I would like to thank Netgalley and Bastei Entertainment for an advance copy of The Cuckoo Wood, the first novel in a projected series to feature Dr Alex Ripley, miracle detective.

Two schoolgirls have drowned months apart in the small Cumbrian village of Kirkdale. Suicide, murder or accident? The villagers, a small, close knit, extremely religious group are sure that it's suicide and close ranks against the girls' families and outsiders. Crime Scene Investigator Emma Drysdale isn't so sure and asks Ripley to investigate. What she uncovers has its roots deep in the past and the Angel of Kirkdale legend.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Cuckoo Wood which has a good mystery at its heart and a very readable style. There is something strange going on in Kirkdale but no one wants to talk about it so it takes all Alex's skill to piece together what makes it such a closed, fervently religious and suspicious community. This mystery adds to the puzzle of what happened to the girls. The slow unraveling of these is fascinating and held me gripped. I was less convinced by the supernatural element in the novel which seems rather unnecessary and superfluous.

Alex Ripley is called a miracle detective, not for her superior investigative skills as I had imagined but because she investigates alleged miracles from a scientific point of view. I like the distinction she makes between the genuinely fraudulent and the believers whose faith leads them down the wrong path and the fact that although she hasn't yet found a miracle she isn't prepared to discount the possibility that she might yet find one. It is very pleasant to see such a divisive topic handled in such an even handed and open manner. It also makes her a hopeful character which makes a change from the usual hard bitten detective.

The Cuckoo Wood is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

I really loved this book! Excellent story with brilliant main characters. I would recommend this book.

What a great story.
This book had me intrigued before I read it as I’m interested in the supernatural and I love crime thrillers.
Dr Ripley is asked to go to Kirkdale to try and get to the bottom of the sightings of an angel which seems to be causing teenage girls to commit suicide. Ripley is a skeptic and is very interested to find out what’s behind these deaths as she doesn’t believe in anything supernatural.
This is a really interesting book as it made me think there were supernatural links to the deaths but deep down I was questioning it, like Ripley.
I really liked Ripley and can’t wait for more books in this series.
The interaction between Ripley and the other characters was really well written and I could just imagine the reception she got arriving in a small village where they don’t like outsiders.
Five huge stars from me.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bastei Entertainment/e-books for the opportunity to read this book.

From the amazing book cover to the intriguing description, The Cuckoo Wood: An Alex Ripley Mystery by M. Sean Coleman, drew me in. I was thrilled to receive an advanced copy from the publishers on NetGalley, and couldn’t wait to start.

The book centres around Kirkdale, a rural community in England’s Lake District and begins with the suicide of two teenage girls. The mention of an angel really stirs things up. We are introduced to Dr. Alex Ripley who is dubbed the Miracle Detective. She likes to pull apart religious sightings and when we meet her she is taking part in a TV show about faith healing. She is asked by her friend to take a look at what is happening in Kirkdale and this is the start of something that will keep you turning the pages well into the early hours of the morning.

From the very start of this book, you are pulled into the action and we follow Rosie, one of the teenage girls, as she is lured into the lake by The Angel, believing that he will save her soul. She drowns and is the second suicide for this rural community. Police officer, Cotter, is a friend of Rosie’s brother and he isn’t convinced she killed herself.

The village of Kirkdale is a strange one, ruled by religion and they believe the girls have committed the ultimate sin and turned their back on God. They don’t welcome Ripley at all, and there are parts in the book that will have the hair standing on the back of your arms as Ripley tries to uncover what is really going on in this place.

Ripley’s character is excellent and so well written. She’s not an atheist but she enjoys playing the sceptic and getting to the bottom of things. She also has a knack of putting herself in danger.

There are so many twists in this story and I didn’t guess the ending or who the culprit was until right at the end. The story evolved and the timeline grew to encompass a suicide pact from 1977. There are some really creepy characters in the story and at times, I found myself wondering if The Angel was in fact real. I was absorbed in the story, in the characters’ lives, and would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a good mystery that will send shivers down your spine.

I am looking forward to the second Dr. Alex Ripley book and can’t wait to see how her character evolves. This was a five star read for me.

The Cuckoo Wood is the first in the series of Dr Ripley and was a good start to it. We may not get a clearer picture of the person that Dr Ripley is, but we are given an idea of her methods of investigation and a very basic background of her. I figure the next few books in the series will throw light onto the person and what drives Dr Ripley, the inspirations and the motivations. As for The Cuckoo Wood, it was a good beginning. The difficult circumstances of an investigation in a tight-lipped community, the recurring patterns, the eccentricities of beliefs made a perfect backdrop. It was a fairly good start to a great series. If you are looking for a crime thriller without gore and gruesomeness The Cuckoo Wood is the book for you. Perhaps that’s what makes this book a good read, the lack of guts that got spilt and the manner in which it slowly creeps up on you without getting your heart racing.