Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received these ebooks, free of charge, from Thomas Mercer,via netgalley, for blog review purposes. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it, all opinions are my own.
Continuing Mystery Monday-we're jumping across the pond, for a couple of retro styled mysteries!
Over the weekend,I watched the latest movie adaption of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, and it I knew these books would be great for today's spots, as not only are they reminiscent of Agatha's style, the main character mentions Hercule Poirot quite a lot!
Murder at Renwick Hall
An impossible murder behind a locked door. Can DCI Oldroyd find the key to the mystery?
Lord Redmire’s gambling habit has placed him in serious debt. Determined to salvage his fortune by putting Redmire Hall on the map, the aristocrat performs an impossible locked-door illusion on live TV. But as the cameras roll, his spectacular trick goes fatally wrong…
Special guest DCI Jim Oldroyd has a front-row seat, but in all his years with the West Riding Police he’s never witnessed anything like this. He sees Redmire disappear—and then reappear, dead, with a knife in his back.
As Oldroyd and DS Stephanie Johnson soon discover, nearly everyone at the event had a reason to resent the eccentric lord. But how did the murderer get into the locked room—or out, for that matter?
When the only other person who knew the secret behind the illusion is brutally silenced, the case begins to look unsolvable. Because as Oldroyd and Johnson know, it’s not just a question of who did it and why—but how?
Review:
This book starts off in the past, with a seemingly closed room trick that goes off without a hitch, and then fast forwards to present day, where the same trick is be repeated by a son of the original illusionist. But unlike the first time, all does not go well. As the bodies start piling up, Oldroyd and Johnson know that they have more than simple murder, but one that was planned and those aware of it, are being shuttered, permanently. There are a few red herrings to make the reader wonder if they really know who the culprit is, and some rapid reading at the end will show the reader they might just have been wrong! It's an interesting case, and as my introduction to the series (it;s Book 3), quite a satisfying one!
Body in the Dales
An unpopular victim. An impossible crime. A murderer on the loose.
A body is discovered deep in a cave beneath the Yorkshire Dales. Leading the investigation into the mysterious death are experienced DCI Jim Oldroyd and his partner DS Carter, a newcomer from London.
The deceased is Dave Atkins, well known throughout the village but not well liked. While there is no shortage of suspects, the details of the crime leave Oldroyd and Carter stumped. How did Atkins’s body end up in such a remote section of the cave? When someone with vital information turns up dead, it becomes clear that whoever is behind the murders will stop at nothing to conceal their tracks.
Oldroyd and his team try to uncover the truth, but every answer unearths a new set of questions. And as secrets and lies are exposed within the close-knit community, the mystery becomes deeper, darker and more complex than the caves below.
Note: this is revised edition: the book was previously published as The Body in Jingling Pot, this edition includes editorial revisions.
Review:
And now onto Book 1 (yes, I read them out of order, LOL. Book 2 will be reviewed in a week or two!)! It was actually perfectly alright to read the books out of order, as Ellis gives you just enough info so you don't feel lost, but still makes you want to go back and read the previous books! In this book, Carter is new to the area and Oldroyd, is the old timer, set in his ways of solving cases and in knowledge of the Dales area. Like Book 3, there is no shortage of suspects and motives to want Atkins dead. but when the body count starts rising, the team realizes they might not have the answers they thought they did. As Oldroyd looks to the past for a clue, you may not see the ending coming!
If you're looking for a new series for Fall reading, this might be a good one, as it only has the 3 books, and each one can stand alone! And with all the ebooks under $5
About the Author:
John R. Ellis has lived in Yorkshire for most of his life and has spent many years exploring Yorkshire’s diverse landscapes, history, language and communities. He recently retired after a career in teaching, mostly in further education in the Leeds area. In addition to the Yorkshire Murder Mystery series he writes poetry, ghost stories and biography. He has completed a screenplay about the last years of the poet Edward Thomas and a work of faction about the extraordinary life of his Irish mother-in-law. He is currently working on his memoirs of growing up in a working-class area of Huddersfield in the 1950s and 1960s.
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