Crime mystery set at Seahouses and on The Farne Islands

25th December 2018

Longstone by L J Ross, crime mystery set at Seahouses and on the Farne Islands, Northumberland.

“..doing away with someone usually boils down to love, sex, jealousy, money or revenge.”

I can hardly believe that this it the 10th outing already for DCI Ryan, L J Ross’s detective. He tackles crime mostly in and around Northumberland, often with the help and support of his academic wife, Anna. Longstone can easily be read as a stand-alone although characters from the previous novels are all now well bedded in and there is a nice level of familiar banter, shared history and humour between them.

The author has turned her hand to researching the ins and outs of shipping and the processes involved in diving for shipwrecks and then recording and registering the findings. The Farne Island formation, and the oftentimes treacherous waters in the area, provide an excellent setting for archaeological investigation. And murder.

Iain Tucker worked at Durham University in the department of Marine Archaeology and he spent many years searching the waters around The Farne Islands for the wreck of a Viking Longboat. Diving secretly at night he was determined to discover the wreck. Anna and Iain are acquainted through work at the university and it is to her that he turns with his recently discovered find. He does not, however, have time to share the co-ordinates of the boat which he has discovered after so much effort before his body is found washed up. Dead.

At the Cockle Inn, just the previous day, Iain, who was lodging there whilst cruising the area in search of the missing longboat, made his announcement of the incredible find to the assembled locals over their pints. He generously bought a round of champagne for the assembled crowd. He just could not contain his excitement (doubtful, perhaps, that a high ranking academic would blabber such a find to all in sundry, or that he would actually go diving on his own at night in a turbulent sea …. but no matter, just go with the flow, no pun intended).

The publican and his lodger Gemma at the Cockle have already suffered a disappearance in the family. Hutch, who runs the pub, has always had a thing for Gemma – but Gemma and Kris, Hutch’s brother, were in a relationship way back in the 1990s, and almost as soon as she fell pregnant, Kris disappeared. There is almost a sense that Hutch wasn’t too heart-broken to see his brother disappear. The suspicion that he might have had something to do with the death niggles away. He generously offered Gemma and her son (his nephew) a home but his motivation wasn’t perhaps altogether altruistic.

When the Harbour Master’s body is found, DCI Ryan knows that he has to see the broader picture in order to find the killer. Why are people being killed and how do their deaths link to a wreck beneath the waves?

The novel bowls along and will appeal to fans of the DCI Ryan stable of crime mysteries. It is a quick and easy read. Setting, as usual, is distinctive. The title is taken from the still active Longstone Lighthouse, located in the outer group of The Farne Islands and famous for the wreck of the Forfarshire and Grace Darling’s role in rescuing survivors.

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