I had never heard of Finley Martin before receiving The Dead Letter* to review but its safe to say I will definitely be checking out more of his work. I really enjoyed this book and if you are a fan of the crime/detective genre then I definitely recommend it.  



"It is 2001 and the police constable's girlfriend is murdered in a fit of jealous rage. When the constable realizes what he has done, he manages an elaborate cover-up. Only one person knows the truth. 

Flash forward to 2012. Anne Brown is still running her late uncle, Bill Darby's, detective agency after spending four or five years as his assistant. One day, the postman delivers an eleven year-old letter. The letter is addressed to her uncle from a woman named Carolyn Jollimore. She says she has evidence about a murder and begs for help from Darby. But Bill Darby is dead. And when Anne looks up the letter's author, she finds that Jollimare too is now dead.

Troubled with the evidence at hand, Anne must decide if she should investigate this eleven-year old murder."

This book jumps straight into the nitty gritty storyline which I love. It is different to most other crime books in that it tells you who the murderer is in the first chapter but you are the only one that knows. You get to follow the journey to see if & when anyone else works it out with a few twists along the way. 

There is still some mystery though. The first chapter also starts with an affair and a pregnancy and we don't know who she had an affair with and who the father is. So there is still the mystery of who else could be involved in the drama. 

Anne is an awesome main character who is dedicated to finding the truth no matter who/what stands in her way. The storyline does go off on a few tangents relating to Annes life that don't really have a huge importance to the storyline but it makes you get to know her character more. She's only human.

 I'm a huge lover of the crime genre and thoroughly enjoyed this book.