While I enjoy the premise of Nicholas George’s series, and I like the protagonist, there’s just something off about this latest book, A Lethal Walk in Lakeland. I was just disgusted with the over-the-top behavior of the Uptons, a family of Texans on the Rovers North walk in England.

Rick “Chase” Chasen is a retired San Diego police detective who enjoys walks in the English countryside. He signed up to walk a coast-to-coast trail in the Lake District to enjoy the countryside, the walk, and to provide some time with Mike Tibbets, a coroner Chase met earlier, a man he’s attracted to. But, before Chase can even join the Rovers North walking group, he hears from Mike that he’s caught up in a case, and won’t be able to join him. He’s disappointed, but he’s still going to spend time with his close friend, Billie Mondreau, a fellow Anglophile.

Unfortunately, it’s a small group of walkers. There’s Chase, Billie, a bird watcher, and the loud and obnoxious Upton family from Texas. They always seem to be fighting amongst themselves or causing a scene. Chase keeps an eye on them because the oldest doesn’t seem healthy, and there are family members who seem to rely on one drug or another. And, they’re keeping a secret as to why this group is really on an unlikely trip. But, when one of the group is murdered, it’s not the family member Chase would have expected.

As a former detective, Chase is welcome to work with the British police detective as he investigates the death. It’s not long, though, before a witness is murdered. Now, it could be anyone in the group as the killer or the next victim.

There’s a lot that makes me uncomfortable with this book, from the Upton family to the grand reveal of the killer. While the book has a wonderful atmosphere, it seems as if it has to pack Golden Age elements into a modern mystery. I enjoy the walking atmosphere in these books, but I may be finished with the series.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc!

This was such a good book. I really enjoyed it. More than I thought I would. I loved the writing style. This book had me hooked from page one. This is a first for me by this author but will not be my last!!

I want this series to be better than it is. It's not bad, it's just not great.

Pluses:

+ Setting! Sign me up for cozy-ish mysteries realistically set in small English towns (and countrysides).
+ A generally engaging protagonist.
+ Plenty of plausible suspects and a twisty-turny reveal.

Minuses/quibbles (I'm mixing sentences and fragments here; it's late, and I'm tired):

- I don't feel as if the author has fully grasped how to include interesting details/quirks in a fashion that's true to the character. Example: "I felt just as hollow as I did when Carlton Fisk, a popular Boston Red Sox catcher and World Series hero, left Boston to sign with the Chicago White Sox." No true Red Sox fan would think of it that way. They'd think something like "I felt just as hollow as I had when Carlton Fisk left Boston to sign with the White Sox." Sure, many readers won't know what position Carlton Fisk played—some may not even know that the reference is about baseball—but that gives us all we need.
- Inaccurate (I think) descriptions/characterizations of mental illness.
- Errors that aren't true to the character. For instance, a reference to a serial killer being arrested and then hanging himself "in his prison cell four days later." I'm pretty sure even a serial killer would be held in jail, not prison, until trial, and a former police detective would know this and make the distinction.
- Unbelievable characterization, and action that veers into slapstick—I simply don't believe that people (even brash Texans) could get away with some of the behavior that's described, while staying at a lovely English inn.
- Bouncing back and forth between tenses.
- Too many unresolved plot points at the end.

That's a lot of minuses, and I want to be clear that I did, on the whole, enjoy reading this. I just think it needed more work to be ready for prime time.

My thanks to the publisher/NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.