Lincolnshire-based writer Will Cohu ventures into fiction with this debut murder mystery set in his adopted county.
Presented like a series of short stories, the chapters explore the fictional Wolds village of Southby, ostensibly near Louth, and start with a Victorian secret: what happened to the son of landowner Charles Stavin, who disappeared before inheriting the Ranby estate?
The narrative jumps forward 101 years to 1985, when a murder is covered up, and then follows the lives of Southby residents to the modern day as consequences slowly combine.
Cohu’s well-researched writing is full of county slang and evocative descriptions of the land, harnessing stereotypes such as the Lincolnshire poacher and rural conservatism.
Yet his gradual revelation of small details through apparently unconnected, disjointed histories is hard work at first, only easing as the reader realises how connected the villagers all are.
