The Skeleton Man

Reporter Philip Dryden is participating in a live fire exercise with the Territorial Army.  Their objective is the abandoned town of Jude’s Ferry.  Unfortunately, the artillery was off and hit some targets that they weren’t supposed to.  The action is called off, and the troops advance into the town to put out fires and assess damage.  Inside one cellar they discover a body hanging from a hook.

The major that Dryden is with is sure that the body is a woman because at the time of the evacuation an older woman had gone missing.  When Dryden looks at the army maps, he notices that there is no cellar indicated in the pub where the body had been found.

Dryden begins an investigation into the missing woman.  He learns a lot about her from her daughter.  Two days later, a fisherman discovers two severed fingers in his net.  Who do they belong to, and could the person still be alive?  As Dryden is working on that story, news comes in that the skeleton was a man.  They have also found the man to whom the fingers belong, and he is still alive.

Deciding to focus on the skeleton man, Dryden goes to the army to check their records of the removal of the people from Jude’s Ferry.  He creates a list of eight men who could possibly be the victim.

The following day Dryden receives a phone message from a group threatening a local farm where guinea pigs and rats are raised for academic studies.  When he speaks to the owner, he doesn’t seem overly concerned, plus the police are aware.

Shortly after this, he meets with DI Peter Shaw, who is in charge of the case.  Shaw presents Dryden with details of another incident, which is shocking.  It is related to an animal rights group.  Dryden understands now why the police want him to sit on the story.  But, are all the incidents tied together?

Dryden feels that they are, however will his quest for the answers lead him to the solution or will DI Peter Shaw solve the cases first?  Author Jim Kelly has a very convoluted storyline in this mystery which will leave the reader wondering where they are being led.  A good, enjoyable read.

The Thursday Murder Club

PC Donna De Freitas has just given a talk to a group of pensioners.  Four of them invite her to lunch with them afterwards.  There they inform her that they are the Thursday Murder Club.  The four members of the club are:  Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim.

The Thursday Murder Club has taken on cold case files smuggled out to them by a retired police officer.  Not that they ever solved any of them.  Now, they have a real case on their hands.  One of the developers of their retirement village has been killed by blunt force to the head.  They decide to help the police with their investigation.

Elizabeth and Joyce approach PC De Freitas.  Unfortunately, she isn’t part of the investigating team.  However, Ron and Ibrahim are in the process of convincing DCI Chris Hudson to add her to the team.

Elizabeth has her connections and gathers the financial records of the business partner of the victim.  She and Joyce travel to London to visit Joyce’s daughter Joanna, who just happens to be a financial expert.   They learned that the business partner mad £12 million upon the death of the victim. 

But, then suddenly the business partner is dead.  What is going on?  And are all the residents of the pensioner village suspects?  Because they were all nearby at the time he collapsed from a fentanyl overdose.  The Thursday Murder Club has a list of thirty suspects.

On top of these two cases, the Thursday Murder Club has another body on their hands.  A set of bones has been found in a grave, however what is unusual about the bones is that they are on top of a very old coffin.  Are the bones associated with the death of the two men?

Can a set of amateur sleuths, well into their seventies and eighties solve these mysteries or will the police do all the work?  Author Richard Osman has written a charming murder mystery, which was complex, and had some surprises.  A thoroughly enjoyable read and hard to put down.

At the Going Down of the Sun

It is the summer of 1914 and Rex Sheridan is the first of the three brothers home to Tarrant Hall.  Rex had ambitions in aviation, but his father had sent him to university to get a degree. Roland, the eldest, arrived the following day.  He was studying to become a surgeon.  Two days later the youngest brother, Chris, came home, despite having told everyone he was headed to Greece.  He has plans of attending Cambridge in the fall.

A few days later, they received a telegram that their father had committed suicide.  Roland was now head of the family.  It was the same day that Archduke Ferdinand was killed by a Serbian student.

The death of their father brings reality to the three boys.  Roland as head of the family decides to give up his studies, while he and Rex decide that Chris must go on to university.  However, those plans are kiboshed when it is revealed that Chris has made Marion, the daughter of the local doctor, pregnant.  They are to get married as a result.

On the day of the wedding, Rex shows up in uniform.  He has joined the R. F. C.  It wasn’t until February 1915 that Rex would make it to France.  He soon learned of the dangers of flying and the loss of friends in battle.

To get away from a wife and child he didn’t want, Chris tries to join the army.  However, his poor eyesight excludes him.  He learns the eye chart by memory and goes to a different recruiting station and manages to get in.  However, his poor eyesight lands him in trouble.  Fortunately, that leads him to a promotion and an attachment to the Intelligence Corps.  He only tells Rex where he is.

Roland continues to run Tarrant Hall, growing food to help with the war effort.  Despite that, and offering part of the hall for recuperating officers, the locals began to shun him.  He also began to receive white feathers in the mail, a sign of cowardice.

Due to Chris’ intelligent capabilities, he is shipped out to Gallipoli.  What happens to him there influences Roland to join the army in the medical services.

What follows in Elizabeth Darrell’s novel is a moving tale of a family, community and world caught up in a gruesome, brutal war.  Each man experienced the war in a different way, and it affected those around him to a great deal.  Darrell is very descriptive in writing about their experiences through the Great War.  This is the first in a trilogy.  A good, long read.

The Shapeshifter’s Lair

Pedlar, Cetach, has brought a body to the Abbey of the Blessed Caemgen.  But why?  Abbot Daircell recognises the body of a brehon.  Cetach informs the abbot that he had followed a group of three along the trail nine days after they left.  The other two in the group included Princess Gelgeis and her steward Spealain.  Where were they?  Cetach had seen no other bodies, nor other evidence of them.  Could the shapeshifters have taken them, as Cetach believes?

