Marshal of Snowdonia (Frank Marshal Crime Thriller Book 1) by Simon McCleave

Book Blurb

Retired detective Frank Marshal lives in a remote part of Snowdonia with his wife Rachel who is suffering from dementia. Working as a park ranger, Frank gets a phone call from close friend Annie, a retired judge. Her sister Meg has gone missing from a local caravan park and she needs his help to find her.

As Frank and Annie start to unravel the dark secrets of Meg’s life, it seems at first that her disappearance might be linked to her nephew and a drug deal gone wrong. In a shocking twist, their investigation leads them to a series of murders in North Wales from the 1990s and a possible miscarriage of justice.

Can Frank and Annie uncover the sinister truth so they find her sister in time to save her? Or will a brutal serial killer add Meg to his list of victims?

My Review

Last year I read Simon McCleave’s Last Night at Villa Lucia, which I highly recommend, so I was excited to be asked to be part of the blog tour for his new book Marshal of Snowdonia. The eponymous Marshal is Frank Marshal an ex CID Detective and a Park Ranger in the Snowdonia National Park. When he gets a call from ex Judge, and friend Anne saying that her sister has gone missing they join forces to find out what has happened. Set against the beauty of Snowdonia this is a fast paced thriller.

The book is narrated in the first person by Frank Marshal and in the third person by Anne, whose sister is missing. Both have had long careers in the justice system, Frank as a Detective and Anne as a judge, but they also have a long friendship, and it is this that I loved most about them. Frank is an empathetic character, at home his wife has dementia, his daughter has left a violent relationship and he is grieving for his son who committed suicude. Anne is in a loveless marriage, but is very close to her sister Meg and is obviously shocked after her body is found. The domestic element of their lives adds a more personable feel to the story. Having lost his son Frank is able to understand how Anne feels, he doesn’t offer the uneasy platitudes that others make, he is just there for her.

Simon McCleave obviously has a love affair with the Snowdonia National Park as this is not the first series he has set there, and this shines through in his writing. I loved the scene setting, the mountains with snow on the peaks, the heather on the moorland and the vast expanse of the park, a place of beauty tainted by violence. The plot was well developed, moving from missing person to murder with a couple of suspects that kept me guessing. I found the tension between Frank and the current DCI intriguing, Frank still respected even after retiring, unlike DCI Dewi Humphries who finds him annoying, especially when Frank and Anne progress faster in the investigation. Simon McCleave obviously knows his way around police preocedure keeping a feeling of reality to the story, and I was fascinated how we came from the incident at the start, to the scandelous conclusion.

I will admit that I enjoyed this book a lot more than thought I would. What really made thid book special for me were the characters of Frank and Anne and in particular their relationship, how at ease they are with each other, the trust they have and the support they give. As expected with a thriller there were several twists, turns and red herrings along the way with a couple of heart in the mouth moments. Marshal of Snowdonia is an addictive and thrilling read and I look forward to the next book in the series.