‘Mystery at Saltwater Cottages’ by Clare Chase

Published by Bookouture,
1 November 2023.
ISBN: 978-1-83790-407-5 (PB)

After Eve Mallow’s husband left her and her marriage fell apart, Eve and Gus, her beloved dachshund, moved to the coastal village of Saxford St. Peter and started a new life. A few years after this Eve is happier than she has ever been. To augment her income as a journalist specialising in obituaries, she works for her best friend, Viv, at her cafe and cake shop. Viv is an inspired baker but a chaotic organiser and Eve is a meticulous person who enjoys creating order out of Viv’s chaos. Eve has made many other good friends in the village and, best of all, has started a new, very happy relationship with Robin, who is currently away from Saxford advising the London police on a major, gang-related investigation. As part of her obituary writing, Eve has often found herself interviewing people who knew the dead person, and in the case of violent death, has found herself talking to witnesses who might turn out to be the killer. In this way Eve has helped to solve many murders and, in doing so, has roused the enmity of Detective Inspector Palmer, a lazy and blinkered detective.

One of Eve’s closest friends is Simon, Viv’s brother, a generous and considerate man. Simon is married to a frivolous young woman, Polly, whom Viv considers to be selfish and shallow. Simon has always been a successful businessman and has just bought and renovated Saltwater Cottages to open as a centre offering residential art classes. As well as superb facilities, Simon has managed to employ an artistic mega-star, Nena Field, to teach the first art classes. Unfortunately some of Simon’s other business ventures have failed and it becomes crucial that the Saltwater Cottages Arts Centre is successful or he could lose his home and the stables that he loves. Currently Polly is away in America and Simon can’t bear to tell her about his problems until he can do so face to face.

Although Eve is primarily an obituary writer, she is happy to write an article promoting Simon’s venture and joins the first classes. Unfortunately, although Nena is an outstanding artist and a surprisingly good teacher, she is also a thoroughly unpleasant person who enjoys making mischief and hurting people. She originally came from Saxford and is the same age as several of Simon’s staff. These local people have known each other and Nena throughout childhood and Nena’ relationship with many of them can only be described as toxic. Two of the senior staff have been brought in from further afield and Eve is surprised to discover that Nena also seems to know secrets about them, even though it had been assumed they have only just met. It becomes apparent that Nena was a spoiled only child who turned into a malicious, thrill-seeking woman who never took responsibility for her actions.

When Nena is discovered dead in Blind Eye Wood, Eve knows that this could close down Saltwater Cottages and destroy Simon’s hope to save his business interests and his home. Eve is determined to discover the murderer and bring them to justice before it is too late to repair the damage to the Art Centre’s reputation and save Simon’s investment. As Eve, with Viv as her eager helper, investigate they discover an abundance of motives and some convenient alibis that need close consideration, not to mention the mystery of the disappearance of the valuable art work that Nena had been working on. The violence grows more extreme and the closer Eve and Viv come to discovering the truth the greater the danger to their own lives.

Mystery at Saltwater Cottages is the eleventh book in the series featuring Eve Mallow. It is a consistently enjoyable series and this book is a worthy addition with an interesting plot and an engaging cast of permanent characters who form a likeable, supportive community. Mystery at Saltwater Cottages is an entertaining read which I thoroughly recommend.
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Reviewer: Carol Westron

Clare Chase writes classic mysteries. Her aim is to take readers away from it all via some armchair sleuthing in atmospheric locations. Like her heroines, Clare is fascinated by people and what makes them tick. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked in settings as diverse as Littlehey Prison and the University of Cambridge, in her home city. She’s lived everywhere from the house of a lord to a slug-infested flat and finds the mid-terrace she currently occupies a good happy medium.

