responding to an alarm at Royale’s Jewellers in Greenwich, Jess killed armed robber Terry Moss, triggering both a mob contract on her life and a serious rift in her marriage to Josh, who, in a mind-boggling coincidence, was in the shop at the time of the robbery. Where next for this couple and their two children? Oldham heightens the tension via short, punchy chapters. The plot turns at length to the layered mystery surrounding the elderly Morrison’s death. Oldham’s tidbits of local color and invitingly fleshed-out portraits of Jess’ coworkers hint at the direction his new series will likely take, balancing Jess’ personal and professional challenges.

A tangled rural mystery unraveled by a determined heroine.