A review by crafalsk264
An Accidental Death by Peter Grainger

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This is the first book in the series of 11 DC (initials not rank) Smith Mysteries (published in 2013) and my first book by this author.  In a smaller English police jurisdiction, Detective Sargent DC Smith is returning to duty after an extended leave following a scandal in the Force for which he took the fall. On his first day back, he receives multiple comments on the enjoyments of retirement and is teamed up with a rookie Detective Constable Christopher Waters as a partner. Their first assignment is to review the case file on what is believed to be an accidental death. After reviewing the file, Smith has a feeling that something just doesn’t fit. So instead of signing off on the file, Smith takes Waters in tow and they take a field trip to re-interview some of the witnesses, inspect the crime scene, visit the morgue, get kidnapped by the bad guys, and discovered the accidental death was really murder.

The two main characters in this book are DC Smith and rookie Chris Waters, who turns out to be the son of a previous colleague, are developing a partnership. The Police Procedural form is a great fit for this book. The two main characters are well developed. The setting is large enough to support a police force and small enough that cozy is a part of most actions.  This was an intelligent, well written series and since it is the first of the series. Later entries should get even better. I am a diehard fan of some similar series such as Louise Penny’s Three Pines. So I suspect I will follow the rest oh the series in the future. Reclusive to readers who enjoy mystery/thriller,  contemporary literature,crime, murder and British Literature.