3/5 - Good.

This 2nd book in the DI Ben Westphall series is another spooky, atmospheric and tense read.

The story is a slow burning, mysterious and somewhat moody and melancholic much like it’s protagonist.

With a supernatural back story bubbling away as well as the crime to be solved, this series is quite intriguing and until the end of the book I was set for a 4 star score but I found the ending a bit sudden and a bit of a let down after what was a slow moving and well built mystery. Nevertheless I am invested enough in Westphall now and will continue on with the next book.

This is the second book in the series, and not having read the first book yet, I don't think I've missed a lot of references. The book deals with the death and body of a boy found in the well. The book is promoted as a thriller mystery, but perhaps is more of the fantasy genre. It was a good solid read, and I will read more by this author in future. Recommended.

Disappointing plot and very slow-paced. Didn't deliver as much as it promised. Wouldn't read any more from this author

I have a good few of Mr. Lindsay's books and always enjoyed them, this one is no exception.

A murder of a young boy that nobody claims has parallels to a case from 200 years ago!!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it highly.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in return for an honest review, thank you.

I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it. It has a great story line, and really main characters this is the 2nd in the series with these characters and it has made me want to go back and read number 1

When, I think of surrealist literature, my mind tends to move towards the classics; weird and wonderful pieces of mind-tangling prose that stem from underground political movements and the fringes of art scenes the world over.
I don’t think of crime novels.
And yet, this is the direction in which Douglas Lindsay’s The Boy in the Well is trying to push: towards odd conflations of mismatched scenes and characters who rant about aliens, government conspiracies and the coming of the end of the world.
It was bizarre, to say the least, but not at all in a good way.
Instead, it felt like something that came from a thinking-on-the-spot acting workshop: suggest a character, location, conversation subject, go.
But, crime novels do not work like that. 99.9% of them, anyway.
And only then if the novel is in the hands of Salvador Dali.
It almost felt like, in the attempt of making his novel stand out in the over-saturated crime market, Douglas Lindsay put the aesthetics of the novel over its heart and soul. And, we all know, especially when it comes to this genre, style over substance never ever works as well as the author thinks it is going to.

I still remember my first encounter with Douglas Lindsay's books, specifically the superb Pereira & Bain series, and it's an experience that I will never forget. I rarely get this excited about a book or an author but reading Boy in the Well was just as fiercely compelling and utterly captivating as his previous novels. This is the second in the DI Westphall series and whilst some crime fiction glamourises police work Lindsay crafts a realistic plot with a raw, real, gritty and authentic portrayal of the investigation of crime. Set in the sparse, stunning Scottish Highlands, it gripped me almost immediately and continued to hold me hostage until the wee small hours.

The mystery they are trying to solve has ties to the past and surrounds an unidentified boy found at the bottom of a well. From then on the police are completely baffled as it seems impossible that he could've been found there. It's narrated solely by Ben Westphall who is an intelligent, intriguing character with more than a few flaws and the unique ability to see his own mistakes and learn from them; that is indeed rare in the crime world. He recognises police work as often being slow and steady but gets frustrated at a lack of observable results. It quickly turns into a complex mystery with chilling connotations and a dark, creepy atmosphere.

This is a clever, twisty procedural with a touch of the supernatural. And that conclusion! Many thanks to Mulholland Books for an ARC.

Boy in the Well is the second book in the DI Westphall series by Douglas Lindsay and it is a very good police thriller with a twist.

Westphall and colleagues are seemingly faced with an impossible task of firstly identifying a murder victim and then locating his killer.

The writing draws you in and definitely adds to the feeling of everyone being lost and confused without lacking the ability to keep you hooked and entertained until the final excellent twist.

This is becoming a good series and one that I look forward to reading more of in the future

Highly recommended.

