The Dead of Winter

John Madden #3

by Rennie Airth

On a freezing London night in 1944, Rosa Novak is brutally murdered during a blackout. Scotland Yard suspects the young Polish refugee was the victim of a random act of violence and might have dropped the case if former police investigator John Madden hadn't been her employer. Madden feels he owes it to Rosa to find her killer and pushes the investigation, uncovering her connection to a murdered Parisian furrier, a member of the Resistance, and a stolen cache of diamonds.

Delivering the atmospheric writing and compelling characters that have already established Rennie Airth as a master of suspense as well as style, this long-awaited third installment in the John Madden series is historical crime writing at its best.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Crime, Historical Mystery, Historical, British Literature

409 pages, Hardcover

First published July 23, 2009

About the author

Rennie Airth was born in South Africa and has worked as a foreign correspondent for Reuters. The first novel in his John Madden trilogy, River of Darkness, was published in 1999 to huge critical acclaim, was shortlisted for four crime fiction awards and won the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in France. The sensational sequel was The Blood-Dimmed Tide, and The Dead of Winter forms the final part of the trilogy.

Currently resides in Italy.

Reviews

[Beata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not disappointed, I do like John Madden.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Jewish girl flees the Nazis and winds up as John Madden's maid, only to be murdered in the middle of the night. Madden starts poking around.

Pretty dreary.

[Karl Jorgenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Airth for his evil criminals, the authentic historical settings, and the clever twists and turns of criminals avoiding detection and Madden and colleagues' expert investigation/deductions. Airth retired Madden at the end of the first book, a natural enough action that let Madden begin healing from his war trauma and move on with his life. As happens with good writers, Madden had to come back in sequels. (Popular/publisher/profit acclaim.) Airth left Madden retired when he might just as easily have Madden take his old job again, and so the author has to fabricate a way for Madden to join an investigation when he's now a simple farmer. This book takes place in December 1944. The allies are winning the war but the Nazis are striking London with rockets (V-1s) and missiles (V-2s.) A young displaced Polish woman is working at Madden's farm. She travels to London where she is murdered on the street for no apparent reason. As Madden and Chief Inspector Sinclair dig into the case, they find links to an early-war killing in France and realize the killer is smarter and more ruthless than they would have believed possible.

[Barb H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had I not read Rennie Airth's first two books, I would have been tempted to give this book a four star rating. Airth, a South African, whose books take place in England, has spaced his mysteries about twenty years apart. One cannot help but think of Foyle, in the PBS series "Foyle's War" when reading these books. The first one followed the "Great War" and this one focuses on WW II. Police forces had continued to attempt law and order, but with slim resources and personnel, the task was difficult. The impact of the war to the citizens is painfully obvious throughout this book.

Airth has taken great pains in all of his books to carefully delineate the crime, the problems and procedures which were utilized to solve the infraction and to leave no stone unturned in his writing of each character involved. However, it was clear that this book was overly long, rambled off-track at times and only managed to capture the involvement of the character, John Madden, in a tangential manner.
This policeman was the major character in Airth's previous books and would have supplied more realsim and interest to the plot if he had played a greater role throughout this novel.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third in the original John Madden trilogy. The first book, “River of Darkness,” is set in 1921, when England is still very much in the shadow of WWI. The second in the trilogy, “The Blood Dimmed Tide,” takes us to 1932 and the time of the depression and the rise of the Nazi party. In “The Dead of Winter” we begin in 1940, with the fall of Paris to the Germans, with the murder of furrier Maurice Sobel. Sobel is Jewish and has managed to send his wife and children out of the country, but has stayed behind to tie up his business and convert as much of his assets as possible to diamonds, which he plans to smuggle out of the country. As he is planning to drive to Lisbon, he is asked to take along a young Polish officer and his young Jewish companion. Sobel welcomes the company, but is murdered before he gets a chance to leave and the diamonds stolen.

The story then moves to 1944, with the murder of a young Polish land girl in London. Rosa Novak has been working on the farm owned by John and Helen Madden and, before long, John Madden has become embroiled in the investigation. Many of the familiar characters we know and love are in this book, although time, and war, have changed them. Chief Inspector Angus Sinclair has had to postpone his retirement and is troubled with gout. Detective Billy Styles has sent his wife and children to the country. We also have a new character, WPC Lily Poole, struggling with promotion as a woman, but keen and eager to rise through the ranks. The question is why anyone would want to murder young Rosa Novak; a quiet and reserved young girl, who was simply going to visit her aunt – her only living relative – in London? Before long, the murderer has killed again and the violence seems to have no end. Ruthless, he kills everyone who can identify him and the string of murders have their link to what happened so long ago in Paris.

