The Two Deaths of Ruth Lyle

Nick Louth

Average Rating 6/10 (1 Review)

Fifty years. Two deaths. One detective to solve an impossible case...

DI Jan Talantire is called to a cottage in the quiet Devon town of Ilfracombe. The female occupant has been found dead, her body impaled with a crucifix. Documents at the house provide clues to the victim's identity, but while her name means nothing to the young PC who found her, DI Talantire knows this cannot be the body of Ruth Lyle, despite what the evidence suggests.

Fifty years earlier, sixteen-year-old Ruth Lyle was murdered – stabbed by a crucifix, in the same location. To track down a violent killer, DI Talantire must solve the ultimate riddle: how can a woman die twice?

Review by Adam Colclough (150725) Rating (6/10)

Review by Adam Colclough
Book Source: Not Known
Rating 6/10
If you only live once how can somebody die twice? That is the conundrum presented to DI Jan Talantire and her team when they are called in to investigate the death of a sixty year old woman in a disused chapel.

The woman shares the same name as the teenaged victim of another murder committed in the same location fifty years earlier. As the case progresses other parallels between the lives of the two victims emerge, along with a conspiracy to cover up what happened to them both that reaches into high places.

This is the first in a new series by a well-established author of British police procedurals. The plot is highly original, and in its depiction of youthful indiscretions wrecking lives years after the event all too believable. The characters engaging with back stories that offer opportunities for future development and the setting in a seaside community convincingly portrayed.

Anyone who appreciates a well-crafted story that touches on the darker side of small-town life will enjoy this book and hope the series runs as long as his previous ones.
Adam Colclough (15th July 2025)