As well as writing, Clare loves family time, art and architecture, cooking, and of course, reading other people’s books.

www.clarechase.com

Carol Westron is a successful author and a Creative Writing teacher.  Her crime novels are set both in contemporary and Victorian times.  Her first book The Terminal Velocity of Cats was published in 2013. Since then, she has since written 6 further mysteries. Carol recently gave an interview to Mystery People. To read the interview click on the link below. 

https://promotingcrime.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/carol-westron.html www.carolwestron.com
http://carolwestron.blogspot.co.uk/

To read a review of Carol latest book click on the title
The Curse of the Concrete Griffin

‘Curiosity Killed the Cat’ by Joan Cockin

Published by Galileo Publishers, 2023.
ISBN: 978-1-915530-14-1 (PB)

This is a detective story first published during the Golden Age of detective fiction in 1949. 

The setting for the novel is a village in the Cotswolds that has been taken over by the Ministry of Scientific Research during the Second World War.  The village is called Little Biggling and has a passing resemblance to St. Mary Mead!  The principle detective in the story is Inspector Cam an affable and effective detective who is torn between loyalty to the villagers in his community and the Director General of the Ministry of Scientific Research and his team of scientists who continue to inhabit the village well after the end of the War. 

The main protagonists in the story are three scientists working in the laboratories housed in the Manor House and various support staff.  There are issues of potential spying, treachery and blackmail and the catalyst for the action is the murder of one of the messengers working in the Ministry building. 

The local residents are somewhat inconvenienced by the billeting of members of the research team in their homes and the householders are an integral part of the solving of the murder which Cam is determined to solve. 

This is a classic murder mystery - well written and carefully contrived to entertain and intrigue the reader.  I look forward to reading the further two novels written by Joan Cockin which I understand also involve Inspector Cam.  A good read!
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Reviewer: Toni Russell

Joan Cockin is a pseudonym used by Edith Joan Burbridge, who was born in Gloucester in 1919. She was an author and diplomat. In World War II she did propaganda work in Washington for the British government. She is the creator of 'Inspector Cam'. She wrote three books. Curiosity Killed the Cat, Villainy at Vespers and Deadly Ernest.

Toni Russell is a retired teacher who has lived in London all her life and loves the city.  She says, ‘I enjoy museums, galleries and the theatre but probably my favourite pastime is reading.  I found myself reading detective fiction almost for the first time during lockdown and have particularly enjoyed old fashioned detective fiction rather than the nordic noir variety.  I am a member of a book club at the local library and have previously attended literature classes at our local Adult Education Centre.  She is married with three children and five grandchildren.

‘Deceit’ by Casey King

Published by Joffe Books,
23 September 2023.
ISBN: 978-1-83526096-8 (PB)

This novel is the debut of an Irish police officer-turned-crime writer who appears under a pen name. Billed as the first in a series of Dublin thrillers, the author uses her experience as a member of An Garda Síochána to immediate and explicit effect.

Danielle Lewis is third in line to her uncle’s gangster empire. Ten years previously she lost her unborn baby after a shooting. In the same violent incident a member of the Garda was killed, and his widow (Saoirse Kelly, also a member of the police) miscarried. Betrayed for good measure by her husband, Danielle fled to London. At the start of the book she returns to Dublin determined to find out who was responsible for her attempted murder. Despite not having announced her return, Danielle is abducted at the airport – and so begins a complicated series of events.

Given that Jason, Danielle’s former husband and the father of her lost child, is a member of the Flynn gang (the Lewis’s main rivals in Dublin), these complications multiply. It doesn’t help that there are tensions and family secrets within both groups. Neither seems to trust their own side for much of the time, let alone their rivals. Both gangs appear involved in a wide range of crimes, with drugs, people-trafficking, money laundering, stolen machinery and insurance fraud amongst those committed. The appearance of Saoirse Kelly towards the end (I would have liked a little more on her back story) leads to what seems a relatively brusque conclusion, albeit with a twist concerning the role of one of the characters. It’s worth noting that women are pivotal in the plot and are as capable of trading threats and violence as the men. Nobody hesitates to hand out beatings or worse.