Princess Gelgeis is the betrothed of Colgu, King of Muman.  Daircell decides to send his master of the stables, Brother Eochai, to inform Colgu of the situation.  Colgu resides at Cashel.  He turns to his sister, Fidelma, for help.  Fidelma is a lawyer of a high degree, and along with her husband, Eadulf, has done numerous investigations.  Fidelma decides that the best thing would be for them to travel to the abbey disguised as religious.  They will take their friend and soldier Enda to ensure their safety.

At the abbey, they learn from Brother Lachtna, the physician who had examined the body that the man had been shot at close range by an arrow, and then his throat was slashed from behind by a left handed person.  The man’s clothing had been given away.  The only thing in his purse was a pebble, which the abbot has.

Fidelma and her companions go to the nearby town to speak to Cetach.  Before going there, Eadulf questions a fletcher about the arrow.  He learns that it was made by a left handed fletcher.  Going on to Cetach’s cabin, they find the man dead.  His throat had been slashed by a left handed person.

While going to examine the spot where the body was found, Fidelma’s group is taken hostage.  They are then escorted to the stronghold of Dicuil Dona.  Fidelma is not intimidated.  They begin a discussion of the situation.  Dicuil Dona suggests that the princess has been taken by brigands.  He also informs Fidelma and Eadulf of a mysterious mining operation going on that is stealing gold and silver from his territory.  Can he and Fidelma work together or will they be at odds?

Author Peter Tremayne’s latest saga in the adventures of Fidelma and Eadulf has plenty of twists and turns in the mountains of Ireland as the pair gather evidence.  It is a couple of similar words that will lead Fidelma to the solutions.  However, it will mean some more tribulations before she can present her case before the court.

An entirely enjoyable read from Tremayne once again.  I’ve already got my eyes on the sequel.

The King’s Bishop

Owen Archer has been tasked with escorting a group carrying letters from the Archbishop of York to abbeys encouraging them to vote for William of Wykeham to be the new Bishop of Winchester.  Thoresby, the Archbishop is in Windsor with the king.  In order to get the letters to York, Ned Townley, a spy for Lancaster and a good friend of Owen’s, will be part of the delegation headed to York with the letters.

Ned has trouble of his own.  He had threatened a young page for being to often with his girlfriend, Mary.  Mary is maid to Alice Perrers, mistress to the king.  She has gone missing, apparently to follow Ned to the north.

Owen sends Ned with a delegation to Rievaulx Abbey and leads another delegation to Fountains Abbey.  Ned leaves earlier than Owen because the route is more difficult.  When Owen sets out, he learns that Ned has a secretive friar in his group.  He is not impressed.

On the way to Fountains Abbey, Ned learns of Mary’s death after the friar attacks him and then runs away.  The abbot he is travelling with puts him under arrest based on the fact that the friar is missing.  In the dark of the night, Ned fled.  But what was he fleeing from or to?

Owen decides that he must investigate the friar and the cause of his grievances with Ned.  What will he find?  Treachery? More death?  And what of Lucie’s dream about the threat to both Owen and Ned?

Author Candace Robb’s thriller is complex and, although it starts out slowly, it quickly becomes fast paced.  Another excellent read in this series.

A Share in Death

Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid has just finished a rather harrowing case for New Scotland Yard, and is now in Yorkshire for a week of vacation at a time share where there are several other guests in attendance.

The morning after he arrived two young children find the assistant manager dead in the hot tub.  An electrical appliance had been dropped into the tub from above electrocuting the young man.  Kincaid ensures that the electricity is cut off and then arranges for the local constabulary to be called. 

DCI Nash is not impressed that a Detective Superintendent from New Scotland Yard is on his patch.  However, DI Peter Raskin is much more congenial.  The other guests resent Kincaid when they discover that he is a detective.

Not impressed with Nash’s investigation, Kincaid does a bit of poking about and then requests the help of his DS, Gemma James.  A day later one of the guests is found dead on the tennis court.  Her head had been bashed in from behind.

Has another death occurred when Kincaid finds another body at the foot of a set of stairs?  Fortunately, the woman is still alive.  She remembers being pushed.  Who could have done it?  Author Deborah Crombie has Kincaid’s work cut out for him.  Can he discover the killer before he achieves his ultimate goal?  Crombie’s novel is an excellent read, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I look forward to reading the sequels.

A Dead Man in Trieste

Seymour of the Special Branch has been sent to Trieste to investigate the disappearance of Lomax, the British Consul.  He learns from the Inspector Kornbluth of the local police in Trieste that the consul had been out drinking with friends the night that he disappeared.

A couple of days after arriving in Trieste, the body of Lomax is hauled from the sea.  Seymour is called to the police station again to meet Schneider, who is in a special branch related to politics.

The autopsy report that Seymour received from Kornbluth indicated that Lomax had been killed by a heavy blow to the back of his head.  There was no indication that he had drowned.

Lomax had been friends with a group of artists, one of whom was a young woman named Maddalena.  Seymour turns to her for help.

Things turn topsy turvey when the man who worked at the consulate is arrested for helping Serbs find a way to escape the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.  It now seems that Seymour is in charge of the consulate.

Will Seymour be able to find the killer before an international incident occurs, which could cause Europe to burst into flames?  Author Michael Pearce’s thriller is full of potential, but to be honest I found his writing to be wordy.  The premise of the story is good and complex, but I feel that it is over written.