The Dead of Winter: A John Madden Mystery

This is the third in a series from Rennie Airth featuring his ex-policeman and soldier, John Madden, The first of these, River of Darkness, won the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for best international crime novel in 2000 and was nominated for Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity awards. Airth supposedly found inspiration for the book in a scrapbook about his uncle, a soldier killed in World War I. The second, The Blood-Dimmed Tide, was published in 2003. I have read all three and do suggest that you read them in sequence. They can be standalone but you will benefit from the timeline and character clarity if all three are read. I have given four stars to each of them largely based on the nice balance of historical accuracy, solid plots, brisk pace, and characters who you take a real interest in. One critique is novels two and three seemed to follow a very similar pattern but that is a small complaint. In terms of The Dead of Winter, the backdrop of World War 2 provides a rich setting for a series of murders that draws in Madden, Sinclair, Bennet, and Styles again. It is a shame that Airth does not provide more insight into what drives the villain because that character is almost one-dimensional. However, you will cheer with every deductive step that is taken to get closer to uncovering the killer and tracking that person down. I still think that Airth can expand the series even though it is meant to be a closed trilogy. If it does continue, I will be sure to follow the additional adventures of Madden et al.

"The Dead of Winter," by Rennie Airth, focuses on a series of grisly murders that take place in different countries across the span of many years. Following a prologue set in Paris just before the German occupation, Airth jumps to a bitterly cold London in 1944. The British hope that the "Luftwaffe had finally shot its bolt." Unfortunately, while the danger of flying bombs and V-2 rockets still exists, air raid wardens continue to make their rounds and blackout curtains remain in place. On a pitch dark night, one warden stumbles upon the body of a female homicide victim. Overseeing the investigation is Chief Inspector Angus Sinclair, who is seventy, suffers from gout, and was ready to retire when the assistant commissioner convinced him to stay on in a supervisory capacity. Sinclair eventually learns that the victim had worked for an old friend of his, a former detective named John Madden. Angus invites John, a creative thinker who sees connections that others miss, to offer whatever insights he can to help solve the case. As the inquiries proceed and the bodies pile up, it becomes clear that the murderer, who is still at large, is a vicious and clever sociopath who plans his crimes carefully and eludes capture with ease. Can he be caught before he takes even more lives? Airth's strength is his vivid depiction of wartime England as a place where food is scarce; wives worry themselves sick over their absent husbands; and those who remain at home try to help their families, friends, and neighbors survive from day to day. The author's large cast of characters includes the aforementioned Angus, who wants to close out his career on a high note; John Madden, a gentleman farmer who cannot resist the temptation to track down a felon who considers himself above the law; Bess Brigstock, a tough old bird with a soft spot for those is need; and Lily Poole, an ambitious young constable who will do anything to impress her superiors. The villain of the piece is sketchily drawn. He is depicted as a master of disguise who changes his identity at will, and executes his victims quickly, stealthily, and without remorse. The plot of "The Dead of Winter" is so complex that it requires a scorecard to make sense of its byzantine trajectory. The author has a tendency to digress, and although his tangents can be engrossing, they slow down the action considerably. To his credit, however, Airth beautifully captures the atmosphere of London during the Second World War, when challenging times brought out the worst in some individuals but the best in others.

"The Dead of Winter" is the deliberate and slow recounting of a series of killings in wartime London and the pursuit of the criminal by a group of talented police professionals. The book could define the sub-genre of police procedural as two old friends, retired supercop, John Madden and Chief Inspector Angus Sinclair, painstakingly track down a criminal with an obsessive/compulsive need to eliminate anyone who may have an inkling of who he is or what he has been. This turns out to be a long list of often innocent victims--and the list continues to grow as the crime spree continues. Author Airth does his usual splendid job of evoking the crime scenes as well as the larger setting of London and other parts of England during the latter days of WWII. His slow reveal of the murderer and his motivations as well as the gradual enlargement of the circle of people--victims, future victims and the investigating police--result in a delicious building of tension and a rousing ending. The one thing that Airth does not do in this novel is to delve deeply into the personalities of his characters, at least not as profoundly as others writing in the same genre. This is not a psychological mystery per se, but there are plenty of interesting personal stories included here and definitely some clear indications of how people's lives were affected by the ongoing war, missing family members in the line of fire and the actual loss of friends and family. An excellent read. Highly recommended.

The only problem with Rennie Airth's work is that those readers like myself who have discovered his books have had to wait so long between each novel. But when the results are as good as this, that feels like a very minor quibble indeed, because John Madden, the detective that Airth has conjured up from thin air, is just as compelling a personality as P.D. James's Adam Dalgliesh. Madden, a veteran of the First World War, solved his first mystery in Airth's excellent River of Darkness, set in the aftermath of that bloody conflict. Airth's second mystery featuring Madden -- now married and much more content as a gentleman farmer, although he can't resist using his skills to solve a series of horrible murders of young girls -- was set in the early 1930s, just as the first hints were taking shape of another global war. Now, in Airth's third novel, it is the winter of 1944. While it seems clear that Germany will be defeated, Londoners are exhausted by rocket attacks, rationing and the brutal winter weather. Rosa, a young Polish refugee, works on Madden's farm, has traveled to London to visit her only remaining relative. Emerging from a Tube station after the 'all-clear' signal, Rosa sets off for her destination through the blacked-out nighttime streets -- where she encounters a murderer. But was Rosa's murder, first seen as horrible act of a madman, really a random crime? John Madden becomes increasingly less confident of this and the events that follow seem to bear out his instincts. Is there a connection to the brutal murder of a Jewish furrier in Paris on the eve of the German occupation of the city -- an event that may have been witnessed by a young Polish couple who, themselves, were trying to flee the Nazis and travel to England? Airth's hallmark is intricate and careful plotting, combined with wonderful character studies. In this third book, he not only brings back favorite characters from the first two books, such as Madden, Angus Sinclair of Scotland Yard and Madden's former sergeant, Billy Styles, but also introduces new ones who immediately grab our attention, such as the young policewoman determined to become a Scotland Yard detective despite that organization's rampant misogyny. Airth is never didactic -- he shows and never tells, the hallmark of a good storyteller. I actually found myself feeling what it might have been like waiting for the Germans to march into Paris in June of 1940; what it was like to grope one's way through pitch-black streets and colliding with other pedestrians; the biting cold of a winter where fuel supplies were rationed. What I enjoy most about Airth's books is the pacing; the way he unveils, step by step, the full dimensions of both the crime(s) and its solution. There are twists and turns aplenty along the way, but never anything that strained my credulity. Delivering a real surprise -- one that makes me sit up and go 'wow!' -- that isn't too well-telegraphed in advance is a real art, and Airth has master