Tag Archives: murder mystery

The Listening Eye by Patricia Wentworth

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The Listening Eye by Patricia Wentworth is a Miss Silver mystery and it was first published in 1957.

Miss Paulina Paine is 57 years old and she has been stone deaf ever since a bomb fell very close to her during the war. Paulina taught herself lip-reading very successfully and she hopes it isn’t obvious to people that she is deaf.

However, one of her lodgers is an artist and he has painted her portrait which is being exhibited in a gallery. The artist has titled the portrait The Listener and Paulina has to admit to herself that he has captured an expression on her face that she recognises.

Whilst at the exhibition Paulina lip reads a man who is standing quite far away from her, he thinks that his conversation will be private, never suspecting that a lip-reader was ‘eavesdropping’ on him.

Paulina is aghast at what he has said and quickly leaves the gallery, but when a gallery worker mentions to the man that Paulina is a marvellous lip-reader it puts Paulina’s life at risk. She has inadvertently obtained dangerous information.

As it happens Paulina has a loose connection with Miss Silver and she goes to ask her advice on what she has ‘overheard’. So begins Miss Silver’s involvement in the investigation.

As ever I don’t want to say too much about this one as I don’t want to spoil it for any possible readers, but it’s a good mystery and Miss Silver sorts it all out, whilst knitting a pale blue shawl, multi tasking with class.

The Whitstable Pearl Mystery and Murder-on-Sea by Julie Wassmer

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The Whitstable Pearl Mystery cover

The Whitstable Pearl Mystery by Julie Wassmer was a completely random choice from the library. I had never heard of the author before, but it turns out she is a ‘Goodreads’ author – whatever that means.

The setting is Whitstable in Kent, the town is famous for its seafood and Pearl has her own seafood resaturant which is very popular but with her son going off to university she’s finding her life to be a bit empty and decides to try her hand at setting up a detective agency too. She had been a policewoman briefly in her youth, until her unplanned pregnancy kyboshed that career.

This is an enjoyable read with some good characters but the actual mystery part of it isn’t too exciting. I can imagine though that if you know the Whitstable area then you will enjoy the local aspect of it, it seems like an authentic seaside setting. I suppose it comes under the heading of comfort read and we all need them from time to time.

This is Julie Wassmer’s first book but she has been a writer for Eastenders and various other TV programmes in the past. Surprisingly her writing is a bit cliched from time to time, such as using the phrase sun-kissed throat, something that I imagine if I were a writer I would want to avoid. But heigh-ho nothing’s perfect and I went right on to read Murder-on-Sea the second book in this series.

The author lives in Whitstable and is apparently well known for her environmental campaigning.

Murder-on-Sea

Murder-on-Sea cover

Murder-on-Sea by Julie Wassmer is the second book in the Whitstable Pearl Mystery series.

It’s the height of the Christmas season and Pearl is run off her feet at her seafood restaurant, but when nasty anonymous Christmas cards start popping up all over town she decides she has to investigate.

DCI Mike McGuire from Canterbury police ends up taking over the case and things escalate with murders following the cards.

I didn’t enjoy this one quite as much as The Whitstable Pearl Mystery. It didn’t have such a good sense of place and I admit that the entrance of a character called Rev Pru was never going to go down well with me. Do ministers/vicars actually call themselves Rev? and if they do there ought to be a law against it. I know, it’s just one of my many strange personal dislikes.

These books are good light reads that you don’t have to concentrate on to any great extent.

The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths

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The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths was published in 2010 and is the second book in the series.

Archaeologist Ruth Galloway has been called in to investigate bones which have been found buried in a doorway in an old villa in Norwich. Just how old are they? They were only uncovered because most of the house is being demolished to make way for new homes, but it transpires that the old house had been used as a Catholic children’s home in the past and some members of the police force are jumping to conclusions. Children had gone missing years ago, perhaps they had been murdered and buried there.

