‘The Marriage Hearse’ by Kate Ellis

Published by Piatkus,
23 March 2006.
ISBN: 978-0-7499-0783-9 (HB)

Number ten in the Wesley Peterson saga is set‑up exactly as in previous books, a modern mystery set alongside a parallel event hundreds of years ago.

In this case, a local amateur drama group is performing a play by a long dead Tudor playwright whose personal life (and death) mirrors the events taking place in the same village today.

A bride is found strangled in her bedroom as the wedding guests wait at the church for her arrival. The obvious candidate for her murderer is an ex‑boyfriend who has been stalking her, but can it be that simple?

The true motive, which finally emerges after a series of false trials, has been taken, I suspect, from a real-life case some time ago. However, it is a perfectly plausible explanation and one that is not telegraphed along the way.

For regular readers of the series, the big question is, ‘will Wesley at last succumb to the charms of Rachel, his love‑struck sergeant, as a relief from his moaning overworked wife’?  And will his old chum, archaeologist Neil, step in to provide that same wife with the tender loving care that she isn’t getting from her husband who always seems to be out on the job.

Far be it from me to spill the beans except to say events take an unexpected turn and not, perhaps, for the better.

A new Kate Ellis in the Spring makes the long winters bearable.
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Reviewer: Ron Ellis

Kate Ellis was born in Liverpool and studied drama in Manchester. She worked in teaching, marketing, and accountancy before first enjoying writing success as a winner of the North-West Playwrights competition. Crime and mystery stories have always fascinated her, as have medieval history and archaeology, which she likes to incorporate in her books. Kate's novels feature archaeology graduate Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson who fights crime in South Devon.  Each story combines an intriguing contemporary murder mystery with a parallel historical case. She has also written five books in the spooky Joe Plantagenet series set up in North Yorkshire as well as many short stories for crime fiction anthologies and magazines. Kate was elected a member of The Detection Club in 2014. She is a member of the Crime Writers Association, Murder Squad, and Mystery People. She is married with two grown-up sons and she lives in North Cheshire, England, with her husband. 

www.kateellis.co.uk

Ron Ellis. Writer, Broadcaster and Photographer, Ron is the author of the popular series of crime novels set on Merseyside featuring Liverpool radio D.J./Private Eye, Johnny Ace. He also writes the D.C.I. Glass mystery series. As well as his fiction titles, Ron has written 'Southport Faces' a social history of the town seen through the eyes of 48 of its best-known residents. His 'Journal of a Coffin Dodger', the hilarious adventures of an 84 year old playboy, has been serialised on BBC Radio and poems from his collection of poetry, 'Last of the Lake Poets', have won several nationwide competitions. During the 1980's, he conducted over 192 interviews with friends and relatives of John Lennon for Albert Goldman's biography, 'The Lives of John Lennon'. Ron writes the football reports for the Southport Champion and is also their theatre and arts reviewer as well as being a regular contributor to magazines such as Lancashire Life. He runs his own publishing company, Nirvana Books.