Call the Dying

Lydmouth, Book 7

By: Andrew Taylor

Narrated by: Philip Franks

From the number-one best-selling author of The Ashes of London and The Fire Court, this is the seventh instalment in the acclaimed Lydmouth series

Love and need make unexpected bedfellows, and both are blind. As the grip of a long hard winter tightens on Lydmouth, a dead woman calls the dying in a seance behind net curtains. Two provincial newspapers are in the throes of a bitter circulation war. A lorry driver broods, and an office boy loses his heart.

Britain is basking in the warm glow of postwar tranquillity, but in the quiet town of Lydmouth, darker forces are at play. The rats are fed on bread and milk, a gentleman's yellow kid glove is mislaid on a train and something disgusting is happening at Mr Prout's toy shop.

Returning to a town shrouded in intrigue and suspicion, Jill Francis becomes acting editor of the Gazette. Meanwhile, there's no pleasure left in the life of Detective Chief Inspector Richard Thornhill. Only a corpse, a television set and the promise of trouble to come.

©2012 Andrew Taylor (P)2020 Audible, Ltd

Critic reviews

"Andrew Taylor is a master story-teller." (Daily Telegraph)

"An excellent writer. He plots with care and intelligence and the solution to the mystery is satisfyingly chilling." (The Times)

"The most under-rated crime writer in Britain today." (Val McDermid)

One of my favorite Lydmouth novels

Perhaps Call the Dying benefits from the 3 years between it and Death’s Own Door, the previous novel in the series. In any case, I enjoyed this book. It devotes little time describing Richard’s tedious marriage or to the ups and down of his love affair. I miss some of the characters of previous novels, but that is to expected. Another local bites the dust, I will miss that cantankerous character. The crimes are believable, as is the process of solving them.
What I appreciate most is the tone of the narrator and his ability to convey the decency of the central characters. Well done