In the first book in this series, The Crossing Place, Ruth had a one night stand with Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson and she now realises that she’s pregnant, for her it’s a bonus, but she’s not sure how Nelson will react to the news, and to make matters worse she has now met Nelson’s wife and has become a friend.

Ruth is still living in her remote cottage and someone is trying to frighten her – and succeeding.

I’m enjoying this series and will definitely continue with it. Apart from anything else, I want to know what is going to happen in the personal lives of the main characters. It could be very messy.

Night and Silence by Aline Templeton

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Night and Silence cover

Night and Silence by Aline Templeton was published in 1999 and I know that I requested it from the library after reading about it on a blog – but I can’t remember who recommended it – maybe it was you! Anyway, I hadn’t read anything by Aline Templeton before but I will read more of her books. I suspect though that people in Wales wouldn’t be saying that if they had read this one because the setting is a small town in Wales and she doesn’t have a good thing to say about any of the inhabitants, having said that though she didn’t say anything about them that I hadn’t heard said before.

David Cordiner has been promoted in the police force, the down side of that is that his promotion means a move to a Welsh valley for him and his wife Tessa. She finds the relocation particularly hard as the small-minded gossiping natives are a bunch of bullies and are happy making newcomers miserable. It’s a huge change from her life in London where she was a successful artist.

When the body of a young nurse is found on a hillside suicide is suspected but quickly ruled out. The investigation turns up evidence that she was only interested in money and expensive clothes and jewellery. She’s one of those women who should have dangerous to know stamped across her forehead.

Meanwhile the local pervert is stalking Tessa and nobody is taking her complaint seriously. Her husband is more interested in his new job and is making the same mistakes that he made during his first marriage.

Will Tessa survive it all and will their marriage break up, will they manage to get out of Wales and resume life as they knew it previously?

Unfortunately this is one of her standalone novels so I don’t think the characters ever appear again. Shame.

I read this one for the Read Scotland 2016 Challenge.

Lament for a Maker by Michael Innes

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Lament for a Maker cover

Lament for a Maker by Michael Innes was first published in 1938 and the story is told by five different characters in seven sections.

In the first part the story is narrated by Ewan Bell, a shoemaker from Kinkeig and it’s written in his dialect which I think might have put some readers off but really it shouldn’t be a problem for people.

Ranald Guthrie is the laird of Erchany Castle. He’s hated in his part of the Scottish Highlands, because of his meanness. Ranald spends his time counting his gold coins and quoting parts of an ancient Scottish poem by William Dunbar – which you can read here. A maker or more usually makar is a Scottish word for a poet, usually a court poet. The title has been brought back into use now and at the moment the makar is Jackie Kay.

Anyway, back to the book.

Ranald Guthrie has a young niece, but if you believe the local gossip she might actually be his daughter – or maybe he has designs on her, the locals will believe anything of him, he’s seen as being the devil. Christine, the niece has fallen for a young local man but Guthrie despises his family. It’s a bit of a Romeo and Juliet situation.

When Guthrie falls to his death from his own battlements on a wild wintry night there’s speculation, did he jump or was he pushed? His American relatives had tried to have him put into an asylum in the past because of his strange behaviour. Of course John Appleby of Scotland Yard is going to get to the bottom of it.

This is a very convoluted mystery, well worth reading, in fact it’s often regarded as being Michael Innes’s best book.

I read this one for the Read Scotland 2016 Challenge.

The Suspect by L.R. Wright

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The Suspect cover

The Suspect by L.R. Wright was published in 1985 and it’s the first book I’ve read by this author. She’s known as Laurali Wright in the US.

The setting is a little coastal town in British Columbia, the Sechelt Peninsula otherwise known as the Sunshine Coast. The police force there is of course the Canadian Mounties but disappointingly Karl Alberg doesn’t wear that distinctive uniform as he carries out his crime investigation. Karl has only recently moved to Sechelt, it’s thought of being a bit of a cushy job within the police force, it’s a quiet backwater. Or is it?

