The Hanging Place

LoveReading Says

Though its setting is idyllically rural, Nick Louth’s The Hanging Place, a Detective Jan Talantire novel, is no cosy crime caper. Rather, it’s a darkly creepy thriller: gory with a gothic edge, and riddled with complexities that see Talantire’s investigative skills tested to the max.

It begins with a theft at Bychecombe Manor, which is owned by Police and Crime Commissioner Lionel Hall-Hartington (Bagpuss to his wife), a man who’s ruffled more than a few local feathers. Soon after, Hall-Hartington is found shot dead at the manor, with a trail of bloody footprints indicating that the preparator had blood on their shoes before they entered the building.

After following “a gory trail”, Talantire discovers a large Victorian doll “with an outsized head of coarse gingery hair and a wizened face” hanging on the cellar door. In turn, the doll leads to the discovery of the commissioner’s wife suspended from a chain.

The bucolic Exmoor setting, replete with “flower-lined lanes”, provides a stark counterpoint to the darkness that plays out across a well-paced plot, with the investigative trail taking Talantire down multiple metaphoric lanes of inquiry that confound at every turn. A suspenseful page-turner, The Hanging Place comes recommended for fans of character-driven rural crime thrillers, such as novels by Kate Ellis and Rhys Dylan.

Reviewed by Joanne Owen
Joanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
More reviews by Joanne Owen

About The Hanging Place

Police and Crime Commissioner Lionel Hall-Hartington is shot dead at his farm, alongside one of his employees. His wife is found suspended upside down in an ancient well in the cellar.

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