This is another excellent mystery in the Madden series. The author does a wonderful job of recreating wartime London; battered, bruised, weary, still being bombed and with a flourishing black market. The whole trilogy is a joy to read and I am thrilled to see that Rennie Airth has written a new addition to the series in, “The Reckoning.” Now that I have revisited the original trilogy, I look forward to reading the new novel with great anticipation.

[Jill Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rennie Airth's third novel starring detective John Madden, is excellent. Set in England and France at the beginning of WW2, Madden is involved in a murder case - committed in London - but which has tentacles leading into Occupied France. Other murders committed in Paris lead to stolen diamonds and refugees fleeing from the Nazi occupation of France. While it sounds a little confusing,it really isn't.

Airth has aged Madden in his third book. He began the series before WW1, then skipped ahead to the early 1930's for his second, and is now in the late 1930's and early 1940's in the third. Madden's life has gone from active policing in London to marriage and early retirement in the latest book. For those readers who have read the previous two books, Madden as character goes from the lead to a supporting role in this book. But supporting in an active role, as an adviser to the ongoing Scotland Yard investigation into the murders and thefts.

As a reader of series books, it interesting to see how an author advances his character's life as well as the story. Airth does a great job here, and I'll look forward to his next chapter.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third adventure of John Madden, a veteran of the World War I trenches and “retired” Scotland Yard Inspector. The year is 1944, twelve years after the setting of the last book in the series. Madden lives quietly in the English country-side on a small farm with his wife and is the father of two grown children; both of whom are serving in the war effort. About as quiet as an existence as one could hope for in the waning days of World War II, even with the intermittent Nazi V-1 and V-2 “missiles” raining down on England.

This tranquility is shattered though when a Polish refugee, living and working on the Madden farm, is murdered in London while visiting her mother. And just like Al Pacino in The Godfather movies, John Madden is “pulled back in”, informally working the case with some of his old law enforcement cohorts - The old guard staying on the job while the younger men fight the war.

There is an intellectually pleasing puzzle to the plot of this book tying together the current day, (1944), crime with the past and ultimately the war. Madden and his Scotland Yard peers find themselves pitted against a villain of the likes they’ve never seen before – much smarter, more elusive and more brutal than their “average” criminal. Both the supporting cast – the “old-timers” suffering from gout with their expanding waist-lines and thinning or gray hair - and the “hunt” in this book are very good, but – and I wish I could be more specific – there’s a spark missing from The Dead Of Winter. More than several times while reading this book, I found my mind wandering and occasionally stifling a yawn and I simply can’t put my finger on why that was.

Still this is a good read just not a great one. If you’ve read the two earlier books in the series, particularly the first one, this addition simply doesn’t carry the same impact.

[Yvette · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a rare disappointment from an otherwise
wonderful writer. I feel that perhaps he was rushed
to finish this for publication. Too bad.
They should just let him take his time.

This book is heavily loaded down with tons of exposition
which should have been edited out and inserted into the
story in another way. Most of it seems like short-cut writing merely to inform the reader.I was truly surprised.

Don't let this stop you though, from reading the first
two John Madden novels which are brilliant.

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the middle of World War II, a young polish immigrant in London is struck down and killed during a blackout. As police investigate, the police find out that the young woman had been working as a land girl at former Scotland Yard Detective John Madden's farm.

Why was she murdered and who is this killer? Madden feels obligated to help find out and it is through his old contacts, he and the police start to put what little they have to work with to good use.

This is the third in a wonderful series featuring John Madden, a police detective who finds his life renewed with a second chance at love, marriage and family. While he has left the force, his years of police training have not left him, nor the contributions he does make.