This is quite an unusual murder mystery as there is no mystery as to who the culprit is but there is plenty of mystery about why the victim was murdered and how such a likeable chap could commit the murder.

I really liked this one, everything about it, the writing, the setting and the characters. It is the first in a series so it looks like I’m going to be seeking out books from yet another crime series, I have so many on the go! I’m wondering if it is necessary to read these ones in order, I prefer to do that but I don’t think all of  the books will be easy for me to track down.

Sadly the writer Laurali Rose Wright died in 2001. Have you read any of her books?

The only other Lauralis I have ever heard of are the mother and daughter in The Gilmore Girls, a TV show that I really enjoyed, although I’m not even sure their names were spelled the same way. Maybe it is quite a common name in some parts of the world, have you ever met any?

Murder in Piccadilly by Charles Kingston

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Murder in Piccadilly cover

Murder in Piccadilly by Charles Kingston was first published in 1936 but the one I read is one of those British Library Crime Classics which have atmospheric 1930s covers this one featuring Piccadilly Circus.

I really shouldn’t have enjoyed this book as much as I did because it’s one of those murder mysteries where the murder doesn’t occur until half way through the book. I really prefer it if the murder is discovered before page three and so you don’t really know anything much about the victim.

But there was enough going on in the first half to keep me interested and I really liked Kingston’s writing style, his dialogue is entertaining, witty and cutting at times.

The setting is mainly London although a country manor house does also feature. Ruby Cheldon is a World War 1 widow, her husband was blown up by a shell and she was left to bring up their son on her own. Bobbie is in his early 20s, but he has been so spoiled by his mother that despite having to live on her very small allowance he has no intention of getting a job.

The main reason for his lack of ambition is that he has been brought up with the knowledge that his father’s elder brother Massy Cheldon is very wealthy and as he has never married Bobbie will eventually inherit his money and property.

Uncle Massy is a miser and seems to enjoy maintaining his widowed sister-in-law and nephew in a life of penury, living in a poverty stricken part of London, while he lives the high life. Massy expects to live at least another twenty of thirty years more, but Bobbie has fallen for Nancy a beautiful young woman, a dancer in a nightclub. Nancy is only interested in Bobbie for his money though and it’s a shock for her to discover that the much talked of money and property is actually in the hands of Massy.

Bobbie is consumed by the unfairness of his life and feels that he is the rightful owner of the wealth and that Massy is simply keeping him from everything he should already have, including Nancy. Throw in a couple of dodgy characters from the seedier side of London in the shape of Nancy’s dancing partner and a failed boxer and it all adds up to a good vintage crime book with a nice twist near the end.

I will definitely be looking out for more books by Charles Kingston who was apparently a fairly prolific crime writer in his day but for some reason his books haven’t been reprinted over the years, until now.

There’s an introduction by Martin Edwards which of course should NOT be read before you read the book. It ends by him writing:This is not a cerebral country house whodunnit of the kind so often written during the Golden Age, but a good-natured old-fashioned thriller, that retains a warm period charm.

I agree.

Cork on the Water by Macdonald Hastings

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Cork on the Water cover

Cork on the Water by Macdonald Hastings was published in 1951.

Mr Montague Cork is the general manager of the Anchor Accident Insurance Company. He has many years experience of working in insurance and when a claim is made for £25,000 because a man called Gabriel Daggers has died, Cork has a feeling that something is not quite right about it.

Daggers had died in a fly fishing accident in the Highlands of Scotland, but it was two weeks before his body was found in the deep water of a pool. Daggers has left the insurance money to a well known ballerina, but she doesn’t want it. She had had a complicated relationship with Daggers in the past.

