Norfolk. Second homes owned by wealthy outsiders are being burgled. Spray paint warnings threaten that further reprisals will follow. The Chief Constable is near retirement and hoping for a knighthood, he has refused to allow the media to publish the facts, worried about panic.

DI Peter Shaw has problems at home, with his wife Lena, already a successful cafe proprietor, wanting to expand into a pub/restaurant on the beach and DS George Valentine has been seriously dating the widow of an ex-colleague.

Shaw in his role with the local lifeboat, is called to a stranded family on a sandbar on the coast. When rescued the father Leo D'Asti (himself a second-home owner ) tells of a dead man buried on the sandbar. When recovered, the deceased has been brutally murdered. In his pockets are sprigs of samphire. There is a lucrative local trade in this sea vegetable and known villain John Jack Stepney employs pickers who are usually immigrants.

Shaw and Valentine are hard pressed trying to identify the dead man as well as find out who is burgling the homes of the rich. A retired detective dergeant from the Wells area has started up a business checking on these holiday homes. He provides information for the investigation. However time is against them when the break-ins escalate in the wealthy village of Burnham Marsh.

I have always enjoyed the author's series about Ely journalist Philip Dryden which has produced seven novels so far, but on balance, I probably enjoy this police series the best. AT DEATH'S WINDOW is the fifth book in the series.

Unreservedly recommended.

Geoff Jones, England
January 2015