Liverpool’s Buried Connections in All Saints

A churchyard becomes a crime scene

Brian L. Porter’s All Saints brings Detective Inspector Andy Ross to St. Matthew’s Church in Liverpool’s Norris Green. His colleagues, including Detective Sergeant Izzie Drake, are already at the scene. Police tape marks the churchyard as somewhere the public can no longer enter freely.

The churchyard gives the investigation a recognizable community setting made newly disturbing by the discovery of two bodies. The detectives need to understand the connections between the dead and the people around them. Establishing those relationships becomes urgent when the possibility of further violence hangs over the inquiry.

A priest returns to his childhood city

Father Gerald Byrne also returns to Liverpool after years away. He lived at Speke Hill orphanage with his sister following their mother's death, giving the city a particular place in his memories. His arrival brings a personal history into view alongside the developing police inquiry.

The orphanage is therefore part of a character’s fictional background, not evidence of a historical crime. How that past relates to the mystery remains a question to follow, rather than an explanation to supply before the investigation develops.

Two ways into the city

This Mersey Murder Mysteries installment offers both a police crime scene and a returning resident’s memories. Readers interested in a Liverpool mystery shaped by buried connections can follow Ross, Drake, and Byrne without learning in advance how their stories meet.