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An Unhallowed Grave: A Wesley Peterson Crime Novel (Wesley Peterson Crime Novels)
Kate Ellis Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover  British
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ASIN: 0312274602 |
Book Description
When the body of a middle-aged woman is found hanging from a yew tree in Stokeworthy Churchyard, the police suspect foul play.But the victim is an unlikely one.Pauline Brent was the local doctor's receptionist, respected and well liked.She seems to have no real enemies - and yet someone killed her.Detective Sargent Wesley Peterson, a black detective recently transferred to the quiet, West Country English village, is determined to discover the truth and, once again, it is history that provides him with a clue.For Wesley's archaeologist friend, Neil Watson, has excavated an ancient corpse at a nearby dig: a woman that has been buried at a crossroads, on unhallowed ground. It appears that the body is that of a woman whom local legend has it was publicly executed in the churchyard centuries before.A chilling echo of the fifteenth-century lynching, Pauline Brent's death forces Wesley to consider the possibility that the killer also knows the tree's dark history.Has Pauline been "executed" rather than murdered - and if so, for what crime?To catch a dangerous killer Wesley has to discover as much as he can about the victim.But Pauline Brent appears to have been a woman with few friends, no relatives, and a past she has tried carefully to hide.... AUTHORBIO: Kate Ellis was born and raised in Liverpool, and studied drama in Manchester.She has worked in teaching, marketing, and accounting, and first enjoyed literary success as a winner of the North West Playwrights competition.Keenly interested in medieval history and "armchair" archaeology, Kate lives in north Cheshire with her husband and two young sons.Customer Reviews:
Clever story, good incorporation of history and archaeology........2001-09-24
Ellis' characters are definitely characters. I love Wesley's boss, a lonely widower who is looking for friends. Part of the ability to draw realistic characters is the ability to observe real human beings and their reactions to normal life, which includes loved ones dying from cancer and the subsequent need of those left behind to find something to do with themselves besides work. If the reader can sympathize with the character, then the author has done a good job.
As always, I enjoy reading British writers and really enjoy reading mysteries with a historical bent. I had no idea about the existence of art called "Jesse Trees" which are an artistic rendering of the geneaology of Jesus. I am so intrigued by this I plan to look up some more information on these 'trees'...
Karen Sadler,
Science Education,
University of Pittsburgh
Excellent parallel development of history and mystery.......2001-05-11
As the mystery unfolds, Wesley discovers Pauline's secret. Now, rather than to few people with motive, there are too many. It turns out that relying on the historical parallels (being dug up by archeologist-buddy Neil) is key to solving the murder.
I enjoyed Ellis's earlier book THE ARMADA BOY but found AN UNHALLOWED GRAVE even better. Ellis writes well--definitely English but with little enough dialect that the novel is approachable by an American audience. Better yet, she doesn't write down to the reader, yet brings a thoughtful approach to both the mystery and the characters.
Somewhere between a cozy and gritty urban mystery, Ellis writes of bucolic but dangerous small-town England. Excellent.
An Unhallowed Grave.......2001-05-01
Pauline Brent, a doctor's receptionist, is found hanging from a yew tree in the local graveyard. A preliminary examination reveals that she may have been strangled and then strung up onto the tree. Not too far from the crime scene, Neil Watson of the County Archaeological Unit has just uncovered the grave of a woman who was buried at the crossroads (an unhallowed grave) about 5 centuries ago. Local legend has it that the woman was publicly hanged from the very same tree that Pauline Brent was discovered in -- it was believed that she had committed a horrific murder. Could Pauline Brent's murder be linked to a 500 year old lynching? D.S. Peterson wonders as he considers the fact that Pauline's murderer must have known of the tree's reputation. This would then make Pauline's death some kind of execution. What wrong could Pauline have committed to merit such a theatrical end? Peterson must discover all he can about Pauline, but she soon proves to be an enigma -- a woman who was well liked but not fully excepted by the villagers because she was an 'incommer', she also seems to have very few friends and practically no history prior to her arrival at the village. It looks as if Pauline Brent was hiding from something, but what and why? In the meantime, Neil Watson tries to discover more about the young woman who was executed 500 years ago, and of the crime for which she was hanged. Tension mounts as both men home in on the backgrounds of the the two women and of the crimes that they allegedly committed.
This novel was truly well crafted: the manner in which Ellis switches seamlessly between the centuries, and the way in which the solution of one mystery points to the solution of the other -- that was brilliant. I was well and truly hooked by "An Unhallowed Grave" and recommend as riveting reading.
An excellent Brish police procedural.......2001-04-16
Detective Sergeant Peterson and Detective Inspector Heffernan begin investigating the murder of Pauline Brent, a doctor's receptionist. Immediately, the police learn that the victim was well liked, but never fully accepted as a local after living in the South Devon region for fifteen years. They also learn that the tree has a long history as legend says others as far back as five centuries ago have been hung there. With an archeology dig nearby adding clues to the seemingly impossible to solve case, Peterson, who has a degree in archeology, begins to see links between the murders and another incident in 1969, but still struggles to uncover the identity of the killer.
AN UNHALLOWED GRAVE is an excellent British police procedural with a touch of archeology enhancing the entertaining story line. Readers will enjoy the plot mostly because the key cast members such as Peterson and his family (through second hand accounts) seems real, making the inquiries feel genuine. The who-done-it is quite the puzzler, leading the audience to want to seek Kate Ellis previous Peterson novels (see ARMADA BOY).
Harriet Klausner
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