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KINGDOM OF LIES
by Lee Wood
St Martin's Minotaur, November 2005
368 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 0312340303


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

A woman is found dead in the grounds of a royal estate. Leeds sergeant Keen Dunliffe lands this case. He hopes that this is a case of a drunken tourist accidentally dying but circumstances conspire against him. The woman, Dr Christine Swinton, was a historian attending a conference at the university. Obviously this death makes the situation between the community, the police and the university tense.

As Dunliffe investigates, he is approached by two men from the Met. They believe that this death is in fact murder and has connections to several other mysterious deaths. They want Dunliffe to travel to London and befriend the victim's friend, Dr Jillie Waltham. They believe that Waltham has information that she has not shared with the police. Dunliffe is willing to travel to London, as this will provide him with the chance to spend time with his two sons.

The investigation in London starts off pretty slowly. There is little physical evidence that points to a murderer but then there is little evidence that Swinton's death was suicide. Dunliffe finds himself allowing Jillie Waltham to take the lead in their digging. Waltham believes that the murder has something to do with the research Swinton was involved in. She decides to follow up on the research herself and try to stop the killer.

As Swinton's speciality was the English royalty of the 18th century, Dunliffe thinks it unlikely that someone would kill for events that occurred so many years ago. Without further clues or leads for the case, he agrees to assist Waltham with her investigation. They must find answers quickly before Dunliffe is pulled off of the case or the murderer strikes again.

KINGDOM OF LIES is a slow-paced mystery. The plot moves slowly as does the dialogue. In fact, the story drags at several points in the book. Some of this is due to the book's topic as this book is not a true police procedural or murder mystery. Some of the slowness is also due to the characters Wood includes in this book. None of the characters are exceptionally personable or exciting. It can be difficult to care about what happens to the characters as my overwhelming thought is that nothing is happening in the book, only in the characters' minds.

I am not a huge fan of the action thriller where the pace is non-stop, but Wood's ideas would be more approachable if the story had a sense of suspense and drama.

Reviewed by Sarah Dudley, March 2006

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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