Sometimes a mystery doesn’t shout. It hums quietly under the surface, drawing you in one layer at a time. It’s an Ill Wind by Pam Keevil is exactly that kind of story: a thoughtful, character-driven crime novel that explores danger, love, and redemption in the heart of the English countryside. From the very first chapter, I could sense it was going to be more than a straightforward mystery. It’s the kind of story that draws you in quietly, until you realize you’ve become fully invested in the lives unfolding across its pages, flawed, ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances.
About the Book: It's an Il Wind
When photographer Rachel Thomas is attacked while out on a local shoot in the Cotswolds, newly appointed detective Mark Mulroney is assigned to the case. What begins as a single violent incident soon reveals a web of secrets, reaching far beyond the quiet English countryside, from a small-town investigation to a sprawling network of people smuggling along the southwest coast.
Meanwhile, Rachel finds herself rebuilding her life and navigating new connections that are far more dangerous than they first appear. As Mulroney and his partner race to uncover the truth, loyalties blur, and every decision carries a cost.
Told through three perspectives: the detective, the victim, and a man caught in the criminal world, the story moves between emotional intimacy and procedural intrigue, exploring love, guilt, and the fine line between trust and deception.
BookHookUp Review: It’s an Ill Wind
Pam Keevil’s writing captures something I love about character-driven British mysteries: the quiet tension beneath ordinary lives. There’s crime and danger, of course, but also the realism of mid-life choices, regrets, and second chances.
The novel’s alternating perspectives, Rachel’s first-person chapters, and the third-person views of Mulroney and Finn took me a few chapters to settle into, but once the rhythm clicked, it made perfect sense. The structure lets the reader see the story from multiple emotional angles: the fear and confusion of a victim, the methodical reasoning of a detective, and the inner turmoil of a man trapped by circumstance. It’s ambitious and it works.
Keevil has a gift for the details that make a story feel lived-in: takeaway coffees, awkward Covid-era interactions, the slow thaw of cautious friendship. Her inclusion of the pandemic never feels heavy-handed; it’s simply part of the world these characters inhabit, a subtle reminder of isolation, vulnerability, and connection.
Mulroney himself is a detective I’d happily follow again. He’s competent but not infallible, guided by instinct more than ego. Rachel, meanwhile, is both fragile and fierce, a survivor trying to piece together what happened to her. And Finn’s chapters bring real tension; his conflict between survival and conscience lends the novel its heartbeat.
The pacing is measured rather than frantic, allowing space for character and atmosphere. It kept me engaged and turning the pages. If I have one reservation, it’s that the ending felt a touch rushed. After such a rich buildup, I wanted a few more pages to explore the emotional aftermath. Still, the resolution ties the threads together neatly and leaves room for reflection.
In the end, It’s an Ill Wind is not just a mystery about crime, but a story about human choices, about trust, vulnerability, and what it costs to do the right thing when the odds are stacked against you.
Thoughtful, layered, and quietly gripping, Keevil’s novel reminds us that danger and compassion often coexist in the same breath. I give it 4 stars, but I'd give in a solid. 4.5 if I could.
Perfect for readers who enjoy British crime fiction with heart, especially those drawn to authors like Elly Griffiths or John Delaney.
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As BookHookUp, I am a longtime book reviewer. I received a free copy of this book for review consideration from Booktasters and have not received compensation for reviewing or recommending it. Some links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
About the author
Pam Keevil (born 1954) grew up in a small village called Colney Heath, near St Albans in Hertfordshire, where she attended Francis Bacon Grammar School before reading history at York University. She spent one year working at Terry's Chocolate factory, which means she now rarely eats chocolate before deciding to become a primary school teacher. She completed the prestigious PGCE at Goldsmiths College in 1977. She taught for over thirty years in a variety of schools in London, Essex, and Gloucestershire, and was a head teacher for sixteen of those years.
Like many people, she began writing through a love of reading; a love that began as a little girl when she would climb a tree in her garden, perch in the crook of the branches with a book and a handful of chocolate biscuits. She wrote her first stories at the age of eleven, but the idea of becoming an author was typically reserved for people who studied English Literature or had famous relatives who were already writers or published authors. Not for her. As a primary school teacher, she was immersed in children’s literature; however and realized she could create as compelling a storyline as many of the books her pupils were encouraged to read.
‘Write what you know’ is the advice given to would-be writers, so she assumed she would write for children. Wrong! She was sitting in a course at Swanwick Writers’ Summer School in 2012 when she realized she would never be a children’s writer; her heart wasn’t in it.
She began to write short stories but everyone had a romantic twist. The solution was obvious. Except when she embarked on an MA in Creative and Critical Writing, she realized what she really enjoyed was the psychological interplay between characters and the relationships between them.
So far, she has three books published, and all have strong dynamics between the characters, notably the last, Mayflies, which contains a love square and advice from the supernatural!