It was almost impossible to find people with whom I had any sympathy at all, with the possible exceptions of a couple of prostitutes, and I found that I really couldn’t care less what happened to any of them. But I don’t suppose sympathy is the point given the underworld milieu, and this didn’t affect me wanting to read to the end. The plot holds the attention well, with changing relationships and suspicions of treachery. The pacy dialogue and fast action keeps the book rolling along. If you like your thrillers brutal, with a reasonable quota of sex and full of expletives (more or less always the ‘f’ word), this will be for you. If you do not, then it’s probably best avoided.

As mentioned earlier, the novel is headlined as The Dublin Thrillers Book 1. Given that few of the characters who start Deceit seem alive at the end (killings, attempted or successful, and deaths are a constant presence), I imagine the next in the series will have a lot of new people involved. It will be interesting to see what develops.
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Reviewer: David Whittle

 Casey King is a crime writer from Co. Cork. She is represented by London agent, Kate Nash, of Kate Nash Literary Agency. Among her qualifications, Casey has a Diploma in Policing Studies and over twenty years' experience in the Irish Police Force. Casey was recently listed in The Bookseller Magazine's Agent Hotlist for London Book Fair. As a poet, Casey has twice judged Kanturk Arts Festival Poetry Slam and has had two poems commended in the Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Competition. She has been the featured poet at an event for former Fulbright Professor of Poetry, Bradley Strahan, and has read at Limerick's Hunt Museum, and her poetry is published in several anthologies. As a playwright, Casey co-wrote the commercially staged play Catching the Train, and most recently had one of her plays longlisted in 2019 Wexford Literary Festival's Billy Roche International Short Play Award. Her short stories have been published in The Holly Bough, Ireland's Own and The Incubator Journal.

 

David Whittle is firstly a musician (he is an organist and was Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School for over 30 years) but has always enjoyed crime fiction. This led him to write a biography of the composer Bruce Montgomery who is better known to lovers of crime fiction as Edmund Crispin, about whom he gives talks now and then. He is currently convenor of the Midlands Chapter of the Crime Writers’ Association.

‘The Night Before Christmas’ by Alex Pine

Published by Avon,
26 October 2023.
ISBN: 978-0-00-862102-5 (PB)

It’s Christmas Eve and DCI James Walker is looking forward to going home to his wife Annie and their young daughter Bella.  The weather in their Cumbrian village of Kirkby Abbey is pretty bad. Although the gritters and snow ploughs have done a thorough job, the winds are ferocious and temperatures sub-zero. But a call from control puts paid to an early exit for James.

Maria Payne is worried that her husband has not returned from a hike he and three of his friends went on that morning. She was expecting them back in the afternoon and  she cannot reach any of them on their mobiles.  In view of the worsening weather James knows they need to move fast and co-ordinate a search and rescue operation.

As the group set out from a farm owned by Mr Ted Rycroft, they make that their first port of call. So, James sets off with DC Foley. On arrival they find the farm in darkness and ominously silent. Four vehicles all have their windows smashed. The front door to the house is open, and the house has been thoroughly trashed, and everything vandalised. And on one of the walls hangs a picture of a group of red-coated fox hunters and scrawled across it the word Murderers.

As the search for the missing men goes on and more things come to light, James realises that this may not just be a case of missing men caught in a blizzard. And several hours later they find the first body brutally murdered.

Slowly as the hours pass more information comes to light. Old grudges that have festered over the years.

Gripping and disturbing, this is a chilling tale of the animosity between foxhunters and those who are directly opposed to it.  Alex Pine has again woven a fascinating and tragic tale.  Highly recommended
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Reviewer: Lizzie Sirett

Alex Pine is the pseudonym of a bestselling author who has also written books under the names Jaime Raven, James Raven and JP Carter. He was born and raised on a council estate in South London and left school at sixteen. Before becoming a full-time writer, he spent a career in journalism as a newspaper reporter and television producer. He was, for a number of years, director of a major UK news division and co-owned a TV production company. He now splits his time between homes in Hampshire and Spain with his wife.

http://www.james-raven.com/

‘The Dead Hand’ by Judith Cutler

Published by Severn House,
7 November 2023.
ISBN: 978-1-44831132-3 (HB)

It is June 1861 and Thorncroft Estate is buzzing with a substantial group of archaeologists and their assistants.  The visitors, led by Sir Francis Palmer, are investigating Roman remains unearthed during building works.  Their presence, however, is not welcomed by all the local inhabitants.  This is due, in no small measure, to the conflicting demands of performing an archaeological excavation whilst the estate’s farm workers are preparing for harvest time. 

