DEATH ON WOLF FELL

The release of a very reluctant inmate from Preston Prison triggers a series of felonies stretching from Lancashire lowlifes to the British royal family.

Even though Lance Drake—who fingered a member of Ribble Valley drug czar Maggie Horsefield’s organization—is desperate to remain in custody, he’s bailed out by none other than Maggie herself, who’s eager to watch him squirm even as she presses him to help in the latest round of criminal plots she’s hatched with her married lover, crime boss Tommy Moss. One of these includes upping the campaign against Sgt. Jessica Raker, who relocated from London after she killed Terry Moss, whose brother, Tommy, put out a contract on her. Another is an initiative against Wolf Fell Hall, the stately home of Carolynne, Duchess of Dunsop and Newton, and her sons Edward and Bruce Armstrong-Bentley, distant relatives of King Charles who are technically in the long line to succeed him. Jess, already called to Wolf Fell Hall by a summons from the duchess over a violent quarrel between her sons, is under strict orders from Inspector Brian Price, who’s always looking for an excuse to discipline her, not to return there. So most of her contact with Maggie is through their respective daughters, a pair of schoolgirls who’ve improbably become best friends. Oldham keeps the complications coming, stirring the pot without ever quite bringing it to a boil, till a final round of revelations shows that the line between lowlifes and royals isn’t so clear after all.

A not entirely successful attempt to balance the demands of a self-enclosed novel and the police heroine’s longer arc.