The body of a nine-year-old boy was found at the bottom of a well which had been sealed for two hundred years - but the boy had only been dead for less than two days and there was no sign of how the body had got into the well. The owners of the property are adamant that the well was sealed when they went to open it, but DI Ben Westphall would be entitled to have his doubts. Belle McIntosh holds some strange views, particularly about the way that the government is controlling everyone through drugs which are added to the water supply which led to her wanting to reinstate the well. Her wife, Catriona Napier, is more moderate, but doesn't seem to have a lot of knowledge about what's going on on the farm.

The main problem for Westphall and his team is discovering the identity of the boy. Surely, any parent whose nine-year old had been missing for a couple of days would have notified the police? It would certainly have made the local news, if not the national, and the police would he heavily involved. But there's no child missing who answers the description of the rather weak looking boy, either locally or throughout the United Kingdom. Then there's the next conundrum. How did the body get into the well? There's nothing in the forensic examinations to suggest that the well had been tampered with before it was opened and nothing on the body to suggest how the entry was effected.

I first met Ben Westphall in Song of the Dead and I'd forgotten how infuriated I got when the supernatural element surfaced. It's prevalent in Boy in the Well too, although it was rather more delicately handled. Westphall has conversations with a dead pathologist on a regular basis and there are other occasions when a death foretold is used as a plot device. It isn't normally to my taste but the plot in Boy in Well is particularly good and this kept the pages turning into the early hours of the morning.

Would I read the next book in the series? I'm not certain. If you don't mind the supernatural element it might be right up your street, in which case I'd suggest that you start with the [[Song of the Dead (DI Westphall) by Douglas Lindsay|first book in the series.

I'd like to thank the publishers for making the book available to the Bookbag.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advance copy of Boy in the Well, the second novel to feature DI Ben Westphall, set on Scotland’s Black Isle peninsula.

Westphall and the team are called out when the body of a nine year old boy is found in a disused well which has remained sealed for hundreds of years and, yet, the body is fresh. Who is he and how did he get there are the team’s initial questions but as enquiries continue they find links to older crimes.

I enjoyed Boy in the Well which is an unusual police procedural with some good twists, a genuine mystery and a possible hint of the supernatural. I say possible as Westphall talks to the dead and I guess it’s up to the reader to decide if these encounters are real, if he’s mentally unbalanced or more mundanely, if it’s his way of sorting out the facts and clarifying his thoughts. Who knows? I went with the latter option which allowed me to read the novel more as a mystery as otherwise I would have found it impossible to believe.

The mystery surrounding #Boy9 as he comes to be known is a genuine puzzle and had me hooked from start to finish as I was desperate to know who he was and how he got there. These physical questions are answered at the end of the novel but much of the mechanics of it and the finer detail remain fuzzy. I like my solutions to be fully boxed and tied up in a nice bow so that was a bit frustrating but, on the other hand, it offers a touch of realism to all the talking to the dead. I also loved the twists which are clever and keep the reader distracted. No, I’m not going to say what they are but they’re good. I also loved the sharp commentary on the internet’s inane take on events which seems realistic unfortunately.

The novel is narrated in the first person by Ben Westphall so the reader gets a keen insight into his thinking. It is a difficult case, not least because #Boy9 is unidentified, and he makes mistakes but no one can doubt his determination and tenacity. Personally I don’t think that the talking to the dead thing adds anything to the narrative, in fact it detracts from a good crime novel, but other readers may find it fascinating.

Boy in the Well is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

#BoyInTheWell #NetGalley After reading the first in this series and not being overly impressed, I decided to give the second book a chance. On the whole the things that didn't work for me in the first book had the same effect on me in this one. The style of writing was distracting - with no "I" at the start of certain sentences and too much narrative without enough action. When the action happened , it was well written but it needed much more of this style in my opinion. The supernatural element didn't really work for me either. I don't think I will persevere any more with this series which is a shame as I love a good police procedural.