Rennie Airth has taken a fairly common era in fiction but made it very realistic with the blend of what individual Londoners are experiencing day to day and what it is like to be police officers battling not only the normal crimes, including murders, but also those brought about by the war. Airth's characters are very believable, the dialogue, descriptions and action ring very true. Readers feel for these characters and it makes for very dramatic, exciting and excellent reading.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

It always takes me a while to read a Rennie Airth John Madden mystery--not because they're put-downable--they are absolutely not. They are so meaty and complex and rich in detail and characterization that I just have to do them more slowly so I can savor. This was set in the waning days of WWII, and we find John and the cast of characters roughly 10 years older than the last book. John and Helen's children are grown, or nearly so. Rob is at sea on a mission and his parents are worried because they haven't heard from him for a while--but the silence is routine rather than ominous, and I will risk a spoiler and say he is fine. We don't meet him in this book, but he arrives home for Christmas near the book's end, and the war ends a matter of weeks later. Ironically, his father is in great danger as his son arrives home, because the villain of this piece, who is a very nasty chap indeed, is finally cornered by our hero and it's quite a good and suspenseful scene. Lucy, John's 18 year old daughter is in London as a Wren and sowing a few semi-wild oats in her first length of time away from home. As to the rest of the characters I love, they're all there and have enlisted John's help in tracking down an elusive, vicious killer who murders for hire. It turns out his latest victim is a young Polish girl who was employed by John and Helen, so Madden is eager to help his former colleagues in tracking this man. It turns out figuring the motives for each killing (a number more occur and it is discovered some have occurred earlier) is essential to finding out who this man is and where he'll strike next. While all this plays out, there are wonderful details revealed about life in London and rural England during the last part of the war. Airth beautifully researches each setting of his novels and imbues them with a realistic sense of time and place. John Madden is a terrific hero, and I'm becoming as fond of him as I am of Louise Penny's wonderful Armand Gamache. I can't think of higher praise than that.

[Colin Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Twenty years have passed since John Madden's last case and he is established as a farmer in Surrey with his wife Helen a local doctor. The second world war is drawing to a close and the country is worn down by shortages and lack of man power. When a Polish girl working on Madden's farm as apart of the Land Army is brutally murdered on a visit to London, all his old friends at Scotland Yard become involved. The trail starts in 1940's Paris as the German Army is poised to enter the city and follows an escalating series of murders through London eventually leading to a shooting at a farm house in Hampshire.

This is a good story that does blend the fictitious village of Highfield with the actual local area of rural Surrey and Hampshire. I myself live two miles from the Liphook station but unfortunately it is no longer the rural ideal portrait in the novel. A times the clues are a little tenuous and Madden exerts a lot of authority, gaining access to peoples houses etc, without actually having any. Not as good as the first two books in the series but never the less a good read.

3 stars.

[Avid Series Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Dead of Winter by Rennie Airth is the 3rd book of the John Madden mystery series, set in WWII England. It's been 10 years since the events of the 2nd book, The Blood-Dimmed Tide. John and Helen Madden still happily reside in farming country. Their son is serving his country on a ship in the Baltic; their daughter is a Wren, living in London (where she keeps very late hours, ostensibly 'working double shifts').

Helen and John's "land girl" Rosa (a Polish refugee) is murdered in London one night during the blackout. Angus Sinclair, chief detective inspector at Scotland Yard, and detective Billy Styles struggle to identify the victim, then are puzzled by the lack of motive for the killing. When Madden comes to London to visit Lucy, he joins the investigation.

Common to earlier books in the series, the murder inquiry turns into a manhunt for a ruthless serial killer; and again with international crime connections. As the murders continue, it becomes clear the killer is eliminating all witnesses to previous crimes. The story provides rich detail of procedural investigation as well as daily life in the last months of WWII (in the city, where doodlebugs still wreaked havoc vs. in a rural community, where residents bartered food).

A new, appealing character is introduced: WPC Lily Poole. She has initiative and smarts to spare, faces major discrimination as she tries to join the ranks of detectives in Scotland Yard. She contributes in a major way to the investigation (hope she'll continue to appear in the series).

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting mystery in London during WWI. Unfortunately became predictable near the end.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Convincing war-time setting

A young Polish woman is garrotted on a blackout-dark London street. Around her are some burnt matches as if someone had been looking for something. But nothing has been stolen and it appears that the woman was not assaulted prior to her death. When the police manage to identify her, it turns out she was a land girl working for ex-police inspector John Madden, who is still a close friend of the investigating officer Chief Inspector Angus Sinclair. So it seems only natural that Madden should become involved in the investigation. However, it soon becomes apparent that Rosa’s death is just one of many and that the police are hunting a deadly assassin who has pursued his trade in many countries across Europe. But why did he target Rosa? And how will the police track him down?

