Death in the Setting Sun by Deryn Lake

Death in the Setting Sun is the 10th book in the John Rawlings series. By now John is happily married with a daughter. His assistant of many years, Nicholas, has finished his apprenticeship and has his own shop. Even his father Sir Gabriel has moved into semi-retirement in Kensington and his best friend Samuel is married and expecting his first child. It would seem that all is finally going well for all the main characters, especially when Emilia falls pregnant with their second child.

However as one might expect such happiness cannot last and a tragic death of one of these characters occurs. To make matters worse John is accused of the crime and goes into hiding to prevent being arrested. Can John clear his name whilst on the run? Will his friends and family believe he is not the culprit? Will the cast of these delightful books ever get over the death of such a central character?

As always Deryn Lake's books are easy to read and get swept up in. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the previous nine books in this series and was not disappointed with this one. The story was quite heart breaking and I did feel as if Lake deliberately engineered this to keep us all on our toes. It seems to much to ask for our crime fighting heroes to have happy lives in any of the books I have been reading of late.

If you have not read a Deryn Lake book before, don't start with this one. The reason it means so much is because you have fallen in love with all the characters over the course of the series and you feel the death of a central character as keenly as the other actors themselves. I heartily recommend the first book in the series, Death in the Dark Walk. As with all Deryn's books the description is graphic, detailed but does not detract from the story. I feel I know her characters so well they jump off the page.

4 stars