Kate Rhodes on Map Monday

Submitted: 15th September 2025

Kate Rhodes on Map Monday

This week we’re heading down past Cornwall….

The book:

Book map for Deadman’s Pool

Deadman's Pool Kate Rhodes

The location:

Where are the Scilly Isles?

Off the coast of Cornwall. In this novel, the island of St Helen’s is the place (not in real life) to be. It’s one of the fifty or so uninhabited islands in the archipelago of the Isles of Scilly

On the south side of the island is one of the earliest Christian sites in Scilly, an early medieval religious complex, which is thought to be the remains of St Elidius Hermitage, an 8th-century chapel lived in by Saint Lide.

The setting

There are also the remains of an isolation hospital used to quarantine sailors with plague – this pest hospital features in the novel.

What are the themes of the novel?

Mystery and murder

Key quote:

“Last night’s sleep was troubled by nightmares about giant children taking the islands by siege….”

Book map for Deadman’s Pool

BookTrail Review

There’s something very special about this crime series so I am so pleased this and future episodes as it were are now in the very capable hands of Orenda Books. We are back in the Scilly Isles and on St Helena and there is SO much atmosphere and scene setting, it’s amazing. That’s not to say that it overshadows the plot -far from it- it is all the better because of it. I loved the rawness of the weather and how the storms and the winter really elevates finding the body in the sand. There’s an ancient church, a priest, a dog named Shadow and one heck of a crime mystery.