Set in 1944, we have leapt forward in time some twenty years from the first book in the Madden series, River of Darkness. This one works fine as a standalone for anyone who hasn’t read the previous books. Madden and his wife Helen are still idyllically happy together and both their children are now young adults serving in the war effort. Much of the investigation takes place in London and Airth gives a really convincing picture of the city at the tail end of the war, with everyone waiting wearily for the fighting to be over. The Blitz is long past, but occasional V-2s are still falling, so the blackout is still in place and the exhausted Civil Defence wardens are still patrolling the nighttime streets. Some families are still divided, with wives and children living away from the city for safety. But we also see how people are living in rural areas, as the investigation moves closer towards Madden’s home territory. While the war meanders on, farms and villages are surviving with the help of land girls and volunteers from amongst the women, and Airth shows how a kind of barter-system has sprung up to help the communities deal with the shortage of food.

The plot is fairly complex, though not much to my personal taste, to be honest – the international assassin story is not one that interests me much. However there is a more personal element to it too, and a mystery – mainly around why Rosa became a victim. The characterisation of Madden and the various police officers is strong and convincing, in a pleasantly old-fashioned way, much as if the book had been written around the time it was set. Hence, plenty of heroic stiff-upper-lipping and very little angst-ridden emoting – all good, as far as this reader is concerned. And although the ending is thriller-esque, it stays within the overall tone of realism of the book.

However, there is one major weakness that prevents the book from being as good as it might have been, and that is Airth’s strange decision to tell the reader about the investigation at second-hand, through a series of conversations between the various police officers. Thus, we don’t get to hear directly from many of the witnesses – we just get a report of what they said. It’s an odd device, and means that the book becomes almost monotone. In a less skilled and careful author, I might even say it smacked of laziness. Nevertheless, the quality of the descriptions of England at the end of the war together with some excellent characterisation still mean that the book is well worth reading, despite this peculiar story-telling method. Recommended.

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com

[LJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

First Sentence: Dusk was falling by the time Maurice Sobel reached Neuilly, and he walked the short distance from the Metro to his house in the cold, not quite earthly light of the blue-painted street lamps which were the city’s sole concession to the war that was about to engulf it.

It’s 1944 and England is anticipating the end of the War, but crime lives on. A young Polish is brutally murdered on the streets of London. Chief Inspector Angus Sinclair is assigned the case along with Inspector Billy Styles.

Once they learn the victim was living in the same town as their retired former boss, John Madden, they ask for his help. When other, similar, murders occur, they begin building a trail back to Paris at the very beginning of the war and the realization they are hunting a serial killer.

The book’s opening depicts the last days in Paris before the Germans enter in 1940 and the tone is set. I immediately felt the character’s anxiety and fear about getting out in time. That opening scene is indicative of Airth’s ability to convey a very strong sense of time and place to the reader.

Characters are another of Airth’s strengths. There is a large cast of characters, some of whom appear for only a short time. Yet with each, and only a brief description, the characters are fully developed, with form and substance.

The relationships work, whether it be working relationships among the police, whether among peers or between layers; or the wonderful relationship between John Madden and his physician wife, Helen, as well as the working- and lower-class characters. Each character has a purpose.

Airth truly conveys the stress and tragedy of families with loved ones in the war. The story is very well plotted and culminates in a very exciting and suspenseful scene.

My only complaint is that it was six years between the previous book and this one and that this is the end of the promised trilogy. For those who have not read Airth, I highly recommend the series. You have the pleasure of being able to obtain all three books now. For me, I shall have to hope Mr. Airth will provide another book in the future.

THE DEAD OF WINTER (Pol Proc- John Madden-England-1944/WWII) – Ex
Airth, Rennie – 3rd in series
Macmillan, 2009, UK Hardcover: ISBN: 9780230714847

[D.A. Fellows · Rating 2 out of 5]

2/5 stars. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first or second instalments. I thought it dragged and felt dull. The first 60% suffers from a severe lack of the so-called main character, instead preferring to focus on endless meetings between the same two characters over and over again. There was also a strange tendency by the author in almost every chapter to start off at some middle point, then go back on himself and explain things that happened earlier, and finally move forward again. The ending was satisfying enough to salvage a star, but otherwise I couldn’t recommend it.

