The Winter Visitor

the explosive new thriller set in the badlands of Essex

By: James Henry

Narrated by: John Hopkins

Essex in February. Cold enough to catch your death.

Essex, February, 1991. The weather is biting cold. Everyone would rather be somewhere warmer, which is why it's a big surprise when a wanted drug smuggler, Bruce Hopkins, risks a return to his old haunts in Colchester after a decade long exile on the Costa del Sol. Lured back by a letter from the wife Hopkins left behind, no one is more surprised than him when he finds himself abducted and stripped bare only to be sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. The police wonder if it could be retaliation from a Spanish gang, sending a warning to their English counterparts?

DS Daniel Kenton is teamed up with the unorthodox DS Brazier to investigate a crime wave which takes in not only the murder of an expat dope smuggler, but a sophisticated arson attack on a Norman church and the unexpected suicide of an ageing florist. Could there possibly be a thread that connects them?

Written with the humour and period detail that have become his trademark, and set in the badlands of his beloved Essex, A Winter Visitor is James Henry at his inimitable best.

(P) 2024 Quercus Editions Limited©2024 James Gurbutt

Critic reviews

A highly readable novel with an entertaining storyline and intriguing characters.

Pacy and expertly engineered, this is a superior police procedural with a wonderful sense of place and time; pitch-perfect period detail range from the start of the "care in the community" policy of deinstitutionalisation, to mis-sold endowment mortgages and Man at C&A. Highly recommended.

Extremely well-written . . . let's hope for a swift return of this oddball duo.

No one writes Essex like James Henry

Solid Uk procedural set in the 1990s

Story is top notch not predictable but not convoluted. Did great setting the scene for a few decades ago. Really enjoyed the narration, will look for more by this author and separately the narrator. Enjoyable commute listen with a few twists and turns. DS Kenton and DS Brazier were both believable characters, thought the Essex setting was well written.