Meanwhile, Thorncroft House is hosting Professor Marchbanks who has been brought in to catalogue his late Lordship’s beloved and extensive library.  Sadly, the deceased aristocrat’s son, young Lord Croft, suffers from mental illness and is unable to assume the responsibilities bequeathed to him.  His duties have therefore fallen to Matthew Rowsley, interim estate manager, and his wife Harriet, housekeeper par excellence. A board of trustees with responsibility for the estate, have established and endorsed these roles until young Lord Croft recovers or an alternative heir can be found. 

The recent death of Lady Croft has increased Harriet’s workload significantly.  She is now the lady of the house and shoulders all the concerns that accompany that honour.  To help ease the burden, an assistant housekeeper, Mrs Briggs, has been employed on a month’s trial.  Sadly, Briggs’ inflexible ways soon prove to be more trouble than they are worth.  She disapproves of the unconventional Thorncroft household, and Harriet’s position in it, with as much venom as the socially superior Professor and his wife.  When Briggs allows the Marchbanks to work in the library without supervision against Harriet’s explicit instructions, things come to a head. 

These issues, though irritating, pale into insignificance when the Rowsleys begin to suspect that someone is deliberately tampering with some works of art that hang in the corridors of the stately building.  Their misgivings are realised when a heavy picture falls from the wall, injuring the young maid who was dusting it.  A general feeling of mistrust and anxiety overshadows the estate and worsens still further when the body of a local labourer is found.  When accidental death is ruled out, another worker is detained on suspicion of murder in what seems to be an open and shut case.  Harriet and Matthew, however, know the people of their village and are not convinced.  As they investigate the activities of the outsiders in their midst, new evidence emerges that puts into doubt the swift arrest of the initial suspect.  It is a welcome development, but one that puts the Rowsleys and their friends in jeopardy.

Judith Cutler’s prose is a delight in this, the fifth intriguing murder mystery featuring Matthew and Harriet Rowsley.  Their respective first person narratives enrich a plot that is both complex and compelling.  Historical details are, as always, accurate, informative and unobtrusive as the story is revealed against the backdrop of Victorian England and its rigid class system.  Characterization is careful and intricate, revealing the strengths and weaknesses of each individual as the tale unfolds.

With The Dead Hand Judith Cutler has created another thoroughly enjoyable Victorian crime novel.  It is the fifth in the Harriet and Matthew Rowsley series and works perfectly as a standalone.  The mystery is suffused with gripping, often playful, twists and turns as it reaches its climax, and the ending is deliciously unexpected.  Highly recommended.

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Reviewer: Dot Marshall-Gent

Judith Cutler was born in the Black Country, just outside Birmingham, later moving to the Birmingham suburb of Harborne. Judith started writing while she was at the then Oldbury Grammar School, winning the Critical Quarterly Short Story prize with the second story she wrote. She subsequently read English at university. It was an attack of chickenpox caught from her son that kick-started her writing career. One way of dealing with the itch was to hold a pencil in one hand, a block of paper in the other - and so she wrote her first novel. This eventually appeared in a much-revised version as Coming Alive, published by Severn House. Judith has seven series. The first two featured amateur sleuth Sophie Rivers (10 books) and Detective Sergeant Kate Power (6 Books). Then came Josie Wells, a middle-aged woman with a quick tongue, and a love of good food, there are two books, The Food Detective and The Chinese Takeout. The Lina Townsend books are set in the world of antiques and there are seven books in this series. There are three books featuring Tobias Campion set in the Regency period, and her series featuring Chief Superintendent Fran Harman (6 books), and Jodie Welsh, Rector’s wife and amateur sleuth. Her more recently a series feature a head teacher Jane Cowan (3 books). Judith has also written three standalone’s Staging Death, Scar Tissue, and Death In Elysium. Her new series is set in Victorian times featuring Matthew Rowsley. There are three books in this series.

