A locked room and an unresponsive guest in Dorothy Little’s, Tulip Cottage prompts Dorothy to ask her neighbours, Dr. Laurel Nightingale and Albert for help. Later the same day a famous crime author Hugh Quintrell, consults Laurel to help cure his writer’s block. However, the professional relationship he wants with Laurel is not as client and therapist but a collaborative one to solve the crime discovered at Tulip Cottage.
Elderwick, Laurel’s new home has seen a number of murders since her arrival from Somerset a few months earlier, prompting her thoughts that she may be the catalyst. Reluctantly at first together with her friends Albert and Maggie, she sets out to unravel this new mystery.
Elderwick is an ideal village with the Plump Tart Village Bakery, The Snooty Fox Pub and of course the centre of much of the cognitive action, The Pleasant Pheasant tea room. The pictures formed in the mind’s eye are something I particularly enjoyed.
With numerous twists and turns to keep me on my toes, I raced through the book very quickly. I found it an enjoyable read, more please Ms Gray.
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.
Laurel’s first day in her new home, wasn’t exactly ideal. The sudden death of a yet to be acquainted with neighbour can be unsettling, even for someone with Laurel’s experience. Her career had been in end of life care. As the story moves on Laurel begins to question her choice of Elderwick for her new home. However, despite the machinations of a property developer and a pocketed councillor, intent on contentiously bringing new homes and a leisure facility to the village, there are the redeeming features of an excellent village bakery, The Plump Tart, The Pleasant Pheasant Cafe and the Snooty Fox, the village pub.
It isn’t long before murders blight the ideal appearance of the village, whose history has also been darkened by that of the area’s leading family, the Hartfields, owners of Elderwick Hall, the site of the new development. Marcus Hartfield the present occupant of Elderwick Hall is the development’s prime mover.
The story is inhabited by a variety of interesting, colourful, characters both human and animal. A Little Bird Told Me, realistically details the conflicts and friendships within a small village community. However, at its core this is a crime story albeit a cosy one. The revelation at the book’s end is surprising which is as it should be.
For me it was a quick but absorbing read, well done, Ms Gray.
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..
The Janus Stone was the purchase I made at Elly Griffiths book launch at Manea Village Hall, hosted by Niche Comics Bookshop.
Ruth Galloway’s second outing sees her conducting an archaeological survey before new flats are built on the site of a soon to be demolished Victorian house in Norwich. The house had been at one time a family home and during the 1950s a Catholic children’s home. Two children went missing from the children’s home and were never found. However, it is when a headless child’s skeleton is discovered that a murder investigation ensues; DCI Harry Nelson leads the enquiry. Ruth works with Harry to uncover the history of the skeleton and solve the events leading to the death of the child. The enquiry delves into the mystery of the missing children and the history of the soon to be demolished house.
However Ruth has problems of her own these problems complicate her relationship with Harry and exposes her to feelings about herself she hadn’t previously known. The complicated relationship between Ruth, Harry, Ruth’s colleagues and friends provides an interesting twisty plot. The story is set in Norwich and in the North Norfolk coastal salt marshes. I was engaged from start to finish, I really enjoyed this book.
I am, as I am sure regular readers of my blog know, a Peter Lovesey fan. I am not sure if I have read all of Lovesey’s Peter Diamond books but if I haven’t, there can’t be many I’ve missed. The focus of this story is a half marathon race, ‘The Other Half’, which takes place in and around the city of Bath. Maeve Kelly’s accident with a Toby Jug prompts a series of events leading up to and intertwined with the race.
However, it is the disappearance of another female runner during the race that starts Peter Diamond’s hunt for initially her, in Bath’s underground quarries and then for a murderer. The plot is multilayered the setting in Bath as in most of Lovesey’s novels fascinating. I seem to learn something new about the city every time I read another of his books; if Mr Lovesey doesn’t help Bath with tourism then I would be very surprised.
The story involves modern slavery, people trafficking and a wealthy Russian couple, it is full of the unexpected, with twists and turns until the final conclusion reveals the remaining answers to the reader.
Sometimes I find I need to read a little of a book to find its rhythm, usually once found, the read becomes easy and the book becomes a real pleasure, this was the case for me with Death at the Auction.
The story is set in the Georgian town of Stamford, the action starts in the sales room of one of its auctioneers.
Grant’s, is a family-owned business; Felicia Grant is the unfortunate auctioneer confronted with the last-minute addition to the auction, the lot of a cupboard. However, it is the cupboard’s contents which start the search for a murderer.
Felicia finds herself drawn into the investigation. Initially she is at odds with the local police in the shape of Detective Sergeant Pettifer and Detective Inspector Heavenly but as the body count increases she eventually finds herself collaborating with them.
Stamford is somewhere local and to a degree familiar, a place I keep meaning to visit more often and for longer. It is an ideal setting for this book.
The story is well crafted and an excellent who dunnit, the outcome is unpredictable.
While building a snowman with her two children, Harriet Smith finds the body of a man in a snow filled ditch near her isolated cottage. To be precise it was Barnie the family dog who found it.
What follows is the hunt for the identity of the body, why and how it came to be where it was found. In a way the story resembles peeling an onion as each layer is removed another lurks beneath it. Peeling this onion to reveal a murder are Detective Inspector Samantha Freeman and Detective Sergeant Jenny Newcombe.
The plot twists and turns, complicated by not only family jealousies, deceit, abuse and violence but the problem of juvenile delinquents.
The characters are well drawn the scenes well described, I read this book quickly, a real page turner. I found it to be an unusual and enjoyable read.
May Morrigan lives in her large Blackheath Home with her very elderly mother (Minty) and friend Fletcher, also known as Barbara Bouvier, the other two members of the household are May’s two miniature dachshunds, Bess and George. That is the straightforward part of the book.
The story starts at May’s bookshop when a mysterious text message appears on the phones of everyone in the bookshop. The action is non-stop from that point forward, weaving in and out of unconvential lifestyles and relationships.
Murders follow the receipt of cryptic text messages, which prompts May and her friends to try to track down the murderer.
The scenes are wonderfully set and the descriptions paint vivid pictures of the action. The characters particularly the lusty Minty are interesting and far from run of the mill.
This is the most unusual, funniest book I have read in a long time and one of the most enjoyable ever.
I am not normally tempted by historical novels; those more historical than the 1930s, that is but it was the promise of a murder mystery that swung the balance. The story is set in the early eighteenth century West Country and mainly in Bristol.
Miss Coronation Amesbury leaves her village in Wiltshire to seek her fortune in Bristol. The coach journey alone in atrocious weather is an adventure in its self. Her arrival in this bustling port city following a difficult overnight stay in Bath is not an easy one for her and a great shock after village life.
The recent horrendous murder of several young boys haunts Bristol. We follow Coronation as she looks for work in what she hopes will be her new home and her search for the perpetrator of these horrendous crimes.
The time, place and the events are beautifully painted we can see it all in our minds eye, a warts and all view of a bustling Bristol with its busy port during the era of slave trading. The story is well told and I found myself neglecting important tasks to finish the book, I struggled to put it down until I read those two final words, “The End”.
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