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Inspector Lamb #2

Die Lügen der Toten

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England, 1941: Detective Thomas Lamb ist heilfroh, dass die deutschen Bombenangriffe endlich nachlassen und in dem Dorf Winstead wieder so etwas wie Alltag einkehrt.

Da werden kurz nacheinander drei Tote aufgefunden. Die junge Ruth Aisquith, die überall als beliebt galt, wurde hinterrücks erschossen. Auf der Baustelle eines Kriegsgefangenenlagers wird ein Kinderskelett freigelegt. Und im Wald wird die Leiche eines Landstreichers entdeckt. Drei Mordopfer, die unterschiedlicher nicht sein könnten - doch bald weisen sie alle auf ein dunkles Geheimnis in der Geschichte Winsteads hin...

401 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 4, 2016

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826 people want to read

About the author

Stephen Kelly

3 books60 followers
I've always loved reading good mystery novels, especially those from the English masters -- Conan Doyle, Dame Agatha, Colin Dexter, Peter Robinson and others. I'm also a huge fan of the Norwegian crime novelist, Karin Fossum. Before turning to writing fiction with a vengeance, though, I was, for nearly thirty years, a newspaper reporter, editor and columnist. My work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post, Baltimore Magazine, The Columbia Flier and Howard County Times. I have a Master's from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars and have taught writing and journalism at Hopkins, Towson University, in Baltimore, and Sweet Briar College, in Virginia. I live in Columbia, Maryland, with my wife, Cindy, and our daughters, Anna and Lauren. We'd love to have a cat -- we love cats -- but we can't because Anna and I are allergic. So it goes.

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5 stars
52 (19%)
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112 (41%)
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84 (30%)
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19 (6%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
883 reviews51 followers
June 16, 2016
I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley and Pegasus Books, W. W. Norton & Co.

If you decide to read this book, take my advice and don't ever let yourself begin to think you have all the ducks in a row and you can solve the case on your own. No such thing because this author will have his plot take twists and turns from beginning to end. I enjoyed that. Of course it didn't hurt at all that I was reading what I like to think of as a "classic" historical British mystery. This one takes place in 1941 and features Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Lamb. In order to keep his daughter, Vera, from being conscripted and possibly sent into a dangerous war area Lamb has shamelessly created a job for her as the driver of his official police car. Vera is 18, but it's hard for a parent to allow their child to go into harms way if they can pull a few strings to postpone that problem for a short while. Word comes to Lamb that a woman has been found shot dead in the cemetery of a small town outside Winchester, at Winstead in Hampshire. Lamb knows he will have to allow Vera to go if she is called up, but right now his sprained ankle makes it extremely difficult to drive the car himself so why not let her do the job and keep her busy. He certainly wasn't successful in keeping her away from danger.

Filled with characters who are trying to hide all sorts of different things from the police, plus no telling how many people are walking around the village streets, meadows and woods during the dark of night, nosey neighbors, a vicar and his wife, tramps, Land Girls, skeletons and the IRA. Take your pick of any of them and you could have a good mystery novel but put all of them together and you have a combination of stories to keep a reader guessing until practically the final paragraph! There's some good stuff here if you like to try to figure out the puzzles as you read.

This is the second book in the Inspector Lamb series and I'm already planning to go back and pick up the first book in the series.
Profile Image for J.R..
Author 44 books174 followers
May 20, 2016
The discovery of a woman shot to death in the local cemetery is only the first of numerous mysteries confronting Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Lamb (and the reader) in this delightful World War 2 novel.

This is the second in Kelly's Inspector Lamb series and it makes me want to read the first all the more.

The murdered woman is a conscripted worker helping to build a prisoner-of-war camp on an abandoned farm near the village. Lamb recalls a tragic event that occurred on that farm more than 20 years earlier and clues along the way will keep bringing him back to that case.

But this isn't the only secret in the village. It seems nearly every resident has a secret they'd rather keep hidden. The introduction of these suspicious doings kept me guessing and changing my mind about who might be the killer and what motive inspired the crime.

When workers at the farm discover the remains of children in the foundation of the house, Lamb gains an insight that will put him and others in danger.

My only fault with the story was that the ending seemed rushed, though Kelly did wrap it up neatly.
Lamb is a skillfully drawn, likable character. Haunted by his own experiences in the First World War, he worries about his daughter who could be conscripted into war duty and the threat it might pose to her safety.
If you like mysteries in the style of the English greats, you should find this a good addition to your to-be-read list.
6,242 reviews80 followers
August 27, 2017
I won this book in a goodreads drawing.

Second book in the Inspector Lamb series.