Mr Cork takes Robert, one of his insurance employees, with him and they take turns in driving up to the Highlands in his Bentley. Their driving skills are poles apart as Mr Cork is very aware of the dangers of driving, due to the amount of claims he has seen over the years, he’s a nervous and risk averse driver, knowing how sheep can cause mayhem on the roads! His companion is a young man who had got the job in insurance because his father was a friend of Mr Cork but the work is killing him with the boredom, he had been a commando during the war and he needs a bit of excitement in his life. Mr Cork has chosen the perfect partner for his investigation.

This is a good adventure story with the plot involving wartime experiences. The action takes place on a Highland estate and there’s a lot of leaping around on moors and hillsides.

It is written in the John Buchan style, certainly no bad thing. But it also seemed very similar in many ways to the Mary Stewart book which I read just before this one – Wildfire at Midnight. The setting was the same, a Scottish Highland hotel and the surrounding countryside, it was a shame that I didn’t realise that to begin with because I did get a wee bit mixed up with the two books at one point. Both books were also written in the 1950s and they both had so many people puffing away on fags constantly, Mr Cork smoked Passing Clouds all the time, even lighting one from the one which he was just getting to the end of. It’s a wonder I don’t have a smoker’s cough after all that! Cork on the Water was a good mystery and action adventure. I think that Hastings only wrote three or four of these books featuring Mr Cork as an unlikely sleuth.

Macdonald Hastings was a well known face on TV in the 1960s, so says Jack, but I can’t remember him. Before that he worked on radio and during the war he was Picture Post’s War Correspondent. He was also the father of Max Hastings who has carried on in the same vein as a journalist and author of books about World War 2.

I read this one for the Read Scotland 2016 Challenge.

The Hangman’s Song by James Oswald

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The Hangman’s Song cover

The Hangman’s Song by James Oswald is the third book in his Inspector McLean series.

Edinburgh’s police headquarters is in chaos as the ongoing restructuring of Scotland’s police forces has meant that Chief Inspector Duguid – or Dagwood as he is sometimes known as is the temporary boss. McLean has a very low opinion of Duguid and the feeling is mutual. Duguid is piling lots of extra work onto McLean and at the same time is removing officers from his cases, sending them on needless training courses at Tulliallan police college.

However when a series of hangings take place in the city there are enough odd details to make McLean feel that they are anything but the straightforward suicides that Duguid insists they are.

McLean is having as much trouble with his work colleagues as he is with the investigation, jealousy is leading some of the more immature in the force to play stupid but expensive pranks on the financially independent McLean and at times he does wonder himself why he is bothering to remain in the police force. Luckily for us he realises that that would be giving in and doing just what his colleagues want.

I’m really enjoying this series which should be read in order but I agree with Jack that it could do without the spooky elements which really don’t add anything.

If you want to read what Jack thought about this book, have a look here.

I read this one for the Read Scotland 2016 Challenge.

Wildfire at Midnight by Mary Stewart

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Wildfire at Midnight cover

Wildfire at Midnight by Mary Stewart was first published in 1956 but the story begins in 1953, just a few days before the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. London is rapidly filling up with people who have come to get a view of the proceedings. Gianetta Drury is a model for Montefior a famous designer, and she could have a grandstand view from his premises above Regent Street, but perversely she wants to have a holiday away from the heaving city. At her mother’s suggestion she ends up going to the Isle of Skye and booking into a hotel recommended by her mother.

Gianetta is divorced and she’s shocked to discover that her ex-husband is also a resident at the hotel, but there’s an even bigger shock for her as she’s told that there has been a murder in the neighbourhood, and everyone except Gianetta is under suspicion.

The hotel is full of the usual hill walkers and anglers and in no time a couple of female hill walkers/mountaineers fail to return from their hike. With a murderer on the loose there’s even more than the usual worry in case they have been done to death, rather than just got lost in the mountains.

I really like Mary Stewart’s books. Apart from anything else you never know what you’re going to get when you open one of them, her books are never predictable. This one has plenty of mystery along the lines of Christie but also beautifully descriptive passages and just a wee bit of romance of course.

This is another one which counts towards the Read Scotland 2016 Challenge.