[Laura Leaney · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little too bogged down by police detail and coincidence for my taste, this "John Madden" mystery was not nearly as interesting as River of Darkness. Still, I appreciated the post-war details: land girls, country bobbies, the rare orange, and the problem with finding a working phone line. I also smiled at the singular addition of the female Constable Lily Poole, whose appearance at the Bow Street station causes so much male muttering.

[Joe Stamber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keeps up the high standard set by the series so far. Airth creates a credible atmosphere of Britain during the latter part of the Second World War and I was thoroughly convinced. The third John Madden book is a cleverly constructed tale about the murder of a young Polish girl that opens the proverbial can of worms and again draws the retired detective back into unofficial service. Everything about Airth's writing is a delight and I look forward to the next in the series.

[Alicia A. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not reading any more of these. The plot is exactly the same on all of them. Horrible dead eyed multiple murderer, no one can figure out what he's up to except Madden who isn't even a policeman anymore. Madden is the only person in the right place at the right time to stop the killer and almost gets killed himself. Madden saves the day and his last thought is how much he loves his wife.
The first book was so good but I'm done with the repetition.

[Bill Cissna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Airth's first two John Madden novels, and I enjoyed this one, too - just not as much. As others have noted, this 409-page edition would have been excellent at 350 pages. But there is just too much talking the case to death, which would have been served well by a judicious editing. It comes to a very pleasing conclusion, but a little too much time is spent getting us there.

[Rob Kitchin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Dead of Winter is the third in the John Madden series, each set in a particular decade, this one in war-time London. Madden has left long left his job as a Scotland Yard detective and is now running a farm. When a Polish woman working for him is murdered in London he aids his former colleagues try to apprehend a ruthless killer. The story is a relatively straightforward serial killer police procedural, where the murderer is a killer for hire whose signature is to murder all potential witnesses to his identity. That’s not a spoiler in that it is clear from the start that’s this is the case. In this sense there is little mystery in the story, it is all about the crime and the procedural elements. These are relatively straightforward, with Madden unearthing and tracking clues. The characterisation is the strongest element of the story, with Madden, his old colleagues, WPC Lily Poole and a number of incidental characters well-drawn. On the downside is a lot of unnecessary exposition, the removal of any mystery (the reader knows the reason for the murder pretty much from the prologue and finds out the identity of the killer way before the end), and a plot that doesn’t quite make sense when pressed with respect to the actions of the killer. Eliminating the prologue would have made the story more interesting and was entirely unnecessary in my view. The result is a rather staid and underwhelming tale.

[Dokusha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Und wieder wird John Madden, obwohl nicht mehr bei der Polizei, durch die Umstände in einen Mordfall verwickelt. Die Story wird wieder gut erzählt und es menschelt auch viel, die Charaktere werden ausgebaut und bleiben keine Hüllen.
Die Grundstruktur bleibt allerdings die gleiche wie in den ersten beiden Büchern, wodurch das Geschehen teilweise vorhersehbar wird.

[Lynn Put · Rating 3 out of 5]

31/2 stars. This was the third book in the John Madden mystery series and I have to say that although it was written well, it seemed to drag in the beginning and really didn’t take off with suspense until 3/4 of the way through and ended with a bang.

[Stephen Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A war-time whodunit. And by the time the police find out whodunit the bigger question is where is he, and can he be stopped from doing it again?

[Niki · Rating 3 out of 5]

quite a suspensful whodunit - a psychopath killer on the loose, the Met is helped in the inquest by john madden, retired inspector turned farmer, wanting to find the murderer of one of the land girls working on his farm -

[Addie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another RIVETING John Madden mystery by Rennie Airth!!! Highly recommended, and I can hardly wait to read #3 and #4!!! Thanks, Whitney, for recommending this author and this series to me!!! For his next books, I'll be sure to stop everything else, because I got interrupted way too many times when reading this one! Airth's books deserve to be absorbed non stop!!!

[Tripp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rennie Airth's latest, the Dead of Winter, would have been a perfectly good book, if it had not been written after his excellent River of Darkness (looks like there is a mass market available - you are crazy not to get this book at that price) and quite good Blood Dimmed Tide. Now it seems like a book that could have been much better.

