A body is found and cannot be recognised. How did this happen and who is to blame? DCI Craig Gillard is called to help family and ends up in the middle of it all. Are his Aunts involved?
A good read about Craig's past and present and relationships within the problem of 'who did it'. Lots of revaluations and finally we get a version of the truth, but do we know it all? Read and find out.

I think this is Louth's best book yet. It had me gripped from the start.
DI Craig Gillard's relationship with his wife Sam is well written, showing Sam's empathy but also frustration with Craig's family tanglements and history. The story unfolds as Craig receives a plea from his aunt to visit and help deal with an uncle in care and a stolen vehicle. From this the story unfolds, with an ending that left me suitably satisfied, but understanding the frustration of Aunt Trish!
Well crafted.

The Body In This Mist sees DCI Craig Gillard and his wife Sam having to confront Craig’s past as a hit and run on a misty country lane in Devon leads to the aunts he hasn’t seen in years reaching out for help.

I really enjoyed The Body In The Mist, for me it was an interesting take on a police procedural novel. While you’d normally expect the central character in the series to be leading the investigation, in this case due to the clear conflict of interest he’s relegated to the sidelines. Instead we’re introduced to Detective Inspector Jan Talantire of the Devon and Cornwall police who takes the lead on the police investigation into the hit and run death. This doesn’t mean that Craig barely features in the book, while he can’t play a substantial role in the current case, staying with his family stirs up secrets of the past. One in particular that has Craig concerned that his uncle, now living with Alzheimer’s may have once committed a crime. With the local force too stretched to even consider investigating the cold crime we follow Craig as he does a little investigating of his own.

The Body In The Mist is superbly paced with plenty of twists and turns along the way to keep the reader eager to find out the next bit of information, to discover the next clue and try to solve both the current and cold cases before the characters manage it. It certainly kept me up late at night, once I reached a certain point I just couldn’t put it down!

I really enjoyed catching up with both Craig and Sam again, theirs is a relationship I really enjoy, but for me a real strength of this book were the supporting characters. I enjoyed meeting the Devon and Cornwall police team, and I honestly didn’t mind that Craig wasn’t taking centre stage in the police investigation. I won’t go into detail too much, for fear of wandering into spoiler but Craig’s family were a highlight of this book for me. Now I’m not saying I liked them and I certainly wouldn’t want to be related to either of his aunts or his uncle but they brought so much to this story, the family history and the secrets, the reasons Craig hasn’t visited they all build up and add so much to the plot!

I was also pleasantly surprised by the setting of the story, I must confess I didn’t read the blurb, I just saw it was the next DCI Craig Gillard story and I was on-board so to discover the story was set in my home county of Devon was a bonus. I absolutely adore reading crime novels that are set somewhere I know well, for me it adds an extra layer of realism to the story. I’m lucky that I’m familiar with the big cities like London and Manchester and currently live just outside Edinburgh so there are plenty of crime fiction novels set in places I’m familiar with but very rarely do I read something set in Devon. I’m slightly less familiar with Barnstaple and North Devon, but I was born in the same hospital the body is taken too! My only slight complaint is at one point Exeter town centre is mention, it may be Devon’s county town but Exeter is very much a city, with an absolutely stunning cathedral to boot!

Final Thoughts
Nick Louth has put together another fantastic crime novel – that ending! I can’t wait to see what comes next for Craig, these books are well worth reading!

DI Craig Gillard has two old aunts in Devon who call him to visit and see his uncle who is ill with alzheimer's in an old people's' home. The local police find a mutilated body with al ID absent on a quiet country road - accident or murder? There are murky family secrets that Craig doesn't want to talk about with his wife, and the Beast of Exmoor visits his Aunt's farm at full moon and savages her sheep. Shades of Cold Comfort Farm and no mistake. The full force of forensic science is brought to bear on the unknown corpse. As a side dish the uncle may have committed a murder in the distant past. Lots to look into! Very readable and fun

I found the story interesting enough, but the story-telling was stilted and a all over the place. I had never read anything from this author before and I was very surprised to see that he has published several books, this felt like a first effort to me. I am sorry to say that I did not enjoy the writing at all, the characters felt fake and not well rounded and the story was a little crazy, with a lot happening and not much making sense.
Not a book I would recommend.

Nick Louth is at his best with this delicious crime thriller I was gripped from the start.
DCI Craig Gillard and his wife Sam are on route to Cornwall after a call for help from one of Gillard two aging aunts.
An horrific hit and run left an unidentifiable man in the morgue but who was the driver ?
As the story unfolds long buried family secrets unfold raising more questions than answers and finally the man is identified and the case goes to court.
Absolutely recommend to all thriller readers

Welcome to the third instalment of the DCI Gillard series by Nick Louth, and what an instalment it is! Gillard is now happily married to Sam, still puzzling over why such a beautiful woman would want a grizzly workaholic like him, when everything is threatened by one phone call. A deadly hit and run has taken place in Devon, the victim is unidentifiable but the car belongs to one of Gillard's aunts and he is summoned to Devon to sort out the whole sorry mess.

The story is told from two different sides, from Gillard's point of view as the one who's family is being investigated, and from DI Jan Talantire's as the official investigating officer determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. It's clear from the start that Gillard is highly uncomfortable being back in his aunts company, and the two women couldn't be more different. Trish is a former teacher, living in the house she shared with her ex-husband, Howie, who ran away to Thailand and Barbara, large in both stature and personality, running the family farm and struggling to make ends meet. Thrown in to complicate the situation further is Podge, or Uncle Phillip, a former reverend well known for his social injustice campaigning and now living in a nursing home, suffering from Alzheimer's and unable to walk.

