Review of The Cadaver Game, Kate Ellis (2012)

One of the Wesley Peterson Murder Mysteries

A team of archaeologists digging up a buried picnic as part of an art installation find their activities unexpectedy linked to a series of murders in a small Devon town.  


Chosen because: available in the village library



You'd think the police force of Devon would have seen sense and banned all archaeological investigations by now. Because every time that Neil Watson of the Devon County Archaeological Service leads a dig in any kind of archaeological site - Viking longships, iron age forts, or here, as part of an art installation - his friend DI Wesley Peterson of the local police force is sure to be notified about a murder. And the two are just guaranteed to be related in some unexpected but sinister way. We must be onto the 20th book in the series by now, and the archaeology and the murder are linked every time.

On the other hand, the unlikely historic coincidences are just part of the fun of this series of detective stories, where the archaeology gets as much time as the modern-day murders. They aren't gory, but at the same time, Ellis never forgets the potential sadness of police work, and the impact that it can have on the police involved.

In The Cadaver Game, a local landowner has had the unsavory idea of recreating an 18th century game of man hunting, inspired by an old diary. Unfortunately, it ends in death for two of the young human 'foxes', who are found naked at the bottom of the cliff. One of them is the cousin of a young officer in Wesley's squad, who struggles to come to terms with her death. Meanwhile, another woman is found dead in a surburban house. And Neil Watson - under the influence of large amounts of cash - is taking part in an art installation which involves his archaeology students digging up a buried picnic. Could any of it possibly be linked? Yes, of course it all is.

It's a great advert for having likeable characters in a novel series, and plenty of them. Ellis's books are just packed full of nice people - detectives and archaeologists - none of whom are in the least bit gritty or brooding. They're about as far away from Scandi-noir brooding heroes - or even Inspector Morse - as you can get. You might actually want to go to the pub with them, if you didn't mind hearing quite a lot about the problems of county archaeological funding. Gerry, the widowed senior policeman, might seem to have the potential for a bit of brooding, but gets over it by eating a lot of fish and chips, going to the pub, arguing with his teenagers and generally getting on with life.

Well worth reading for a cosy evening in with a bit of bite to it. Plus the fun of wondering why Neil and Wesley never seem to comment that once again, their two jobs have become mysteriously interlinked.