Aline Templeton

Dead in the Water

Detective: Marjorie Fleming
Setting:     Galloway
Time:        Present
Genre:      Police Procedural

This, the sixth n the Fleming series, is another cleverly plotted novel by Aline Templeton intertwining a cold case investigation of an unsolved murder from the mid 1980's, the attempted murder  of a TV actor with local roots location shooting a police procedural series in the area and feuding among Polish building workers, not to mention unreasonable pressure on Marjorie Fleming by the acting Procurator Fiscal.

The cold case review, demanded by the Fiscal, is a testing one for Fleming as the original investigation was not as thorough as it might have been and involved her immediate superior and her father, then a Detective Sergeant.  The TV actor could have been involved, the victims mother thinks he did it,  but he had not been interviewed at the time, which necessity draws him into the cold case review. The attack on him could be by the victim's brother seeking revenge, or the result of arguments he has had with an old acquaintance or  the confrontation he had had with one of the Polish workmen.

The false leads are all plausible as is the final denouement when the murderer confesses all in a sort of parody of the way a Poirot might force a killer to confess to a room full of the suspects, although with unfortunate implications for Fleming.

A

Aline Templeton's Website

Previously Read
Cold in the Earth
The Darkness and the Deep
Lying Dead
Lamb to the Slaughter
Evil for Evil
Cradle to Grave

Aline Templeton

Cradle to Grave

Detective: Marjorie Fleming

Setting      Galloway

Time        Current

Genre       Police Procedural

This is the seventh of the Templeton Marjorie Fleming series with a complex, intriguing and well structured plot. 

 Events centre on a wealthy man's intention to allow the peninsula/headland where he lives to be the venue for an open air pop concert. In torrential weather the bridge to the peninsula collapses, the phone line goes down  (and it's a dead spot for mobiles) and a coastal landslip destroys a ow of cotages on the beach. Fleming and her Sergeant, McNee, are  trapped on the headland as the bridge collapses under their car.

Amongst the people on the headland there is a young woman from the cottages  who has had the good fortune to avoid the landslip. There is something strange about her and something she is apprehensive about. there's the wealthy man of course and his drug dependent daughter and her husband, still in anger mode about the death of their baby daughter, and their spoiltt and obnoxious son. One of his guests is a well known pop star who embarrassingly features in Fleming's past. 

Eventually the bodies start piling up and there's some serious criminal activity surrounding the wealthy man and word s that a hit man has been despatched but to get rid of who?

To add to the complications, Fleming and McNee, normally close colleagues are estranged. McNee develops a bad working relationship with a new fenmale detective who is keeping her personal life quiet. At the same ime McNee is arring his own personal problem.

It all unravels rather nicely.

A

Aline Templeton's Website

Previously read novels 

Cold in the Earth

The Darkness and the Deep

Lying Dead

Lamb to the Slaughter

Evil for Evil

Aline Templeton

Evil for Evil

Detedtive: Matjorie Fleming
Setting       Galloway
Time          Present
Genre        Police Procedural

The crime that triggers the story is the discovery of a relatively recent skeleton in a cave on an island just off the Galloway coast.  In the local village there is resentment shown to the "incomer" who has inherited a local farm and the island.  The opening of the novel is a bit confused as a cast of characters is introduced including a woman from Mancheste, with something in her past who cladestinely leaves her husband and takes up residence in a holiday chalet nearby.

Once the characters are established hoever the plot builds nicely and as Fleming and her team investigate various options open up and the novel is well crafted although when the villain is revealed I'm not too sure of the credibility of the rationale.

In the backstory the rivalries amongst Fleming's team continues and her personal life is complicated by her daughter's first disastrous experience of university and the pressures her demanding job place on her family in general

Rating A

Aline Templeton's website

Previously read
Cold in the Earth
The Darkness and the Deep
Lying Dead
Lamb to the Slaughter

Aline Tenpleton

Lamb to the Slaughter

Detective: Marjorie Fleming
Setting:     Galloway
Time:        Current
Genre       Scots Police Procedural

This the fourth of Templeton's, Flaming novels is nicely crafted with puzzling leads and a neat final twist. A dead sheep is dumped in the courtyard of a small town craft centre. The land owner, who may or may not be about to sell the location to a large supermarket chain, is shot at close range with a shotgun on his doorstep. Is there a link, and if so what? And who will benefit from the murdered man's will. The final arrest comes as a surprise, but there's a twist beyond that.

In the backplot Fleming has to cope with the problems of having a teenage daughter and the death of her father, while within her team there is romance and duplicity.

Rating A

Aline Templeton's Website

Previously Read
Cold in the Earth
The Darkness and the Deep
Lying Dead

Aline Templeton

Lying Dead

Detective: Inspector Marjorie Fleming
Time:        Present
Setting:      Galloway
Genre       Scots Rural Police Procedural

This is the third of the Marjorie Fleming novels. The plot opens with a prisoner released on licence discovering and moving a  woman's body before he could be incorrectly accused of killing her. At the same time there are libertine goings on amongst the boating set at a wealthy yacht club on the cost nearby. The initial evidence is that the murder victim is from Manchester. However it is eastablished that the murder victim has local links and her previous colourful past opens up a new range of suspects. The obnoxious detective Jon Kingsley, who was introduced in the previous novel, plays a significant role.  Well crafted. Lots of half leads and  an unexpected twist at the end.

Amongst developing themes is Fleming's difficult  relationship with the Stevenson family who were impoverished by the foot and mouth epidemic and will not forgive her for her nforcement role as a police officer during the culling. Another theme in the back story is that of Fleming's father developng dementia and the struggle to come to 

Ailine Templeton's web site

Rating A+

Previously read
The Darkness and the Deep
Cold in the earth

Aline Templeton

The Darkness and the Deep

Detective: DI Marjorie Fleming

Time:        Recent Past (About 2004)

Setting:     Galloway

Genre:      Scots Noir

This is the second of Templeon's novels involving Marjorie Fleming and is a stronger book. The nub of the crime is the wrecking of an inshore lifeboat lured onto the rocks with the death of its three erson crew.Three victims but who was the intended target or was it the person who should have been on the vessel?  With that at the core there is plenty of opportunity for false leads before the final denoument. 

The underlying story arc tracks Templeton's concerns about her teenage daughter and the possible strat of her father's dementia as the novel closes.

Rating A

Aileen Templeton's Web Site

Previously Read

Cold in the Earth (Comments posted 26/01/13)

Aline Templeton

Cold in the Earth

Detective: DI Marjorie Fielding
Location: Galloway, Scotland
Time: Recent Past (Set 2003)
Genre: Scots Noir

This is the first of the DI Fielding Novels. Marjorie Fielding is a Detective Inspector based in a very rural Galloway and whose husband is a sheep farmer. The novel is set against the background of the 2003 foot and mouth epidemic with it's strain on the local community following the necessity to cull herds. It is in the process of disposing of the carcasses of a beef herd that a body is found and a murder investigation is required. 

The case is tied up with the disappearance of the long missing elder sister of an investigative journalist/psychologist who is seeking clues to her fate and the almost simultaneous disappearance of the wife of the owner of cattle farm where the elder sister had been working. The farmer's family is not without its psychological misfits.

The underlying story arc involves DI Fleming's strained relationship with her retired Police sergeant father who doesn't think policing is for women and also the trauma faced by her husband after his heard is culled.

Rating B+

Aline Templeton's Web Site

Previously read
None as yet