It's been years since I read Song of the Dead, the first in this series and I've been itching for the author to provide me with a follow up and I have to say that the long wait was worth it.
As I mentioned in my review for that book, I'm a bit of a fan of this author and have been since the Barney Thomson books which I started reading in 2011! I've read most of his other books too but it's always nice to reconnect with a character that I took to from the off, in this case, DI Ben Westphall.
In his previous outing he went to Estonia but here, he manages to stay closer to home. Good thing too as he's not a fan of travel! Here, he is called to the site of a well on a farm. A well that has recently been opened after having been sealed shut for 200 years. A well that contains the body of a young boy, only a matter of days deceased. With no visible means for the body having got in, suspicion falls to those who opened it. But is it as simple as that? Especially when the identity of the boy proves tricky, well, impossible. Delving deeper, Westphall's interest falls on a story from the past about a similar boy. A story that has a chilling parallel. And then the body goes missing... Another in replacement...
Westphall is not like most cops in books. He's single, no addictions, no troubled past to really speak of. But he does just have this one thing, but I'll leave you to find that out. He narrates the story himself so you really get into his head and almost feel first hand his frustration at getting nowhere with the case and, at the same time, trying to keep things to himself rather than get too far ahead and make a mockery of what could subsequently turn out to be a dead end. He's not a rush to judgement kinda guy and he's human so he makes mistakes along the way. He's definitely a very interesting character and it was lovely getting to know him again (been a few years, I'd not had chance to re-read book one which I would have like to have done). The ride he takes us on eventually is a bit of a wild one, and rather intricately and expertly plotted. And when he does figure it all out, well, what an ending! One which left me wholly satisfied.
All in all a worthy follow up book to a series that I hope will continue. Maybe just not leave it three years next time eh?! My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

This was different, you do have to suspend belief in some places, but I don't think that is a bad thing,I liked being surprised,and not having a clue what was going on.I enjoyed reading this book, and liked the main character,and the setting was interesting.I am not giving anything away, but I will say if you are looking for something different that will keep you guessing, pull up a chair and make your favourite beverage ,you could be awhile.thanks to the publishers and netgalley for an ARC.

Fascinating mix of historical context and the modern terror of crimes against children. All wrapped up in an unique take on crime fiction, the second in this brilliant series by Douglas Lindsay.
DI Ben Westphall is the lead detective in this police procedural set in Dingwall near Inverness and just to be sure the pin finds its mark, in Scotland.
Westphall acts as the guide through the novel but he is such an interesting and engaging character our time spent with him is a joy. The story from his perspective interesting and involved. He struggles with his romantic relationships, but here it is revealed he has a twinkle in his eyes and a killer smile. This pleases him but he does not seem to be able to organise these disarming qualities and he kind of falls into bed rather than with and romantic notions and planning.
My favourite example in this outing is the lady he meets in a traffic jam. Their conversation is quite intense and reflects mutual attraction. However, is it just his remembering of the encounter his own way? Some may question even if it is a true memory at all.
So Ben narrates this story of a dead boy found down a disused well that no-one can identify, no-one is missing and perhaps has links with the old Clearances. A true mystery that shows the frustrations trying to move an investigation forward.
I like that he speaks honestly about needing to be seen to be making progress when nothing fits and no build up of evidence is leading to an arrest. He resists making an arrest to save face and keep seniors off his back.
I like too that he makes mistakes and chastises himself where others would bury those errors and preen themselves and seek the praise of others.
My favourite character in this novel aside from Ben is Dr Sanderson, the former police pathologist in Inverness. Some of the best scenes are between Ben and him which also goes a long way to revealing why Westphall is a great character and a breathe of fresh air in this genre.
A great series you will be pleased you’ve found.

Written in very short sentences. The book stutters rather than flows. The supernatural elements are bizarre and unnecessary. Would I read the next in the series? Probably not.

I really enjoyed this book and I would highly recommend it. It has a great story line, excellent main characters and it is a real page turner. I read this book in one sitting and the hours just flew by!