One Lost Soul: A chilling British detective crime thriller (The Hidden Norfolk Murder Mystery Series Book 1)

For a novice to this genre, the book managed to keep me nicely confused until close to the end. I plan to read the next book .

If you want to read a story featuring Wonder Woman and Superman , just skip the first two hundred pages and read the ending over and over. It is actually a good detective story but the last few chapters give you second by second coverage. If you are anxious to find out who done it, you will have to relax and read about the heros first.

J. M. Dalgliesh’s “One Lost Soul” was the first novel I have read by this author, but will not be my last. It is the first of a series.This tale is set during the early spring along the coast of Norfolk, England with the discovery of the body of a 17 year old, Holly Bettany, just off the path along the cliffs of the Holkham nature reserve.Mrs. Jane Francis discovered the body from a distance and saw Mark McCall, Holly’s friend who suffers with Asperger syndrome touch the dead girls leg and ran away seeing Jane approaching. Jane looked closely and was sure Holly was dead, but not knowing what to do called the ambulance.This is an interesting murder mystery in a small town filled with gossiping busy bodies, flawed and interwoven characters of questionable morality.Holly’s wealthy parents, Dr Coling Bettany and his wife, Dr Marie Bettany have a general physician practice just outside Burnham Overy. Madeleine “Maddie” Bettany is Holly’s 4 year younger sister.In spite of her controlling fathers desire for Holly to follow in he and his wife’s footsteps and become a doctor, she wants to be an artist.Ken Francis is a successful artist with his own studio. He has been the subject of several sexual assaults including a sexual relationship with Holly. Some think Ken’s wife, Jane is evil and would do anything to keep her family together. She knows about her husband’s infidelity, yet stays with him and defends him.Fraser and Angela Harding are also wealthy, the former is contemplating retirement as a senior executive for a global oil company. Their daughter, Amelia was Holly’s close friend.Mark McCall loved Holly, but understood that she saw him as a friend that she protected from bullies at school. Unlike the rest of his family, Mark does not lie. His disability make him a gullible and trusting soul. His father, two brothers, and sister are poor and do what they need to do to survive. His father Callum has been in and out of jail several times and has a reputation of being a low life criminal.Young Eric Collet a Criminal Investigative Division (CID) Officer received the call concerning Holly’s death and notifies his senior officer of the CID, Detective Inspector Tom Janssen.Janssen calls for a senior investigator following Holly’s autopsy by Norwich pathologist, James Collins’ determination that the cause of death was the result of manual strangulation and her late first trimester pregnancy. Deputy Chief Inspector Tamara Greave from. Norwich is assigned to be in charge of the investigation.Greave, Janssen, and Collet use extraordinary investigating skills and the author superbly develops this enthralling mystery piecing together an intriguing tale that kept me guessing to the very end.I recommend this novel to family, friends, and others who love a well written and developed murder mystery.Enjoy!

Good book. Very well written, interesting characters and good story line. I'm going to read more of this series .

Love the interplay between the detectives. The village people’s relationships are very interesting and you start feeling a part of it.

This is a police thriller set in Norfolk. A murdered girl and some iffy suspects lead to a completely unexpected ending. First in a series, and I’m anxious to see where the author takes us.

An excellent start to a great series. The author's vivid descriptions of the landscape make for an immersive and compelling read. I'm currently on Book 10 of this series and the characters are so well drawn I feel like part of the team.

I enjoyed this book. Fairly fast-paced; lots of possible suspects; coherent story-line. It had enough twists to keep it interesting, but not so many that it became unbelievable. I will be buying the second in the series!

This was a really good book and having spent a lot of time in Norfolk I could easily relate to the settings in the book. The characters were realistic and naturally gelled together as a team. I liked this so much I am now on book 7 and have been really impressed with all the books so far. A very talented and gifted writer.

I enjoyed this book, the first I had read from this author. I will continue to read more. I am familiar with East Anglia and enjoyed the descriptions of the area. Janssen is an enigmatic detective.

I chose this book because of the positive reviews and thought I would be buying the whole series. But sadly, one is enough. This is not because of the plot or the characters, but because of the author’s inability to write good English. I have rarely encountered such a badly written book. Words are mis-used, rules of grammar and punctuation are ignored, and the book is padded out with paragraphs of boring and irrelevant information. Much confusion is caused by the author’s continued reference to “he” when there are two men in the conversation. The first chapter describes someone called Tom and the second features Janssen, and it’s only in the third that you realise that these are the same man!Most disturbing for me are the author’s errors of judgement. The young girl who has been murdered is described as being in part “culpable” for her death, and a young man’s Asperger’s syndrome is alluded to as an illness. These are both serious errors.I don’t really know why I read through to the end, but I’m certain I shan’t be buying anything else by this author (unless his publisher provides him with an editor).

Nice read, full of action .It's has a flow that is griping. Couldn't get more free time to catch & enjoy

I quite enjoyed this book as an easy read but cannot say that it’s blown me away. Whilst this book is from an author who has written another series of crime novels, which I’ve not read, I suppose that it might be felt Dalgleish would write with more confidence in a second series. I think that starting a new series can still be a bit daunting and this may have reflected in this first of the new series. Trying to get the right balance of character back story with keeping the momentum of the police investigation going.I liked the three characters – DI Tom Jensson, his DC – Eric and DCI Tamara Greave – but considering that Tom is the ‘main’ character I felt that he didn’t come across as obviously as the other two. We had a lot more information about Eric and DCI Grieve’s personal situations in the storyline than Tom’s. The passages in the book which were on Tom’s personal life lacked a certain clarity. This might simply be what the author intended given it’s the first book in the series.The plot, the body of a teenager is found by a woman. Holly Bettany has been strangled. It’s a dark story with the character of the victim being very different from how she is portrayed by her parents, by her peers and others. The reasons why unfold through the story. We follow the investigation which seems to concentrate on two possible suspects. One because of reputation of his family name, the other as dark secrets are uncovered about him. Still, for me, it wasn’t a great surprise to find out who did do it – or why! I did, however, feel that the booked needed a bit more on Holly’s home life to help understand why Holly was perceived so differently and to enable the reader to go with the final reveal.I think this is the type of series that will need a little bit of time to settle in. If you’re looking for a new series and willing to give it a go over more than the first book this may be for you. Indeed, this book topped Amazons chart list and a later book in this series was shortlisted for an Amazon storyteller award.As I said I quite enjoyed what, to me, was a quick, easy read with stories and characters that I feel will come into their own once the series gets into its stride.