After reading and enjoying the first three books in the Elderwick Mysteries series, I have become familiar with the main characters.
When Constance’s van breaks down, Dr Laurel Nightingale, Albert and Maggie are only too willing to help move Constance’s Food from the Plump Tart Bakery to Elderwick Hall for a function. As they near the hall, the weather takes a turn for the worse with a storm breaking while the food is being moved into the hall.
The failure of most of the catering staff and the supplies they were due to bring, to turn up, prompts Constance to offer her help with the catering. As the guests arrive, the weather worsens, electrical power is lost, and the telephones and internet stop working. The deteriorating weather and an unexplained death prompt the Elderwick trio to try and find answers; later, it is not only the weather that traps the guests, staff and the trio in the hall. Laurel is not only trying to unravel the cause of the mysterious events at the hall but is coping with a more personal problem.
I enjoyed the book immensely; it was a quick read for me. More, please, Ms Gray.
Blackheath, during the approach to Christmas, is blighted by the murder of Caspar Campbell, a friend of the Morrigan household.
The Morrigan family home, Greenway, is due to host its first family Christmas for many years. The celebrations include the return to the family home of May Corrigan’s identical twin sister, Cass, on the insistence of Minty. Minty is May and Cass’s somewhat unconventional ninety-six-year-old mother.
Fletcher, May’s friend, is the other member of the household, apart from May’s mini Dachshunds, Bess and George. Fletcher is writing, directing and producing the village pantomime, Peter Pan.
The star of the show, a fading, predatory actor, Clarke Woolf, is playing Widow Twankey and causing Fletcher problems trying to manage Woolf’s attempted philandering.
The run-up to Christmas brings the sharing of family secrets, while May is trying to navigate her way through an acrimonious divorce.
This is a great book. I read it very quickly, putting aside things I shouldn’t have put aside to find out how the story ends. It certainly turns out to be a most curious Christmas.
I had been meaning to read some of Gina Kirkham’s work for some time, so when the opportunity presented itself to me, I grabbed it eagerly. This was to be my first acquaintance with the ladies of the Winterbottom Women’s Institute. The opportunity to become extras in an upcoming film was an opportunity too good to miss for these women. The chance to meet an attractive male actor, Flynn Phoenix and his co-star, Dana Simon, cast in the leading roles, was another attraction.
The filming is to take place in Black Abbey Towers, a building with a dark history, currently owned by the church and occupied by the Archdeacon Clement Gregory of Fallow Falls and his wife, Fiona. The Archdeacon’s wife is none too keen on the intrusion of the film-makers and their entourage. However, her husband is keen to obtain the money the film-makers will bring into the church’s coffers.
Four of the ladies of Winterbottom W.I., Ethel, Hilda, Kittie and Millie are taken on as extras. The ladies, ‘The four Wrinkled Dears’, are joined by another lady, Olive, recruited from the cast of extras, and they are soon sleuthing. At first, trying to locate a missing Housekeeper and then a murderer. With Prunella Barnes, the Winterbottom WI’s president, in the late stages of pregnancy. It was down to Bree Richards, the W.I.’s vice president, to rein in the sleuthing ladies.
The story is overshadowed by Black Abbey Towers’ dark history, and the house itself is a labyrinth of secret passages, holding even darker secrets of its own. The film crew’s very mature female stunt coordinator, Dorothy May (Dottie) Barker, plays a significant part in the action, a lady with remarkable talents.
I enjoyed this book; it was a great read and I will seek out more of Gina’s work.
It is a little while since I have read one of Tom Sharpe’s books, several years in fact, Porterhouse Blue had been serialised in the television some years ago, after watching it, I had always intended to read the book.
Porterhouse is a fictional college within Cambridge University. The city of Cambridge is largely unchanged from the late 1960s when the book was written and set within. Many of the streets that Sharpe’s characters inhabited are much as they are described in the book; I suppose this gives Porterhouse Blue a degree of familiarity to those of us who visit the city on a regular basis.
