I’m feeling sad for myself, but wishing some old friends all the best
It’s hard to describe how I felt at the thought of even opening The Hanged Woman. Perhaps that’s at least part of the reason why it took me so long to get started.
I knew that Mark Richards had sadly passed away suddenly last year. I never had the pleasure of meeting him face to face, but did chat to him online after he was kind enough to ask me to review his two previous books and also answer some questions for me about his books, his writing and his life (and you can find a link to the Q&A at the bottom of this review). It’s sad for me, though doubtlessly a huge relief to anyone who drinks in the Golden Lion in Whitby, that our singing duet on Irish Music Night will now only ever be a case of what might have been.
I also knew, and was delighted that E S Richards – otherwise known as Elle, Mark’s beloved daughter – had decided to complete the sixth instalment in her father’s DI Michael Brady series, which he was working on at the time of his death. But as I opened the cover, my thoughts were overwhelmingly on two things: would my knowing that this book is the last one dull my enjoyment, and would it be obvious where Mark had stopped writing and Elle had started?
It took only the note at the very beginning of the book, in which Elle briefly describes her own writing journey at the same time as paying a beautiful tribute to her dad, for those questions to disappear. It took the prologue to get me nicely intrigued. By the time I had reached 10% of the book – which took less than one sitting – I was back inside Brady’s head, sharing every bit of his determination to find a killer. And from there … well, that kind of depends.
In Choke Back The Tears, which was the first of Mark’s novels that I was introduced to, I was so well absorbed in the psychology of Brady that I didn’t even notice that this took complete prevalence over any kind of plot. But in the next book, The Edge of Truth, the characters had become familiar enough that the lack of any real sort of police detection, never mind action, bothered me just a little bit. This latest book follows essentially the same format, and I did notice, but I didn’t care.
Think of the last time you had a coffee, or a beer, or lunch with a friend that you hadn’t seen for a while. I bet you talked, and that you enjoyed every minute. But I also bet that you can’t even remember most of what you talked about. And certainly, if a stranger had happened to be listening in on your conversation, he or she wouldn’t have thought that so much of a word of it was interesting.
But that’s the thing with Brady and his colleagues. It didn’t feel like I was reading about strangers. It felt as though I was reading about friends. And because Brady felt like a friend, I didn’t just want to know about his life. I completely understood everything he felt about it. When he finally realised his true feelings for his new partner Siobhan, I found myself agreeing with every word. When he and his daughter Ash, who have been struggling to communicate, finally both felt able to say that they loved each other, it genuinely brought a lump to my throat. And as for his colleague Frankie … I’ve said previously that I once had a similar working relationship with a similarly young (relative to me) female colleague. It’s now been some four years since she moved on to pursue the better things that she was absolutely capable of, but this book really reminded me with some force how much I still miss working with her.
If I have a criticism of The Hanged Woman, it’s the solution that’s offered, which didn’t quite seem to fit with how the crime was presented at the beginning. Perhaps this is where Elle had to take over without knowing what was in Mark’s mind when he started writing: I don’t know. But my ever-so-slight problem is that I got the ‘who’ and the ‘how’. But I didn’t quite get the ‘why’.
Thankfully, however, the solution is not offered in the final chapters. And the final chapters are just perfect. It felt, not as though I was mourning the loss of my friends, but that I was saying goodbye as they left to begin a new chapter in their lives.
Hopefully I haven’t waffled on for so long that you can still remember the start of this review. In which case, you’ll know that I began with two questions: (1) would knowing that this book would be Mark’s last affect my enjoyment of it and (2) would I be able to tell whether different parts of the book had been written by Mark or Elle. My answers, emphatically, are (1) no, not even slightly, and (2) no again. My one over-riding thought as I reached the end of the book was that it had been finished by the only other person who could finish it: not just another talented writer but someone who truly is her father’s daughter.
Elle, I won’t say that you would have made your dad proud, because I’m absolutely dead certain that he was proud of you already. But I will say that I’m sure he feels grateful. As do I. It can’t have been easy for you to finish writing what Mark had started, but you’ve done it wonderfully. Well done, and thank you.
My rating: do you really need to ask? ★★★★★
17th March 2024
The blurb
Michael Brady is back.
But this time ‘cold, hard evidence’ – everything he’s always relied on – is letting him down.
Brady is starting to doubt himself.
Personally and professionally…
He stared back. His voice cold. Flat. Dispassionate.
“Your choice,” he said. “They’re the only clothes you’re getting. And it’s a long drive. Twenty miles. Long enough if you’re naked. The towel doesn’t cover much.”
“And then you’re going to kill me.”
She’d accepted it from the moment she saw him.
“Yes. You know that.”
“Why?”
“You know that as well. You’re not stupid.”
“When?”
“Tonight. If the rain holds off.”
Her body is found on Wednesday morning.
Hanging from a tree. Halfway between May Beck and Falling Foss.
Brady’s got one clue.
And only one clue.
Five tarot cards.
But are they a message for him?
A warning for the dead woman?
Or a reading for a client?
Is the answer in her past? Or in someone else’s future?
The Hanged Woman sees Brady challenged like he’s never been challenged before.
He’s got Frankie. He’s got his small team.
And it’s Brady. He’s got his demons…
This book was started by Mark Richards, who sadly died in September 2023. His daughter picked up the manuscript and completed her father’s work in order to honour his legacy. The finished piece is a book produced out of love and heartache, a truly collaborative tale that finishes the Michael Brady series in a unique and captivating way.
About the authors
Mark Richards:
“Once upon a time I had a business in financial services: nice suits, smart shirts, stripy ties. But always with a small voice inside me. “Let me out,” it said, “I’m a writer.”
I kept the small voice securely under lock and key but then – in 2009 – my brother died of cancer. It was one of those pivotal moments in life. I either let the small voice out and pursued my dream, or I forgot about it for good. So I sold my business, sent my stripy ties to the charity shop and started writing.
Now my time divides between writing for clients – copywriting, ghostwriting – and writing for myself.
In the spring of 2016 I suffered the latest in a long line of mid-life crises and invited my youngest son to come for a walk with me. That led to Father, Son and the Pennine Way – the first of three books ostensibly about walking, but really about my ever-changing relationship with my son.
…And now – in September 2020 – I’ve turned my attention to novels. Salt in the Wounds in the first book in the Michael Brady series and, when that’s finished, I’ll look to develop two other crime series.”
Mark Richards died suddenly in September 2023. His daughter, E S Richards, completed the latest, and sadly the final novel in the Michael Brady series.
E S Richards:
“I was the girl who gazed out of the window…
When my teachers were talking about coastal erosion, I was gazing out of the window wondering “what if?”
What if the cliff crumbled just as I was walking along it? What if it was a dystopian future and what lay hidden beneath the cliff was an indescribable, mutated creature? What if…
All through school I made up stories – and I carried on writing when I went to university, getting a degree in Journalism and going on to do a Masters.
I now sit at my desk wrestling with paid search ads and marketing budgets – but as soon as I’m home I’m back on my computer, still making up stories.
I wrote the first book in The Generation Series while I was writing my dissertation, and the other two books shortly afterwards.
I let the characters guide me as I write, following the rule of if it sounds right, it probably is. I have a brief outline of each chapter before I begin, but sometimes the story takes an unexpected turn that even I didn’t see coming – that’s what makes me love writing so much.
Right now I’m at the very beginning of my author journey. I’m going to be writing for a long time to come and I hope you’ll stay with me.”
Oh, and I almost forgot. Here’s the link to Mark’s Q&A.
My Cosy Book Nook 