The War is still going, but things aren't quite as bad as they were in the first book. Lamb's daughter is accompanying him around, wanting to become a policewoman, and starting a romance with one of Lamb's underlings.

Meanwhile, the remains of a child are found in the foundation of an old farmhouse.

Not bad, but got a bit tedious in the middle.
Profile Image for Jill Meyer.
1,188 reviews122 followers
August 15, 2016
Not all deaths in wartime happen on the battlefield or in a bombed city. Sometimes people are murdered in quiet country villages in places like Hampshire. Those deaths are investigated by policemen who sometimes wonder why they're not off in battle. But they're serving their country by keeping the peace at home. Such a policeman is Thomas Lamb, in "The Wages of Desire", who is faced with murders both recent and not-so-recent in 1942 in the village of Winstead. Lamb, who served in the trenches in the Great War, is called on to investigate the murder of a woman found shot in a church cemetery, and some recently discovered bodies, thought to be from the early 1920's. "The Wages of Desire" is the second book by Stephen Kelly, following "The Language of the Dead". You don't have to have read "Language" to appreciate "Wages"; Kelly does an excellent job at bringing the new reader up to date with Thomas Lamb, his family, and his fellow officers.

Small English villages have their secrets, which are often carried on over generations. Who is loved, who is hated, who has a sketchy past? In Winstead, the body of the young woman found shot is identified as a worker from the nearby in-the-building-process of an Italian prisoner-of-war camp. She was found with 50BP, a rather large amount for wartime England. Why was she there? Why was she dead? And why do people seem to be sneaking around at night, spying on their neighbors? She was a conscience-objector (I didn't know women were pressed into service and could claim "conshie" status), she was found to have ties to the building camp - but not to the bodies in the cemeteries. Thomas Lamb is called in to figure things out, and then three more bodies were discovered in the camp.

Stephen Kelly's mystery is not easily solved by the reader and, in fact, the ending seems a bit rushed. What Kelly does - beautifully - is write of the times and the people in those times. These are people facing uncertain times - the British were still fearful in 1942 of an attempt by the Germans at an invasion - and death in battle and bombings were mounting. Lamb's daughter and one of his fellow officers are playing around with love but who knows what the future will bring? Stephen Kelly has written a good book with both a mystery and look at people in the time of war.

Profile Image for Patricia Gulley.
Author 4 books53 followers
December 17, 2016
I found this a page turner. Good mystery with 3 cases running side by side. Interesting info about female conscription in Britian during the war.
Author has a thing for W names. Winchester, Winstead, Wolseley, Wallace, Wheatley, Wimberly, Webley, Winston-Sheed, Willhemina, Walton, White, Willis.
5,967 reviews67 followers
November 21, 2023
Many of the residents of the village of Winstead are probably good citizens, the salt of the earth, but when Inspector Lamb, and his daughter Vera--who is acting as his temporary driver while his sprained ankle heals--are called to investigate the unknown woman who was found shot in the graveyard, they find quite a few psychopathic criminals in the area, too. Instead of the one dead body, ultimately identified as a conscripted worker at the construction site of a POW camp for Italian prisoners, Lamb must confront a few more current murders, and the sad skeletons of three children buried in an old farmhouse basement. World War II restrictions on men and material impede the investigation, and the fear of conscription hangs like a cloud over Vera's head.
437 reviews3 followers
October 19, 2020
I liked Inspector Lamb in this series and the mystery isn't bad. It really slowed down in the middle and I had to force myself to finish.
Profile Image for Lynn.
1,344 reviews
May 17, 2016
I didn't think this was a particularly well-written book. Too many people, English villages, weapons and automobiles begin with W and are hard to keep straight: Wheatley, Webley, Winston-Sheed, Wolseley, Walton, White, Wallace, Winchester, Winstead, Warwickshire, Wimberly, Wilhemina.

The plot was enough to keep me reading, but I constantly had to refer to my list of people, places and things. I began to see, as I approached the end of the book, a parallel to Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache whose second-in-command falls in love with Gamache's daughter.

If the choice of names and places becomes a little more varied, I look forward to more of Inspector Lamb.

I read this DARC courtesy of Penguin Books and Edelweiss. Pub date: 08/08/16
Profile Image for Jen.
2,030 reviews67 followers
June 10, 2016
The Wages of Desire: An Inspector Lamb Novel by Stephen Kelly is set in a small English village during the early years of the war.

Although this might fall into the cozy category, it is a much more complex version. The characters have depth and individuality, and the plot is a knotty tangle of threads that reach back into the past.

Secrets abound in the bucolic English countryside; the title is significant in more than one way.

