Murder at Land’s End is the third book in Sally Rigby’s Cornwall Murder Mystery series. This series is a bit of a spin-off from her Cavendish & Walker series as one of the characters in that series has moved to Cornwall, England, from Lenchester.

A young woman’s body is found on the rocks at Land’s End. At first, Detectives Laura Pengelly and Matt Price think they have an accidental drowning on their hands. That changes when they find a scrap of paper in the girl’s mouth that says, Men must work and women must weep. Her parents seem to think she was an accountant with a nice boyfriend, but as they dig deeper into her background, they learn some secrets she kept from them. The boyfriend, Sam, has a history of trying to control her and instantly becomes a suspect.

When a second body turns up, linked to the first, Laura and Matt realize they have a serial killer on hand, rather than just a case of domestic violence. With little to go on, they delve deep into the darker side of the town and the prejudice against women who want to be a part of the fishing industry there.

Sally Rigby’s writing style can be off-putting to some. She’s quite matter-of-fact with how she writes a story. It didn’t generate emotions, but rather just told the story. On one hand, after reading a book recently that had too much going on outside of the central mystery, I can appreciate Rigby’s centering on the mystery at hand all the more. We do learn a bit more about some aspects of the detectives’ personal lives, but it doesn’t take over from the story at hand. Rigby evolves the characters without distracting too much from the story at hand, and has a good balance when it comes to that.

The mystery raises questions about whether a woman can break into what has traditionally been a man’s world. There have been a few notable fisher-women such as Linda Greenlaw, as seen in the movie The Perfect Storm, but for the most part the fishing industry has been dominated by men. There are even men who still see it as bad luck to have a woman on board a fishing vessel. Sophie, the first woman who was murdered, was trying to break into the fishing industry behind her parents’ back. They thought it wasn’t a proper career for her, but the sea was calling and she couldn’t resist. Was she murdered because she was trying to break into a man’s world? The second victim also has a connection to the fishing industry, making that all the more suspicious.

Laura and Matt track down a wodow whose husband was killed on a fishing boat that was captained by a woman. She has been seen around town protesting against women in the industry and makes a likely suspect. The story of how her husband died is a sad one, and a visit with that female captain is rather eye-opening as to the perils faced on the ocean.

This was a mystery that I started to figure out early on, even though I initially dismissed the person who ended up being the killer. The reasoning behind the killings was pretty obvious, and I wondered why the detectives had such a hard time picking up on it. The story is a good one, though. Matt has helped bring Laura to the point that she gives their team more responsibility without hovering over them. When he first arrived, she was a micro-manager. She’s learned to trust in their abilities and work-ethic.

The audiobook is read by Clare Corbett, who also read the previous book in the series. I find she handles the story very well. He voice fits Rigby’s style of writing and helps make the story interesting. She doesn’t embellish voices too much; just enough to make them distinctive.

I think there’s enough information here that you could pick up the series with this book and not get lost. However, this series drew me in right from the start and I think it’s worth it to start it at the beginning. You’ll appreciate how much Laura has grown as a boss much better that way.

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