http://www.judithcutler.com

Dot Marshall-Gent worked in the emergency services for twenty years first as a police officer, then as a paramedic and finally as a fire control officer before graduating from King’s College, London as a teacher of English in her mid-forties.  She completed a M.A. in Special and Inclusive Education at the Institute of Education, London and now teaches part-time and writes mainly about educational issues.  Dot sings jazz and country music and plays guitar, banjo and piano as well as being addicted to reading mystery and crime fiction.

‘The Quiet Dead' by N. J. Mackay

Published by Canelo,
7 September 2023.
ISBN: 978-1-80436492-5 (PB)

Fifteen years ago when she was a teenager, Hayley DaSilva found her mother, twin brother and a friend, Ryan Dudley all brutally murdered in the family home. Her nine-year-old brother Ethan was missing. Leonard her father confessed to the murders and now all these years later a shallow grave reveals bones of a child.

Detective Inspector Sebastian Locke and Detective Constable Lucy Quinn are called to the scene. The post mortem and remains of pyjamas in the grave convince the police to believe it is Ethan. Reluctantly Sebastian’s boss Jackie Ferris gives him permission to re-open the case.

Hayley has made a new life for herself in America but when Sebastian rings her and tells her about finding Ethan’s bones, she is devastated and makes arrangements to fly back to England. She had been very close to her young brother and had desperately hoped he was still alive somewhere.

As the investigation progresses, it is obvious Leonard DaSilva is innocent, it’s proved he couldn’t have killed his family. Sebastian visits him in prison and learns Leonard was very drunk the night of the murders and does not remember a thing. Why did he confess, was he trying to protect someone?

Suspicion temporarily falls on Hayley, but she has an alibi for that evening, she was with friends at a party in the woods. But was she there the whole of the time?

The more Sebastian and Lucy delve into the police records at the time, the more they become convinced that it was a really botched investigation. Evidence comes to light that drugs were also involved, but this all seems to have been swept under the carpet.

The big question of course is if Leonard did not commit the murders, who did? Sebastian is outraged that the killer has been able to get away with it for all these years. Can he and the team at last bring the real culprit to light? Plus did the same person kill Ethan and if so, how come his body was not with the others?

A highly recommended, really intriguing murder mystery, which keeps the reader guessing right through to the very end. The main character’s Detective Inspector Sebastian Locke and Detective Sergeant Lucy Quinn make a great investigative team and I look forward to the authors second book about them.
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Reviewer: Tricia Chappell

Niki Mackay studied Performing Arts at the BRIT School, and it turned out she wasn’t very good at acting but quite liked writing scripts. She holds a BA (Hons) in English Literature and Drama and won a full scholarship for her MA in Journalism.

 

Tricia Chappell. I have a great love of books and reading, especially crime and thrillers. I play the occasional game of golf (when I am not reading). My great love is cruising especially to far flung places, when there are long days at sea for plenty more reading! I am really enjoying reviewing books and have found lots of great new authors.

‘A Strange and Murderous Air’ by Nikki Copleston

Published by Silverwood Books,
5 November 2023.
ISBN: 978-1-80042-265-0 (PBO)

Detective Inspector Jeff Lincoln is content working at Barley Lane police station with a team that he knows well and which functions efficiently together, supporting each other and fully utilising their various skills. However, Lincoln knows that Barley Lane’s days are numbered. The police station is due to be closed down and the building sold off and the police personnel who work there will be dispersed to other stations. Nevertheless, it comes as a shock when a murder and kidnapping investigation cause DCI Connors, Lincoln’s line manager, to decree that he should work from Park Street police station, where she herself is based. The move makes it very difficult for Lincoln to work to his full efficiency. The building at Park Street may be more modern but that doesn’t make it a pleasant work environment. Lincoln has to work in a crowded office with a shortage of chairs and get his coffee from a temperamental machine that drips out an unidentifiable liquid. Also, he has to deal with a resentful fellow DI, a sergeant who takes offence too easily and, worst of all, the suspicion that somebody at the police station is giving information to a local newspaper reporter who is using it to sensationalise the case. Because Lincoln is trying to direct two teams based in two different locations it is inevitable that some information will fall down the gap between the two teams, which inevitably slows progress.