I haven't read the first in this series, but I liked Inspector Lamb and the way Kelly managed to pull everything together.

Reviews on Goodreads run the gamut, but I found all the twisting threads fascinating and would eagerly read more of Inspector Lamb.

NetGalley/Pegasus Books

Mystery. July 4, 2016. Print length: 352 pages.
Profile Image for Marie.
194 reviews12 followers
March 25, 2017
I enjoyed this WWII set mystery. Lots of parallel plots going on but I had to concentrate to keep some of the characters straight. However one thing really bugged me. Everyone was 'on the phone', police widow, church cleaner, farmer etc. This really irked me as domestic phones were a luxury, especially in the country. There was also no concern expressed about party lines or operators overhearing. The DI explained why he wanted a search warrant to a magistrate over the phone, and discussed the specifics of the case with police in anther county. All the witnesses/suspects appeared to be on the phone.
Grumble aside I did like it and will be seeking out the first in the series to read
1 review
June 19, 2017
A complex plot and interesting characters should have made this a good read; however, way too many anachronisms and inaccuracies kept it from having a genuine period atmosphere. Most annoying was that distances were repeatedly given in meters except for one refreshing ten and one-half inches. England definitely was not metric in 1942.

I am very fond of the Charles Todd novels, and this was nowhere near that quality.
305 reviews
September 19, 2016
An excellent well researched historical mystery set in one of my favorite periods, England during WW2. I highly recommend
1,429 reviews
August 26, 2019
The discovery of one of a set of six toy soldiers: Grant, Von Hindenberg, Napoleon, Burgoyne, Haig and Wellington at various sites of murder provide a theme for this installment of DCI Lamb's World War II mysteries. It begins with the shooting of Ruth Asquith, a conscripted worker on the prisoner-of-war camp for Italians, that is outside Winsted. Lamb and others are called to the cemetery where the vicar, Gerald Winberly and his wife play a part in the overall story. He is a serial adulterer and is being blackmailed into a relationship with Doris White who saw Wilhemina his wife kill the woman just to muck up Gerald's life. The police, however, do not discover this until the very end, almost incidently. They believe she was shot by someone who was working with her to forge, namely Lawrence Tigue, petrol rations and sell them to the IRA. The real name of Ruth was Maureen Tigue, another of the Tigue family who are ciminal and evil. Additionally Lamb feels overcome with confusion and frustration as the bodies of three small children are found as the construction of the camp is done, on the site of the farm where the Tigues had lived. Algernon, Lawrence's brother, as a young boy murdered other children, and it was covered up by the policeman at the time, in exchange for the sexual favors of their mother. Two the boys were twins, and had thought to have been spirited off by their father, and their mother later committing suicide.

As Lamb, with the help of his daughter Vera, who he has enlisted as a driver, since his ankle is injured, and Rivers and Wallace proceeds to solve the various murders, including those of the long dead children and their mother, Wallace and Vera find an attraction in one another. Vera plays a prominent part in saving the lives of her father, Wallace and a hostage that Tigue had taken hoping to get away. Convoluted though the story was, it was very entertaining and fast.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
1,086 reviews
September 25, 2019
I'm confused by this book. It's a pretty good story up until about the last quarter of the book when it suddenly changes from a cozy/police procedural, into a wannabe hard-boiled, tough-guy, crime rampage. The tone changes so much that it makes me wonder if another author took over for the final portion of the book, or if Stephen Kelly just suddenly decided to turn up the grit factor!
It also suffered from poor copy-editing all the way through, from calling characters by the wrong names, to redundant adjectives, to repetitive sentence constructions, and to poor grammar that made the reader flinch.
I found that I liked Inspector Lamb's daughter, Vera, even less here than in their first outing: "The Language of the Dead." Her rapidly escalating role in the police action of the book was completely unbelievable.
Reading the description of the clandestine night moves of the villagers would make anyone think that rural England is simply crawling with criminals as well as foolish amateur sleuths who positively abound in the wee hours creating havoc! Also, several sets of parents come off as grossly negligent and apathetic as to their children's whereabouts and well-being.
All-in-all, a disappointment.
Profile Image for Kate.
2,334 reviews1 follower
July 30, 2025
"In the late summer of 1941, as the war deepens, Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Lamb must risk his life to sort out the links between a series of murders"

"Long-buried secrets begin to surface in the Hampshire village 0f Winstead, when the body of a young woman -- a former conscientious objector -- is found shot to death in the church cemetery. She had recently joined a group of conscripted workers, building a POW camp on an abandoned farm near the village, but Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Lamb.