Porterhouse is a poor relation compared to its wealthier fellow colleges; Skullion its head porter manages various dubious schemes to help the finances and maintain the college in the traditional way its fellows and he regard as essential. However, it is the arrival of a new master, Sir Godber Evans, an ex government cabinet minister and former Porterhouse student, which starts a battle of wills. His intention of reforming the college and bringing it into the twentieth century, provokes a battle between the two opposing camps. The fellows and Skullion are strongly united against Godber’s planned reforms which included: female students, more concentration on academic achievement and less attention to sporting prowess. However, it is the master’s proposed installation of a contraceptive machine in the student toilets that proves the catalyst for even greater conflict.
I really enjoyed Porterhouse Blue and was laughing out loud at times, a really good read.
I think I have read most if not all Mr Lovesey’s, Peter Diamond books. This one is a little different to any of the others in that it features a Private Eye, Johnny Getz, (no relation to Stan Getz the jazz saxophonist). Diamond meets Johnny Getz while he is trying to enjoy a quiet drink at the end of a working week in his local. Getz is working for a new client, the daughter of an antiques’ dealer trying to trace her missing father.
Diamond reluctantly gets involved in Getz’s inquiry when with his client they investigate the break in at the shop that had prompted the hunt for the antique shop’s owner. The story is a convoluted one, entwining the world of art, high class consumerism, journalism and of course murder.
Johnny Getz the Eye in question, models himself on the fictional thirties and forties private eyes created by among others, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. However, the mean streets Getz pounds, are not those of forties California but the somewhat grander ones of present day Bath.
Diamond doesn’t welcome the intrusion of this reincarnation of Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade, as Getz acknowledges in his own account of events. However, eventually an uneasy alliance is formed to solve the case.
I enjoyed the story, although I found the point of view of Mr Getz a little difficult to cope with to start with. It will be interesting to see if Mr Getz turns up in future books.
A quick, absorbing and enjoyable read; well done Mr Lovesey.
It isn’t unusual for human bones to be discovered during archaeological excavations, in this case, on the site of a proposed new farm shop, at Elderwick Hall, in whose grounds the discovery was made. The hall has had a long and troubled history, so finding an unknown burial wasn’t a huge surprise. However, once all of the remains had been uncovered, the questions followed, whose remains were they, how long had they been there and what was the cause of death?
Although being there when the discovery was made, Laurel tried to avoid being drawn into the inquiry. She had decided to steer clear of detective work but eventually, reluctantly, to help her friends, she succumbed to the inevitable and started with the help of Maggie and Albert, to investigate the murder.
Laurel’s fractious relationship with D.I. Coral; doesn’t help the situation, particularly, as Laurel was at the site when the remains were discovered. The story is multilayered with a glorious cast of characters, including Albert’s stroppy cockerel, Aroon, it is set in the delightfully painted East Yorkshire village of Elderwick. Who wouldn’t want to buy cakes from the Plump Tart, enjoy tea and cakes at the Pleasant Pheasant or sink a pint at the Snooty Fox?
I thoroughly enjoyed, A Storm in a Teacup, which is the third in the Elderwick Mysteries series. I read it quickly; wanting to find out how it ended, more please, Rachael.
This book had been lurking on my TBR pile for a while, I wish now I had got to read it sooner. I met Christine at an Indie Author’s book fair in Huntingdon’s Commemoration Hall. I liked the title and being a lover of crime fiction After a brief chat with the author, bought a signed copy of “Make You Sorry.”
Detective Inspector Nick Morgan has relocated from the Met in London to the South Coast and Gullhaven Cove. He has slept overnight, downstairs in the family’s new home, Cliffside House, belonging to his mother-in-law. The family is due to move in that day, and the furniture van is on its way when Nick discovers the body of a dead teenage boy in the master bedroom on that Friday Morning. Although not due to start his new job until the following Monday, Nick finds himself thrown into the fray three days early. From this point on, a succession of bodies turn up; in the main, singly but not always. The killings seem to be linked but finding the link is difficult. The plot is twisty with the growing number of murder investigations complicated by, difficulties finding temporary accommodation, marital problems and a very troublesome interfering mother-in-law.
I enjoyed the book immensely and will be exploring other books by the same author, I’m pleased I stopped and spoke to Ms Rae Jones and bought the book.