It soon becomes clear that there is far more going on than what has already happened, and Gillard is dragged back into the nightmares of his childhood. Trying to deal with his abusive and abused aunts is more than he can bear but trying to distance himself is impossible and he's drawn back in almost against his will, bombarded with constant phone calls, having to drive back and forth to Devon, and discovering long buried family secrets, some of which are shocking even to Gillard as a serving police officer.

The Body In The Mist manages to be a well-written police procedural with multi-strand storylines converging together to make one of my favorite crime novels in a long time. Far from feeling spread out the various elements all weave together, forming a tight-knit tale which is impossible to put down, and impossible to predict who did it. Murders both old and new, a court case, and a sheep-killing beast are the main focus point of the book but it's the characters who balance out the story perfectly. Every single character, whether they're mentioned on every page or only appear once, is larger than life and not forgotten once you turn the last page.

I'm exceedingly pleased that this is not my family but the person you have to feel sorry for throughout the entire novel is Sam, Gillard's wife. Deeply unsettled by his entire family, and especially the lecherous Podge, she starts to wonder just how well she knows her husband but stands by him and supports him through the whole case. I'm just not sure how supportive she'll continue to be given the twist in the tale, on the very last page, which will make you rethink and/or doubt everything you've just read. Brilliant! This series gets better with every book but you could also read this one without having read the first two as each is a separate story. I guarantee though, that you will want to go back to the beginning and read The Body In The Marsh anyway! Now starts the wait for book four...

A mystery with a difference. Expect the unexpected from the accused and the accusers and you won’t be disappointed. Would you do the same if you were faced with the same dilemma, I am not so sure? A tease and a must read.

Another really good read that's good from start to finish!
You really get into the story! Fast paced, not boring, captivating from page 1.
Well developed story, good plot and twists... attention to details, police procedure... Keeps you interested until the end!

Thank you to NetGalley and Canelo for the ARC of this book. This is my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Great read ! Fast paced and holds your interest with the twists and turns . Strange mad cap family all turn up and Poor Craig has to deal with it

I didn’t guess the ending! Recommended

I have read all of Nick's books as I find them very well written and a bit different. They always keep you guessing about who did it and even some red herrings sometimes. The cheaters are superb and just right for these stories. How long until the next one?

I enjoyed reading this book. The plot was enjoyable and the characters good.
Overall I would reccomend this book for others.
I will look out for other books by Nick having read this one.

Enjoyable detective story with a twist of human interest. What families will and won't do to save each other. who or what is morally sound.

Another great book in this series. DCI Craig Gillard is dragged into a problem within his strange, argumentative and sometimes violent family. This is so well drawn and the threads linked together in such a way you can't help trying to work it out before you get to the end. I found myself getting very angry on Craig and Sam's behalf because his family are selfish and expect him to pick up the pieces even though he isn't close to them. When Sam questions Craig about his diffidence is telling her about his past, he finally allows Sam into his very upsetting secret. I really enjoyed this and look forward to reading more.. My thanks to Nick Louth, Canelo and Net Galley for my ARC.

This book is a fascinating story and will keep you reading right up to the final word. I enjoyed the twists and turns and did not anticipate the outcome until close to the finale. Definitely recommended.

Absolutely fabulous read, another triumph for Nick Louth. For anyone who loves police procedural/crime novels it’s definitely a must read. Highly recommended.

This was the first Nick Louth book I had read and I enjoyed it. Good plot, good characters, all in all a good read. I would recommend it!

Thanks to NetGalley for my free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Devon police investigate when a hit and run victim is found on a quiet country lane. The body has no identification and the labels in his clothes have been removed. Unfortunately for DCI Craig Gillard, the car involved belongs to one of his aunts and he and wife Sam travel down to Devon to help sort out the problem. As he delves deeper, he discovers family secrets from the past which were better left unknown and gets drawn into the mysteries uncovered.

This was my first Nick Louth novel, however the story works perfectly well as a stand alone tale. The characters are well created and I found myself drawn into their lives and keen to learn the truth. In some ways the title body got pushed aside for the more historic crimes revealed, but the story flowed well and all was revealed at the end. I particularly enjoyed the final few pages of the story.

Definitely not the last Craig Gillard adventure I want to read!

My first Nick Louth book, but definitely not my last. I'm always looking for a new DCI series to read, but somehow missed DCI Craig Gillard.

This was a fun read!

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

#TheBodyInTheMist #NetGalley

"...very few people are all good or all bad. That combination is what makes us human."

DCI Craig Gillard is about to find out just how messed up his family really is when he and his wife, Sam, visit his two aunts and uncle in Devon. The body of an unidentifiable male is discovered on a road south of Exmoor National Park. He appears to have been the victim of a hit and run -- and the suspect vehicle belongs to Gillard's Aunt Barbara. Gillard's aunts deny driving the vehicle that day as they claim to have been playing Monopoly with his Uncle Philip who lives in a care home and seems to have his own secrets. It's a complicated case outside of Gillard's remit, but he offers to help DI Jan Talantire of the Barnstaple police with the investigation since he wants to help his relatives. There's a lot going on in this police procedural and murder mystery -- NO SPOILERS.

This is the third book in the series and I didn't like it quite as much as the first two. It seemed to take me a huge effort to really get into the story and to keep all the different threads straight. I do like the main characters of Craig and Sam and will be interested in reading the next book which I hope is set back in their home turf, Surrey. DCI Gillard definitely has a dysfunctional family and Sam is about to find out more about her husband.

Thank you to NetGalley and Canelo Digital Publishing for the e-book ARC to read and review.