Dead Man's Lane: Book 23 in the DI Wesley Peterson crime series

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Still, we now know the identity of the unfortunate driver who gave his life at Dead Man’s Corner—Aaron D. Curry—and probably that of his tank commander—Anthony I. Tomasheski—as well. For over 70 years, the two men were mere statistics among the casualties from Normandy, but now their story and their sacrifice are at least a bit clearer, as is the story of Dead Man’s Corner. Does this analysis mean that the unfortunate commander left sitting in the turret for several days was Sergeant Tomasheski? No, not necessarily. The evidence this ever happened is quite weak. It does not match the story in the combat interviews nor the evidence presented in Rendezvous with Destiny. In the end, it hinges on Don Burgett’s story and the earlier book of S.L.A. Marshall. Burgett was, however, very clear that he indeed saw the body of a tank commander. But which tank was it?

The battalion’s Company D, with its Stuart tanks, was not part of the initial assault; it was scheduled to land on Uncle Red in Wave 21 at H+260. After landing, it would proceed as soon as possible to its assembly area and be ready to support the 101st Airborne Division. The combat interviews also make mention of “a dead man inside it.” The evidence clearly points to the driver of Tank 12 being killed inside the tank. Research from author Mark Bando also supports this scenario. According to Private Emmert O. Parmley (F/502nd PIR), the driver was still in the tank when he examined it. The body could not be seen unless someone looked through an open hatch at an angle.Today Deadman's Hole Lane is an industrial cul-de-sac in Templeborough, on the edge of Rotherham. There are no visible clues as to how this short, unremarkable lane came by its macabre name. A high level view with the classic traction of 37057 and37025 arriving from Barrow Hill to take up test train duties. 73138 and 08892 complete the scene. Golden Hill formed part of a much larger estates land under the Manor of Horfield. The ancient manorial system of land tenure had existed for centuries. In 1140 Lord Berkeley, whose estates included the Manor of Horfield, founded St. Augustine’s Abbey and gave the Manor to the Abbey in whose possession it remained for the next 400 years. Horfield Manor court presided over the system of fields which had been formed during the enclosures in the late 15th century. When monastic holdings were confiscated by Henry VIII during the Reformation in the 1530s, he gave the Horfield Manor estate to the newly formed Bishopric of Bristol not the Church of England – but the Bishop himself who then leased it to what was known as a Lord Farmer. Bishop Monk (1784-1856) Joan Aiken was a much loved English writer who received the MBE for services to Children's Literature. She was known as a writer of wild fantasy, Gothic novels and short stories. Three documents are crucial in identifying the tank crew: the casualty list of Company D, entries in the company diary, and the official history of the battalion (published shortly after the war). The casualty list is the most important, as it contains data on when, where, and how men were killed, wounded, or went missing.

Bristol Archives:: 43310/T/1 Terrier BCC Smallholding & Allotments Committee Permanent Allotments A-L Decades have gone by and Strangefields is now being transformed into a holiday home with the developer hoping that it's dark history will be forgotten about.Police suspect it belongs to one of Temples' victims and, when a local florist is found murdered in an echo of Temples' crimes, DI Wesley Peterson fears a copy-cat killer could be at large. Especially when another brutal murder is discovered in a nearby village. A fine storyteller, weaving the past and present in a way that makes you want to read on' Peterborough Evening Telegraph

I would like to thank Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group Ltd for a review copy of Dead Man’s Lane, the twenty third novel to feature DI Wesley Peterson of the Devon police. I love Kate Ellis's Wesley Peterson crime series and I've read all of them! It is the combination of a fiendishly difficult puzzle to solve running alongside a historical mystery that pulls me in every time. We must always remember that this area was once on the main route for smugglers bringing, lace, brandy and tobacco into England from the 14 th through to the 19 th Century. Many local place names have associations with this illustrious part of our history. The dumb woman may have been a poor hapless woman who witnessed the contraband being hauled up the lane and had her tongue cut out so she couldn’t report the crimes she saw. The name “Dead Man’s Corner” is old. It was already mentioned in the combat interviews of S.L.A. Marshall, conducted in the summer of 1944. The general public likely first learned the name through one or two books: either S.L.A. Marshall’s own Night Drop (1962) or the highly acclaimed account of A/506th PIR trooper Donald R. Burgett’s Currahee, A Screaming Eagle in Normandy (1967). An Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1850-51 shows Deadman's Hole Lane (from bottom left corner) (Image: Ordnance Survey/National Library of Scotland)My thanks to Little, Brown Book Group U.K. /Piatkus for an eARC via NetGalley of Kate Ellis’ ‘Dead Man’s Lane’ in exchange for an honest review. When Samuel Loxton completed his drawing of Horfield Prison (Figure 5), he must have been positioned in the very spot referred to as “Allotment Gardens” in the OS map (Figure 6). Here you can see the Prison, which was built in 1883, and in the foreground there are workers on the Allotment Gardens. They appear to be working on the land planting or sowing vegetables. Figure 6: OS Map 2nd Edition, 1894-1903 It is hard to review this book without giving away any spoilers! Although I read it in sizeable chunks, I did find it hard to work out who-was-who at the start. There are a lot of characters, but there is a good reason for this, and murder mysteries do need a good choice of potential suspects and victims! Once I got into the book, I was completely gripped and read the last half in one go! This is a fairly recent book in the Wesley Peterson series, published in 2019. It's a very popular and long running series. She also has another series, the Joe Plantagenet series, which she has, apparently, abandoned or perhaps it hadn't sold well plus a limited series starring a scarred World War 1 veteran, Albert Lincoln, which she says was meant to be a limited series. A killer on the loose isn't the only problem Wesley is facing: his childhood sweetheart, Grace Compton, has turned up in Tradmouth and she wants his help. Grace, an architect for the Strangefields development, has seen someone from her past who she wants Wesley to investigate; a man she thought was dead.

Strangefields has it's own grisly history as Wesley soon discovers when he shares information with Neil his archaeologist friend from his college days. Whatever the truth about how the lane was named, the walk along South Undercliff to reach it is certainly worthwhile. The bluebells along the adjoining Float Lane leading up to Udimore are stunningly lovely and at their best just now. To see them is a reward for your efforts!

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I had my suspicions as to who the murderer was and it was confirmed, but it was interesting to see how the author gets us to that conclusion. Old and new traction. 37099 “Merl Evans” rolls towards the departure road with another test duty as 67023 "Charlotte" with unseen 67023 “Stella” at the rear is next to leave the yard. Officially, the TO/E prescribes that Tank 17 should be commanded by a sergeant. However, in most battalions, the company second-in-command would assume command of that tank in combat. This is even more apparent for the 70th Tank battalion, where the maintenance officer was the standard commander of Tank 17. Even after Lieutenant Anderson’s death, this practice continued in Company D.