The book differs in a number of ways from the previous stories. Two of the most significant though are the time frame and the characters. Unlike the previous books which were set in the post-World War One period, this book is set in the waning days of the Second World War. Britain's home front is grim, with the family tension rising as parents fear their children will die in the last days of war, food being close to inedible and the V-1s and V-2s making London a frightening place.

A young Polish girl is killed on the blacked out streets of London. Retired policeman John Madden, reluctant hero of the previous books, is brought back in as the girl had been working on his farm. He then drops out as other characters take the lead. The book is quite light on Madden, enough that I felt it was a stretch to call it a John Madden mystery.

The story, which involves ties to a 1940 murder in France and to the growing violence of the 20th century, is fairly straight forward. It is a police investigation where the cops are from the old world of simple criminals must contend with a hyper-violent criminal from the nasty second half of the century.

One of the things that Airth does best is show the terrible wear of war on society. Here he does it with the damaged home front. The police force consists mostly of older cops who should have retired, but all the replacements are at war. The populace gets by on little and the unfortunate East Enders live in bombed out ruins. It is incredibly bleak, but handled very well.

I think the World War 2 setting made me want some more dark political dealings, in the vein of John Lawton or Alan Furst, authors more known for their World War 2 settings. It is still a very good book that I read quickly. In the end, it left me thinking how much more I liked the earlier books.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first, I was disappointed in this, the 3rd John Madden book by Rennie Airth. But, in the end, I was much more appreciative of it. A fine story, although I did appreciate the other 2(River of Darkness and The Blood-Dimmed Tide) more. Not that it wasn't up to the high standard that Mr. Airth had set for himself. Maybe I just had too high of an expectation. Maybe especially so as this appears to be the last of the series. To my mind, Airth has covered Madden's "life" a little to quickly. Madden is now in his declining years and there doesn't seem room for another chapter in his life. Hopefully I'm wrong. Would like nothing better that to find out that Airth either, is in the process of finishing up a new Madden book, or that one is already finished and will be in my local library soon.

The story of the chase for the murderer of the young Polish girl he murdered, was a fine story of detective, and police, work. At first, just the identity of the killer was eluding the police. Then, after identifying him, the chase to find him, all presented captivating stories. I'll not actually divulge the ending, but, of course, with this being a story about the detective and the police, any experienced detective reader does have somewhat of an inkling of how it'll all turn out. But, the actual twist of it, I'll leave to the reader.

All in all, a fine book. I enjoyed it immensely. Looking forward to any more Madden books by Mr. Airth and will check his page on this site for any other work by him.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#3 in the John Madden series. Finalist 2009 Historical Dagger Award. An unusual series; in #1 River of Darkness (1999) John Madden is a Scotland Yard detective shortly after WWI when he meets future wife Helen on a case; in #2 The Blood-Dimmed Tide (2001), it is 1932 and John has quit the force for the life of a farmer but gets involved when he discovers the body of a young girl; and, in #3 The Dead of Winter (2009), it is 1944 and a Polish refugee who has been working on his farm in murdered during a London blackout.

Inspector John Madden series - London and rural England in 1944, five years of war and an overstretched police force have brought "a new dimension to lawbreaking," with a serious rise in murders, thefts and extortion. Even decent citizens aren't above black-market dealings. The murder of Rosa Nowak, a young Polish woman, on a deserted London street during a blackout appears to be another act of random violence. Since Nowak worked on Madden's farm, his reputation ensures that his former colleagues thoroughly investigate the case, which leads to continental Europe, stolen diamonds and a string of murders, including that of a Jewish furrier.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Dead of Winter was a pick for my mystery book club, and it is the first book that I have read by Airth. Airth does a good job at creating World War II England providing the reader with the experience of this war torn country. During one of the blackouts, a young woman is murdered. Rosa's murder probably wouldn't receive much attention except for the fact that her employer is none other than former police investigator John Madden. Madden refuses to let the case go, and several other police officers become just as involved in solving this crime which ends up leading to an international criminal. Other than Madden, my favorite character was Lily, a young woman beginning her career as a detective. Airth does a good job with character development and the reader gets a real feel for all of the characters and their relationships to each other both personal and professional. The mystery was very good and kept the reader guessing. Overall this was a great read, and I would like to read Madden's other adventures.