Harriet has been posting about the Roth Trilogy by Andrew Taylor on her blog here. I have a one volume omnibus edition of the three books The Four Last Things, The Judgement of Strangers and The Office of 
the Dead given to me by my daughter who said 'Mum, you will enjoy this. It's right up your street'. I know I will as I had discovered the author last year, thanks to a fellow blogger's recommendation, but I have been saving it up for those dark winter nights, all 800-odd pages of it. My daughter also told me not to watch the recent television adaptation otherwise I would know the ending and my enjoyment of it would be spoiled, so for once I did as I was told, only to unknowingly read a crit the following weekend which gave away the denouement before I realised what I was reading.
I have noticed on many occasions the synchronicity of reading. I will start a book by an author and then find a day or two later, that someone else I know is also talking of this particular writer and reading one of his/her works. It has now happened again 
as I have just finished Naked to the Hangman by Andrew Taylor. This is the seventh in the Lydford series, all of which I have enjoyed and, as I usually do, read the previous six straight through so was very pleased to spot this latest in paperback.
Detective Inspector Richard Thornhill is on the verge of a nervous breakdown as events in his past have come back to haunt him. During the closing months of the Mandate in Palestine, Richard was a young police officer and witnessed sights and did things which have remained with him and brought him to his current state. An former friend of his from those days arrives in Lydford to warn him that they are being sought by old enemy who is seeking to avenge the death of his sister, Rachel. Richard can confide in no-one and has to move carefully to protect his family. When a body is found and a Palestinian connection is traced, Richard comes under suspicion.
The events in Lydford, which is suffering from torrential rain and an all pervading gloom, are interspersed with flashbacks to Palestine in the heat and dust, and as the reader nears the final pages of the story, the events in the opening prologue then become clearer and we finally learn the truth of what happened all those years ago.
As with all of the Lydford series, this is tightly written, economic prose, no wasted words and the background of daily life in the town with its brand new coffee bar in the High Street, the Dancing school where teenagers try to learn to manage their feet in time for the charity dance which is the highlight of the calendar, is beautifully delineated and, for me at any rate, brings back memories of small town iife in the 1950's.
This series simply cries out to be dramatised for television. It is manna from heaven and I am surprised that a canny producer has not snapped it up, but it may yet happen,fingers crossed. From the first page of the the first in the series, I knew immediately who I would cast as Richard Thonnhill as the description of this particular character fits him like a glove, and that is Richard Armitage, he of North and South and Guy of Gisborne in Robin Hood. I can just see him in a trench coat and hat with the rain dripping off the brim.
Be still my beating heart...
