Rennie Airth’s first John Madden mystery, River of Darkness, published ten years ago, was set in 1921. His second, The Blood-Dimmed Tide, was set in 1932 and this, the third and reputedly the last, takes place in the closing months of 1944. The series spans, therefore, more than 20 years. In the first, Inspector Madden of Scotland Yard solves some gruesome country-house murders. He is a man still much troubled by his experience in the trenches, but during the case he meets and falls in love with Dr Helen Blackwell, who becomes his wife.
By the time of the second book he has retired from the police, and has a farm in Surrey where he lives contentedly with Helen and their two children. So in this latest book years have passed since he was an operational detective — an unusual state of affairs for the main character of a crime series.
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