View source for Well of the Winds (DCI Daley) by Denzil Meyrick

{{infobox1
|title=Well of the Winds (DCI Daley)
|author=Denzil Meyrick
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Crime
|summary=The fifth book in the series looks back to the second world war and has a stunning ending.
|rating=4
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Yes
|pages=400
|publisher=Polygon
|date=April 2017
|isbn=978-1846973727
|website=http://www.birlinn.co.uk/Denzil-Meyrick/
|cover=1846973724
|aznuk=1846973724
|aznus=1846973724
}}

It's not a happy time for DCI Jim Daley.  The woman he loved is dead - there are those who blame him for what happened - and his relationship with Liz, his ex wife, and his young son is deteriorating by the day.  He's finding solace in the bottom of a glass, whilst the man who used to do that all too often, his friend DS Brian Scott is off alcohol completely and has found exercise.  There's a new officer in charge at Kinloch - DS Carrie Simmington - and whilst she might look young, it's unlikely that she got to that position without having a core of steel.

Off the coast of Kintyre, on the tiny island of Gairsay, the local postman (and special constable, and fireman, and postmaster...) discovered that the Bremner family are missing from their home.  They obviously left in a hurry, but it's hard to see why.  They came to Gairsay just before the beginning of the second world war, grateful, as Jews, to have escaped with their lives.  The mystery takes on a different complexion when a lot of Nazi memorabilia is discovered in the cellar.  Daley comes into possession of a journal written by is wartime predecessor on the island - and finds that he has to solve a wartime murder to make sense of what's happening in the present.

The story reads perfectly well as a standalone but there's no doubt that you will get more out of it if you've read at least some of the earlier books in the series.  In fact, if you're planning on reading the earlier books at any point it would be best to leave this until you can read it in order or some of the surprises in earlier books will already have been revealed.  You'll have more sympathy with Jim Daley too - in ''Well of the Winds'' he comes over as a grumpy old so and so.  There was more to like about him in earlier books!

So, is it a good plot?  It felt a little slow in the middle, with the constant switching between the present day and 1945: occasionally I wondered where the plot was going, but it is worth persevering.  There's a stunning twist towards the end and suddenly all was made clear.  I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

For more Scottish-based crime we can recommend [[The Killing Bay by Chris Ould]].

[[Denzil Meyrick's DCI Daley books in chronological order]]

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