The mystery deepens when workers find the remains of a child in the foundation of the old farmhouse, and a tramp who had been squatting in the woods near the church turns up dead. As Lamb pieces together the connections, he draws closer to the source of evil and, in the end, must risk his own life to uncover the truth."
~~back cover

Since I acquired this book about 10 years ago, I've discovered that I don't really care for this style of mystery, even if it does take place in an English village. The plot will be too twisted, the evil too evil, and the dangers too great for me to really enjoy.

3 reviews
January 20, 2019
As an Anglophile, I usually love mysteries which take place in England. Recently, I've taken to reading WW II-era mysteries, such as James R. Benn's Billy Boyle series, and Susan Elia MacNeal's Maggie Hope series, and enjoyed them immensely. I took a chance on Mr. Kelly, and read both The Language of the Dead, and The Wages of Desire. If you're looking for a mystery fix, and anything will do, then this series will. I found The Wages of Desire to be choppy with competing story lines that - by a long stretch - managed to intertwine. If there's Billy or Maggie aren't around, I might consider reading the third book in this series. I think, however, I'll look for another mystery author for my fix.
Profile Image for Peggy.
820 reviews
July 11, 2019
Enjoyable WWII-era book with a rural English cop. I haven’t read the first one yet but plan to since I enjoyed this one. It has its cozy aspects as a village experiences a mysterious woman’s shooting, then some skeletons of young boys are unearthed. Meanwhile the vicar and his wife are not what they seem. Then a homeless man is found dead, supposedly a suicide.
You’d think with all this going on, the plot would be a mess, but Kelly keeps it tight and ties up every loose end but one. I won’t say what—maybe you’ll notice it yourself. Someone is unaccounted for in the end. Otherwise I’d say Detective Chief Inspector Lamb and his daughter Vera (who gets involved even though Lamb tries to keep her at a remove while she’s acting as his driver) do a very good job at wrapping things up.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
387 reviews4 followers
October 20, 2018
I can't put my finger on what I specifically like about the Lamb series but so far it has not disappointed. The story moves along and the endings are always satisfying. While in Kelly's first Lamb book WWII wasn't really an important backdrop to the story, in this book it is necessary to explain motive. Additionally, we get to know a little more about some of the ancillary characters which makes them obviously more interesting and you as a reader more invested. Looking forward to book #3.
332 reviews2 followers
March 17, 2020
I stumbled on this series when I was looking for a read to take on vacation. I had already read the first in the series and enjoyed it so I went for the next one. I liked the character development in the second book and the mystery kept me guessing. If I had to find a negative I would say there are too many characters, but, they all had a part in the mystery/deaths. I will be on the lookout for the third in the series.
Profile Image for Ron Kerrigan.
721 reviews3 followers
July 23, 2023
Nicely written tale (rates three and a half stars) with an efficient inspector unraveling a murder that leads him to start looking into other killings from 20 years prior. Lamb and his associates are good company and up until the very end, the ride was enjoyable. But the last few chapters seem rushed and abrupt and motives and actions already explained are rehashed.
Profile Image for Bonnie.
928 reviews7 followers
February 9, 2024
An enjoyable WWII mystery set in small towns in England. Lots of historical items about rationing, Italian prisoners, the 'Irish problem' and more. The plot is great - very convoluted. I enjoyed the characters, who we get to know mostly through their actions and words without a lot of inner philosophizing.
Profile Image for FM.
647 reviews3 followers
July 25, 2019
Read about this series somewhere and sounded good . . . I liked the WWII time setting, and this story had plenty of unexpected twists and turns. This is the second book. I'll probably go back and read the first one. Reserving judgment but I found this one diverting if a little preposterous.
142 reviews1 follower
May 1, 2025
I enjoyed this book. It takes place in a small English town during World War II. There are three different murder cases that, it turns out, are related cases. They are being investigated by Chief Inspector Thomas Lamb. There were times when I had trouble putting down the book.
Profile Image for Michael Dunn.
541 reviews
May 31, 2017
advertised as a WWII mystery, but the war played a minor part in the story. The main plot could have been fashioned without it.
Profile Image for Sally.
1,292 reviews
October 27, 2018
1942 small village police investigation. Good investigation.
Profile Image for Agnes.
1,636 reviews1 follower
June 4, 2019
These little villages and hamlets of England sem to harbor so much murder. Even a war can't [revent the secrecy and manipulations of the citizenry.
Profile Image for Carrie.
2,070 reviews
January 5, 2020
Lots of pieces that do come together in the end. But not much WWII.
516 reviews
February 6, 2020
I like Inspector Lamb and hope to see more of this series.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews

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