Review: Five Thumbs Up!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 24, 2014
One thumb for each of the five books in the series!  I debated about the star number and reduced it to four only because of the proof reading.  I don't recall a proof reader named on the copyright page before, but I would be embarrassed if it were I.  Main characters, Andy Hall and Ian Mann, have their first names switched, then corrected in one book, and in this 5th outing, solicitor Jenkins who appears in every book, suddenly becomes Perkins for several pages, reverts to Jenkins, only to become Perkins again.  Nit picking over.  This is a really well-written series, and I was surprised as these ebooks seem to be his only works.  Googling him, I discovered that Salkeld (which is the name of village in Cumbria) is a nom de plume for Richard Simpson, a journalist and Cumbria resident which explains why these books do not seem to be the work of a budding novelist but of an accomplished one.  One reviewer said they were not thrillers but more like soap operas; actually that is not a bad description of the mystery sub-genre, police procedural - think NYPD Blue.  The cases are secondary to the interplay of the police unit, their personal lives, and the locale.  Salkeld (or Simpson) does a really fine job of taking the reader to the Lake District.  Every book, while the characters remain and grow in each outing, is quite different.  Walkers on the Fells, Travellers (gypsies) in England, Morecambe Bay and it's treacherous sands, all are masterfully described as part of the plot.  Just as meeting a new person takes awhile to understand and appreciate, this author unveils his characters bit by bit.  By this, the fifth novel, Adam, Ian, Jane among others are all the readers' good friends.  I, for one, can't wait to visit them again!