A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidys is the 3rd Inspector Ramsay standalone mystery by Ann Cleeves. Originally released in 1992, this reformat and re-release 25th March 2025 by Macmillan is 256 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
The death of the vicar's much younger wife is distressing enough; she was a paragon of moral zeal and a fearless indefatigable champion of the disadvantaged. Inspector Ramsay's investigation, and his quietly compassionate but equally unstoppable hunt for the truth soon puts him at cross purposes with the local infrastructure and social services. The author deals plainly with often very stark realities: child neglect, abuse, drugs, and mental health issues, so sensitive readers should be aware.
The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 6 hours 5 minutes and is capably read by series narrator Simon Mattacks. He has a beautifully modulated classically trained light baritone voice and does a great job of delineating a range of characters of both sexes and a number of regional accents, shifting quickly and flawlessly. Sound and production quality are high throughout the read.
Although it's the third book in the series, it works very well as a standalone. This book is also quite intricately plotted, but there aren't any major spoilers if they're read out of order. The denouement and resolution were satisfying, if melancholy.
This series is definitely not as polished as her later work, but there are glimpses of the style and development which later gave rise to Vera and Shetland. It has "good bones" and works very well, despite the pervasive sadness which threads throughout the entire series.
Four stars. Well worth seeking out for fans of moody atmospheric British crime.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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