DCI Evan Warlow recently retired from the police but there is a case that has haunted him. Eight years ago, a couple vanished and Evan led the investigation which never found them. Now two bodies are found in a ravine and the killer is sought so Evan agrees to returns to the case…
The Engine House is a police procedural novel set in Wales. It is the first book I have read by this author and I believe it begins a new series featuring DCI Evan Warlow.
Evan is enjoying his freedom. He has left his wife, his two children are grown up, and he has retired from the police. But when he hears on the news about the discovery of two bodies, he is convinced they are the couple who vanished without a trace eight years ago. He feels torn between getting involved and staying retired but cannot resist finally finding the truth and concluding the case.
The case itself is quite gripping with an intriguing mystery from the past and now a killer on the loose in the present. Evan has a personal issue with another police officer which rumbles away in the background and adds another layer to the plot.
The book is written in the third person throughout. It uses the present tense which took me a few chapters to get used to. We see perspectives from Evan as well as various other characters with a relevant interest in the case. The Welsh landscape almost acts as another character over the course of the book, and there are historical and mythological elements included which bring the setting to life.
The Engine House is a completely absorbing book and I raced through the pages. The lead detective is easy to like and very human so I look forward to seeing what the author has in store for him next.
The Engine House book blurb
You can bury the bodies, but you can’t hide the truth.
When a landslip on Pembrokeshire’s stunning coastal path reveals the harrowing remains of two bodies, ex-DCI Evan Warlow’s quiet retirement is shattered.
As the original investigator for the two missing persons eight years before, Evan is recalled to help with what is now a murder inquiry. But as the killer scrambles to cover up the truth, the body count rises.
Working with a new young team, Warlow peels away the layers to reveal the dark and rotten heart that beats beneath the chocolate box tranquillity of an area renowned for its quiet beauty.
But does he still have what it takes to root out the monstrous truth before all hell lets loose?
Author Bio
Rhys Dylan was born and grew up in west Wales, went away to university in London, but came back to live and work in his country of birth. Along the way he indulged his imagination by writing books for children and adults under various pennames and in a variety of genres.
2021 sees him turning his hand once more to crime with DCI Evan Warlow in the Black Beacons crime series. Spread over 500 square miles, the Brecon Beacons mountain range sits like a giant doorstop at the heads of the South Wales valleys. To the north and west, they nestle in the crook of the ancient kingdoms of Powys and Dyfed, stretching from the eastern Marches to the wild southwestern coast. Many of the mountain peaks in the range have names. Others are simply referred to as black. It is in this timeless landscape that the books are set.
Rhys lives on the edge of the Beacons with his wife and a dog that doesn’t like the rain.
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