This is a mystery series opener, introducing Chief Inspector Douglas Quantrill who lives in a small village in Suffolk called Breckham Market. His right-hand man is DS Tait, who got his job by way of "graduate entry..., special police training and ... accelerated promotion," (8) and who feels he must prove himself to his fellow policemen. Quantrill has been working on the case of a young girl who went missing some months back, but his attention is turned to the disappearance of young Mary Gedge, who was soon to be going off to Cambridge. By all accounts, she hadn't run away, had a good family life, etc. etc., so wasn't the type to likely end up in any trouble. While Quantrill and Tait are questioning the locals for info on Mary, she is found dead in a pond, laying there like Ophelia in all of her death glory. A missing person case now becomes a suspicious death, and it is up to Quantrill to find the killer.

The core mystery here is good but even though there are plenty of suspects and a few red herrings, it's a bit predictable and easy to figure out. Normally this sounds the death knell for me as far as continuing the series, but what saves this is Radley's writing. Quantrill is an interesting person as well. Police work is in his blood, and comes before family (much to his wife's dismay), yet Radley makes him into a human being. Hopefully he becomes a bit more fleshed out as the series progresses. And then there's Tait -- one of those eager and ambitious souls who wants to prove himself and continue his quick rise up the ladder -- he's a character to watch in the next few books.

Overall, this was an okay read. It's not quite a cozy, and not so much a dyed-in-the-wool police procedural, so it's a bit hard to define genre-wise. Readers who enjoy their murders set in the shadow of the quiet English village will like this one. It moves slow and there's not a lot of action, but it's well written. ( )