 The case Lincoln is investigating is far more complex than it appears at first sight. Ramsay Keiller, a man in his seventies, is found in his car a short distance from the farm shop and smallholding he acquired when he retired. Ramsay had been shot and he bled to death in his car. Previously, Ramsay’s smallholding has been targeted by vandals who have shot out his security cameras and daubed graffiti on his walls. The police assume that Ramsay had been shot during the commission of a robbery in his farm shop, although nothing appears to have been stolen. Ramsay had then managed to drive a short distance away before he died. This does not explain why he had been driving in a direction that led only to a neighbouring farm, a detail that continues to niggle at the back of Lincoln’s mind.

Investigations into the dead man’s background reveal that he had once been employed by the Ministry of Defence but had been made redundant after campaigning for various environmental causes and because of his determination to probe into whether biological experiments had been responsible for his brother’s death many years previously. When this information comes to light, it seems possible that Ramsay’s death had more sinister significance than a random robbery gone wrong.

The investigation twists around again when the police realise that another person had been present at the farm shop when Ramsay was shot. Music teacher Jill Fortune is missing, and it becomes increasingly evident that she has been kidnapped by Ramsay’s killer. At first it is unclear which of the two was the primary target and which was collateral damage. When the investigation becomes focused on Jill’s life the theories alter almost as swiftly as they are mooted. Was Jill merely in the wrong place at the wrong time? And if not, was she targeted by her daughter Annika’s ex-boyfriend? A man whom Jill played a large part in convincing Annika to dump. Throughout the investigation Lincoln has at the back of his mind Jill’s connection to music, not just as a present day music teacher but in the past. He is especially interested in her teenage relationship with Dan Swann, a local boy who had formed a band and become a star as a singer-songwriter until his drug use caused psychological damage and he returned to his hometown and became obsessed with conspiracy theories and his belief in extra-terrestrial life. When it comes to light that Jill has been in touch with Dan Swann recently, only a short while before his death, things begin to slot into place. As the death toll mounts higher, it becomes a race against time to recover Jill before she too is killed.

A Strange and Murderous Air is the fifth book featuring DI Jeff Lincoln. It is a fascinating, multi-structured book with a complex plot that intertwines the past history of many of the characters and explores how it effects their present experiences. Because the narrative contains the viewpoint of several subsidiary characters, especially that of Jill, the reader is much better informed about the broader picture than the protagonist and his colleagues. The characters are well drawn and believable and Lincoln and the people close to him are engaging and likeable. This is a very enjoyable book, which I thoroughly recommend.
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Reviewer: Carol Westron

Nikki Copleston was born in Somerset and raised in the West Midlands and Wiltshire, Nikki Copleston worked in local government in London for many years. Her grandfather and great-grandfather were policemen, which may explain why she's always enjoyed watching detective series on television and reading crime novels. She is an active member of Frome Writers' Collective, which supports and promotes writers in the Frome area. When she isn't writing, she enjoys exploring the West Country with her camera. She is already working on the next DI Jeff Lincoln novel. She and her husband now live in Wells, Somerset, with their cat.

Carol Westron is a successful author and a Creative Writing teacher.  Her crime novels are set both in contemporary and Victorian times.  Her first book The Terminal Velocity of Cats was published in 2013. Since then, she has since written 6 further mysteries. Carol recently gave an interview to Mystery People. To read the interview click on the link below. 

https://promotingcrime.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/carol-westron.html www.carolwestron.com
http://carolwestron.blogspot.co.uk/

To read a review of Carol latest book click on the title
The Curse of the Concrete Griffin