Death Under a Little Sky / Death in a Lonely Place, Stig Abell

Having read these books pretty much one after the other, I'm going to do a combined review. This is a new series, DEATH UNDER A LITTLE SKY was released in 2023, and DEATH IN A LONELY PLACE in April 2024. Both book feature recently resigned Police Detective Jake Jackson whose leaving the force was precipated by a couple of major life changes. Firstly his uncle died, leaving him a remote property in the middle of the countryside, a place that is offgrid, offroad and very much out of the world he's been used to in London. At the same time a teetering marriage lurched to divorce, a previously loving relationship not able to survive ongoing fertility problems, and a general movement apart.

So Jackson finds himself living in this extensively, but oddly, renovated house in the middle of a large land allotment, off the road (he and all visitors must walk in and out), offgrid (officially, unofficially he has a pirated supply) but without telephone or internet access. The house also, weirdly has no laundry / bathroom which leads to some rather unusual innovations on the part of Jackson. There's a small village nearby which is full of the requisite eccentricities that seem to come with small English villages (an unofficial after hours pub for example), and a very attractive local vet - newish to the area herself, with a young daughter and a busy practice.

The stories lean slightly to the "poke the bear" and "sniff about annoying people" side of the scale, but each central plot is confrontational in it's own way - the first being the discovery of the bones of a young woman in a yearly village ritual that normally revolves around hunting for some fake bones, leading to some awful discoveries about the treatment of many more women. The second is sinister again with a clandestine group serving the whims of Britain's elite - some very unsavoury, and frankly disgusting whims into the bargain. In both cases Jackson finds himself working with the local cop in charge to discover the truth, bringing threats and chaos into what he'd hoped would be an idyllic country life.

Reading these two pretty much one after the other probably wasn't the best idea - there are a lot of similarities that really stood out by doing that. Jackson's life is content, and quiet, yet he's got that longing for a family he couldn't have with his first wife. There's the will they / won't they love interest with the vet that becomes a can they / how do they relationship, instantly threatened by every nefarious type involved in all the cases. There's a lot of family jeopardy here which is realistically and quite well portrayed, but the pattern stands out a bit by the second book. As does the romantic will they / won't they stuff which is well done but a bit repetitive.

The subject matter of these is slightly on the darker side, but the delivery isn't overtly confrontational without downplaying the horrible things that people do. The second book does include child exploitation and sexual abuse, but overall I found them believable and very readable. Just wish I'd not had an attack of the greedies and read them both one on top of the other.