Sarah Ward’s third novel, A Patient Fury, is once again set in the rural Peak District. This time the mentally frail DC Connie Childs is investigating a brutal matricide – the mother appears to have killed her husband and young son before setting fire to the house and hanging herself. However, Connie believes there’s a link to the past, the unsolved disappearance of the husband’s first wife thirty years ago…

The author’s speciality is family and relationships which again take centre stage in this police procedural. The writing style is short, punchy and to the point. The beautifully moody Peak District provides the perfect backdrop to this gruesome tale of love and loss. Read the full review here. The series began with In Bitter Chill.