{"id":20496,"date":"2025-02-20T19:49:27","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T00:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=20496"},"modified":"2025-02-20T19:49:27","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T00:49:27","slug":"the-engine-house-by-rhys-dylan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=20496","title":{"rendered":"‘The Engine House,’ by Rhys Dylan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s nice to run into a professional writer<\/strong> these days, one who knows how to lay out a sentence and to spell, and who has a feel for settings and character. All that describes Rhys Dylan’s work in The Engine House<\/a><\/em>, first installment in a series featuring retired Detective Inspector Evan Warlow of Pembrokeshire in Wales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story opens with a landslide that uncovers a hidden cave near a cliffside path. Revealed now are the bodies of a pair of hikers who disappeared more than seven years ago. And this was no death by misadventure \u2013 the couple had been beaten to death and stuffed into the hole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which leads to a call to Evan Warlow, retired chief inspector. He was a successful detective before his early retirement, and he worked on the missing persons\u2019 case. He is reluctant to get involved \u2013 for reasons not revealed in this book to his colleagues or to the reader \u2013 but at last his great curiosity and the passion he\u2019d invested in the mystery lure him back onto the job. On a temporary basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s set to work with Inspector Jess Allanby, a highly regarded woman detective. They form a task force to re-open the old files in light of the new discoveries. And the things they discover \u2013 and have a hard time discovering \u2013 are troubling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, a young couple has moved into the old house where the deceased couple had lived. They\u2019re creative and eager, though the young woman is disturbed by a sense of being watched, from somewhere on the other side of the ravine, near where the old, derelict Engine House stands in ruin. (The story flirts with the paranormal here, but doesn\u2019t go too far in that direction.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have only praise for the writing and storytelling here. Rhys Dylan knows what he\u2019s doing as a novelist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My own personal reservations rise from a hint \u2013 and it\u2019s really only a hint \u2013 of conventional stereotyping in the story. The author doesn\u2019t go as far as to suggest \u2013 as so many modern novels seem to \u2013 that the police force is actually \u201cgender-balanced,\u201d but the team we follow is half male and half female. And it annoyed me when Jess (Inspector Allanby) reprimands Evan for trying to shield her with his body when they\u2019re threatened with a firearm. Blast it, protecting women is what we men do. There\u2019s not much excuse for our existence otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, the scenes set in the present are written in the present tense, something I object to on stubborn principle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I probably won\u2019t read on in the series, but that shouldn\u2019t stop you. The Engine House<\/em> is really a very good police procedural, in a picturesque and exciting setting. I do recommend it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s nice to run into a professional writer these days, one who knows how to lay out a sentence and to spell, and who has a feel for settings and character. All that describes Rhys Dylan’s work in The Engine House, first installment in a series featuring retired Detective Inspector Evan Warlow of Pembrokeshire in … Continue reading ‘The Engine House,’ by Rhys Dylan<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[5468,5467,5469],"class_list":["post-20496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-dci-evan-warlow","tag-rhys-dylan","tag-the-engine-house"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20496"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20498,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20496\/revisions\/20498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}