Book Two in David J. Gatward’s Harry Grimm series is Best Served Cold, a story which (as I’m sure you’ve guessed, because you’re smart) is about revenge.

Harry Grimm, scar-faced former police detective from Bristol, is settling in (at least tentatively) in his “temporary” secondment in Wensleydale, Yorkshire. It’s beautiful country, where the people are genuine and honest, the air is fresh, and Harry – in spite of himself – is beginning to enjoy himself. Except for the inexplicable local mania for eating fruitcake with cheese.

When a foul-natured and unpopular local farmer is found crushed under the wheels of one of his own wagons, it looks like an accident at first. But investigators quickly realize that the set-up is impossible. This was murder, and of a cruel sort. Not long after, another farmer – one of the first victim’s few friends – is found drowned to death in a slurry pit. Eagle feathers are discovered in the mouths of each.

The fact that nobody misses the victims much doesn’t mean the police can relax. There has to be some incident in the past that accounts for such terrible revenge. Harry hunts through the records and talks to old schoolmates of the victims, gradually piecing together the story of a horrible cruelty long forgotten by most.

I am enjoying these books for their setting, characters, and mood. I have to admit, though, that I figured out whodunnit before I was supposed to. Fairly obvious, I thought. Maybe I’m just really smart, but I think author Gatward needs to work on his plotting.

Still, recommended. Only minor cautions.