A review by nonna7
The Coffin Trail by Martin Edwards

4.0

This is another one of those books that has been sitting on my shelf for a while. It takes place in a small town in the Lake District of England. Daniel Kind, a well known historian and professor at Oxford is in love with Miranda a free lance features writer for magazines. On a holiday she talks him into buying a rundown cottage that once belonged to a boyhood friend when he and his family spent a summer holiday in the town. He had been thirteen at the time, but he didn’t write him as he had promised and they never saw one another.

Ten years later Barrie who has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome is accused of the murder of a young woman who was visiting an old friend who lived in the town. He falls into a gully, breaks both legs and dies of exposure. The police have no suspect and the town is convinced that Barrie is the murderer. Daniel is not and starts to ask questions much to the chagrin of the townspeople who would prefer that he leave it alone.

He also wants to learn more about his father, a police detective, who left his mother and children for life with another woman. He and his sister were not allowed to have any contact with their father after he left. Now he wants to know more about him.

Coincidentally a new cold case unit has opened up headed by DI Hannah Scarlett who started out her career working for David’s father, Ben. The murder of the young woman is the first case of the new unit.