Detective Sergeant Alex Brady is the unpopular new boy at Moorford police station. His sudden arrival following a personal, tragedy and professional misjudgment, leading to demotion, doesn’t help him settle into this new workplace. Despite the difficult relationship with most of his colleagues, the experience from a career in the tough areas of Manchester becomes an asset. A series of gruesome murders gets underway within and near the town soon after Brady’s arrival, it is then the value of Brady’s experience and sharp intellect show their worth. The murder investigation is complicated by a persistent unknown stalker, terrorising a woman living alone. Solving the murders seems a near-impossible task. Although the murders appear to follow the pattern of earlier unresolved events, no clues, are left behind by the perpetrator to these or the earlier murders.
The characters are well drawn and believable; the plot is intricate but accessible, the balance in terms of description and information is for me exactly right. I enjoyed this book immensely reading it very quickly and I found it difficult to put down. I shall seek out more books from Mr Devine.
The Master’s lodge of Downing College Cambridge, was the impressive venue for the launch of Alison Bruce’s latest book, Because She Looked Away. The launch was organised by Richard and Jon of Bodies in The Bookshop, Cambridge’s specialist crime bookshop. I was fortunate to be invited. There was a long queue of those attending to buy their signed copy.
The Master’s Lodge Downing College from the garden.
This book introduces us to a new hero, Detective Sergeant Veronica (Ronnie) Blake. Ronnie’s childhood was traumatic and so are the events that prompt her move to Cambridge. She moves in to live with her half brother, Alex and their orphaned nephew, Noah.
Ronnie joins a small team of detectives, known as the DEAD Team, at Cambridge’s Parkside police station. The unit which is under threat of disbandment, is unable to solve an outstanding unsolved case, Operation Byron. Then a list of three names is passed to the group anonymously, one of the names is that of Ronnie’s sister Jodie. With a fresh pair of eyes Ronnie, with the help of a fellow newcomer to the team Malachi, is able to help the DEAD team start to make progress with this complex enquiry.
This is an intriguing who done it, a crime novel which kept me reading at every opportunity I had. It is easy to understand why Richard, of Bodies in The Bookshop stayed up until 3.30am to finish reading it.
The all-important book signing (photo credit Alison Bruce}
I have enjoyed every book of Alison Bruce’s I have read, Because She Looked Away, is the best yet. I thought it was impossible for her writing to get any better, how do you improve on perfection? Somehow she has managed it. I’m looking forward to the next Ronnie Blake book in the series.
A little while back I attended an event at Niche Comics Bookshop in Huntingdon, (yes I do visit it often, they are nice people and as I lived in Huntingdon until I got married I know the area). At the event in question, a book launch, Rosie Andrews’s, Puzzle Wood, I bought The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett, however, a mystery shelf with books gift wrapped and a brief description attached attracted my attention, (Blind Date with a Book.)
What was inside.
Tenpted I parted with my five pounds, it was an absolute bargain, because there was a five pound book token wrapped in the packaging, in effect, to celebrate Independent Book Shop Week, it was a book for free.
I waited until the next morning before unwrapping my purchase. The book inside was A Shot in the Dark by Lynne Truss. I have now finished reading the book and loved it.
A Shot in the Dark by Lynne Truss
The book is written about and set in 1950s Brighton, at around and following the time of Graham Green’s Brighton Rock, of which it alludes. Newly graduated, Constable Twitten finds himself at Brighton Police Station. Twitten has been moved from police force to police force on an almost daily basis since qualifying. It soon becomes apparent that Twitten’s keen, insightful approach to policing and crime solving is an irritant to his superior officers which has seen him quickly moved on elsewhere.
Having arrived at Brighton police station then left unsupervised, Twitten leafs through recent crime reports and quickly discovers a pattern in a spate of local burglaries. When he is imprudent enough to share his thoughts with his boss, Inspector Steine, it upsets the inspector creating the possibility that Twitten will be moved on yet again. Since Steine’s famous triumph in the case of the Middle Street Massacre, he holds the opinion that there is no crime in Brighton and isn’t keen to have this view challenged, particularly by Twitten.
A Shot in the Dark, although violent, set as it is in the era of Teddy Boys and serious criminality; its approach is completely off the wall. The activities of a criminal mastermind are well hidden as is the mastermind’s identity. However, when Twitten thinks he has put all the pieces of the jigsaw together his problems are not over. Lynne Truss has assembled a colourful cast of characters including a clever charwoman, a bricklaying strong woman, a Phrenologist and other interesting characters; the story is entertaining and engaging. I’m glad I tried this blind date..
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