Mondays Book Talk - Six Proud Walkers

Written by Ben Kesp. 

Six Proud Walkers by Anthea Fraser 

Closing off Series 5 of Mondays Book Talk with this classic English detective mystery drama, Six Proud Walkers, which is one of sixteen novels featuring, Detective Chief Inspector David Webb, written by Anthea Fraser in 1988. 

I read this on Kindle and unfortunately, the story is formatted poorly for its conversion to Kindle. It is rife with spelling and grammar errors, with regular occurrences where there is no separation between scenes, with many different scenes rolling into one another. I was about to leave the story following the first four chapters as the pace was extremely slow until the book found its life and took off from chapter five, hooking me to see how the story would unfold. I understand that the beginning was to introduce the characters, but it moves at a slow pace, making it difficult to read, in addition to the poor formatting. 

The story begins when DCI Webb visits his friend Hannah James, who is looking after a house and cat for the local school headmistress. Shortly after, Dorothy Walker, the matriarch of the Walker family, is horrifically murdered. Webb begins investigating the prominent, well to do family, who are very proud of their lineage and history only to discover shocking secrets buried deep within the family. When a second murder occurs within the family, it looks like the Walkers are being targeted and the case intensifies for DCI Webb who tries to establish if the murders are linked or are separate cases. Time is against him as the family fear another murder could be committed against the family. 

It is set in the period it is written in, adding an air of quaintness to the story - so do not expect modern CSI or investigation techniques. I was a little disappointed at the ending, however I do not wish to give too much of the story away. If you like a good detective mystery adventure set in a rural English village, then this should be an interest for you. Once the story gets going, it really stems a life of its own, and Fraser has excellently portrayed and created complex characters for the Walker family.