From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

River of Darkness (John Madden, #1)

Rennie Airth

Start date: July 15, 2025

Finish date: August 6, 2025

Discussion: Buddy reads

Why we're reading this: Trying the first in this series as a buddy read
[close] Trying the first in this series as a buddy read

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Buddy reads

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What Members Thought

May 29, 2014 Susan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is the first in the John Madden trilogy and was the winner of the Grand Prix de Literature Policiere in 2000, as well as being nominated for Edgar, Anthony and Macavity awards. Having learnt that there is to be a fourth book in the series coming out, I thought it would be a good time to go back and re-visit the original trilogy, which I read when they were first published and, although I remember how much I enjoyed them, I can’t really recall many of the details.

Set in 1921, the novel begin ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Jul 21, 2018 Christine PNW rated it really liked it

This was a total impulse buy - I was looking for a historical mystery and I love books set in the interwar period, and it was only $5.99, so I downloaded it. I finished it in one gulp. It is a very dark story, but the main character was likeable, and the romantic subplot was outstanding and felt extremely realistic.

However, this is a book that is strongly focused on sexual violence, because the murderer is a proto-typical serial sexual murderer. There are many disturbing aspects to the criminal ...more

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Jun 04, 2019 Bev rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-mystery, mystery, virtual-mount-tbr-2019, police-procedural, british-mystery, early-20th-c, thriller

This novel is the first in a very long time to make me stay up reading long after I should have gone to sleep. I kept thinking that I would "just finish this chapter" but then I'd go right ahead and plunge into the next...and the next...until I finally had to make myself quit. Not that serial killers using military-like precision to dispatch their victims are the most pleasant bedtime story fare, but the story and the writing were so compelling that I was drawn in from the opening chapter. Rober This novel is the first in a very long time to make me stay up reading long after I should have gone to sleep. I kept thinking that I would "just finish this chapter" but then I'd go right ahead and plunge into the next...and the next...until I finally had to make myself quit. Not that serial killers using military-like precision to dispatch their victims are the most pleasant bedtime story fare, but the story and the writing were so compelling that I was drawn in from the opening chapter. Robert Goddard, author of Edgar-nominated Beyond Recall, says, "Rennie Airth takes what seems to be a twenties drawing-room murder mystery and transforms it into an edge-of-the-seat serial-killer thriller. Compelling stuff."And he's quite right. The trappings of the Golden Age mystery are all there--lavish country houses, landed gentry, and the village bobby, but Airth has given it a wicked twist that produces a believable serial killer for the chosen time period.

It's difficult for me to believe that I enjoyed a book that stacks up 16 corpses, all killed in a very violent way. But I did. Inspector Madden and the supporting characters are vividly drawn with many facets to their complex personalities. Readers are given a strong sense of England in the aftermath of the Great War with men struggling to come to grips with their experiences on the battlefield and women adjusting to the changes wrought by the loss of nearly a generation of men and the scars (both physical and mental) that those who returned will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

I enjoyed getting to know Inspector Madden and Detective Constable Billy Styles. Madden takes Styles under his wing and tries to encourage the young constable without coddling him. This first book shows signs of a good working relationship developing between the two and I look forward to watching it progress in future installments. The mystery here isn't so very great--at least not in the whodunnit category. We know who the killer is from the beginning. The big questions are why does he kill and why does he kill in the manner chosen...and how many will be sacrificed before Madden and his team bring him to justice. ★★★★ for an excellent debut to a new series.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks. ...more

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Jan 19, 2018 AngryGreyCat rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-police-procedural

River of Darkness was a book that I became aware of through the Kindle English Mystery Club and decided to give a try. It is interesting in that it reads like a modern-day serial killer thriller, but is set in the period between the wars in rural England. An entire family is obliterated and Inspector John Madden recognizes the wounds as he had served time in the Army. He begins to investigate and eventually finds connections to other murders and builds his case. In the course of this work, he me ...more

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Jul 14, 2025 Sandy rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery-historical, read-2025, mystery-detective-grp, series-active, audible-read

Mixed feeling: Excellent characters and historical ambience with the recent pain of WWI affecting everyone. However, I felt it was more a search for a psychopathic killer than a mystery to be solved. Exciting action and dogged police work but an unlikely twist at the end.

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