Death By Intent By Jacqueline Harret

Rating 4⭐s

You can buy Death By Intent...here

You can find out more about Jacqueline Harret...here

• The Blurb...

A woman’s decomposing body. The Church of ‘Forgotten Souls’. A dubious priest.

Di Mandy Wilde has a new case on her hands.

Was the death natural? Can she solve the mystery under the critical gaze of her ex-fiancé, DCI Lucas Manning?

And who hated Barbara Vixen enough to kill her?

• Our Review...

Death by Intent is book 4 in the D.I. Mandy Wilde series and yes I have read all 4! and in order! 

First up what a brilliant cover! Very memorable. 

We open with the putrefying corpse of an old lady. Another of those terrible cases you hear of, where an elderly person, all alone in the world with no friends or family dies on their own of natural causes and lays for weeks until by chance they are discovered. Or was it natural causes and what was this old lady like. We automatically think of old ladies are gentle, caring and benign. But who was this woman in her life.

This is the challenge for Mandy and her team. Josh, Olivia and Helen. each with their own skill-set and personality. However this time Mandy is hampered by the appointment of a DCI to follow and scrutinise her every move following her maverick ways on previous investigations. Mandy needs to up her game and this time stay the right side of the line. There is one major obstacle to this in that the watchdog DCI is her former fiance. In addition Mandy has issues at home. Mandy looks after her teenage niece Tabitha, and now Tabitha's mother and Mandy's errant, black sheep of a twin sister is back on the scene. It cant get any more powder keggy can it? Oh yes it can and its all going to kick off! 

I'm trying not to give spoilers, suffice to say numerous suspects are investigated and false paths explored and red herrings swallowed whole. One of the characters, Father Michael, a long haired, tattooed con man who had turned to God and seen the light and became a preacher in particular resonated. He reminded me of Russell Brand. 

I must say I'm very impressed by the work ethic of the South Wales Police force in the Mandy Wilde universe. No stone, no matter how minute is left un-turned, no trivial piece of information left un-scrutinised. I know its fiction and in the real world cases like these would be basically binned. Which brings me to the essence of the Mandy Wilde novels.

In the Mandy Wilde novels the writing conveys throughout a sense of reverence for justice, and not just black and white legal justice. They revere the full rainbow spectrum of all encompassing social justice. When we get to a denouement in a Mandy Wilde novel we don't just get to find the perpetrator and the reason why they did it but more than that again we get the heritage of that person, the difficult decisions in terrible circumstances, that eventually led to that fateful decision to commit a crime. Situations that could have been vastly different if only someone or society as a whole cared. Often in Mandy's world, and i should think in real life too, the perpetrator is actually the biggest victim. If we all lived in a world with the pervading feel of the justice in  Mandy Wilde novels the world would be a much better, more caring place. 

I must say it took me a while to get into the groove of a Mandy Wilde novel. I was used to more dramatic novels, with big explosions, car chases and gruesome murders but as I read more I found myself settling into and enjoying Mandy's world. If you drew a Venn diagram with Columbo, and Cathy Come Home, then Mandy Wilde is the sweet spot in the middle. On first impression a Mandy Wilde novel is like a placid pond but once you go under the surface you see the fight for life in society in all it's glory and all it's heartache. 

Looking forward to Mandy 5

• Selected Quotes...

Barbara Vixen was dead long before the fireworks announcing the New Year exploded across the Cardiff sky. It was the second of January

You can’t charge someone for not caring enough. It’s not like a neglected child.

Damn. A boa constrictor couldn’t feel more controlling than Lucas hanging closer to her than spandex.

You try to poach my best detective, make him think you’re the best thing since bloody chocolate massage cream,

Hi, I’m Michael. I’ve done some bad things in my life, and I’ve been punished for them. Men punished me but God saved me. He made me see the error of my ways. Through the love of God and his son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, I have seen there is a different path. A path where I can do some good in the world and help others

 

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

The List by Graham H Miller

Crimson Snow by Jason Vowles 

The Couple at No9 by Claire Douglas

• About The Author...

Jacqueline Harrett was born and brought up in a small village in Northern Ireland. After living in various places in South Wales she settled in Cardiff with her husband of many years, Lola the mad cat and Speedy, an ancient and territorial tortoise. Her two grown-up children – critical reader and technical advisor – live nearby.

As an only child she was a voracious reader and loved stories. Her father was a wonderful storyteller, encouraging her to tell her own stories and developing her love of oral stories. This was the inspiration behind her mini-book, Tell Me Another… Speaking and Listening Through Storytelling and her PhD on the effects of oral stories on young children’s language and imagination.

Jacqui has always been a writer but it wasn’t until 1997 that she started publishing her work with articles in English in Wales and then in the TES. A book for teachers, Exciting Writing, won the UKLA author award. As a former teacher and academic, she published and gave presentations on the value of story for children’s development.

After retiring from academia, Jacqui concentrated on more creative writing, attending classes and developing the craft. She had stories published in anthologies (Honno, MTP) and flash fiction online, and hidden in the depths of her computer are many other stories, a novel, novella and books for children. Like reading, writing is an obsession.

With her friend and colleague, Janet Laugharne, she has written a novel, What Lies Between Them, to be published in February 2022 under the pseudonym J. L. Harland.

Jacqui’s debut, The Nesting Place, was started in lockdown and the culmination of several different elements. It started with Katherine Stansfield’s excellent Crime Writing courses at Cardiff University, pre-pandemic. Then, during lockdown, a further course with Writing Magazine’s James McCreet, when the ideas began to take shape and the feedback from James helped with the process of producing the novel.

Pop 1280 by Jim Thompson

 

You can buy Pop 1280...Here

You can find out more about Jim Thompson...Here

• The Blurb...

Nick Corey likes being the high sheriff of Potts County. But Nick has a few problems that he needs to deal with: like his loveless marriage, the pimps who torment him, the honest man who is running against him in the upcoming elections and the women who adore him.

And it turns out that Nick isn't anything like as amiable, easy-going or as slow as he seems. He's as sly, brutal and corrupt as they come.

• Our Review...

I decided to read this book after seeing Charlie Higson (of The Fast Show) recommend it on the BBC book show "Between The Covers"

I believe this tale is set in the southern states of the USA prior to WW1

What a character Nick Corey, our protagonist is. To the world he is a bumbling, verbose possibly mentally, slow well meaning good old southern boy. Nick Corey is the small town sheriff. He keeps getting elected because he isn't offensive or confrontational and works hard to keep it so. 

But Nick is different on the inside. He is a cunning and ruthless sociopath. He manipulates others around to solve his (mostly women) problems. Oh and he is violent.

He is Forrest Gump on the outside but Niccolò Machiavelli on the inside.

The other characters are well developed also from Myra his harriden of a wife and her Hung like a horse halfwit brother, to Rose, Nick's potty mouthed married lover amongst others.

Nick's plotting is inventive. Each victim deserving their fate, at least in Nick's eyes. He often plays one problem off against another to find an elegant, if horrific solution. Each victim greedily heading towards disaster because of their misguided, base desires. Some passages make you reflect on human nature and how we treat our family, friends and neighbours.

All this plotting and killing and duplicity takes its toll on Nick's mental and he starts to view himself and his actions in a different light. 

If you can handle Nick's round the houses, Dukes of Hazzard type internal monologues this is a very good book. Great main character, well developed minor chatacters, great plotting.  

 

• Selected Quotes...

"About all a fella would be able to do, without getting arrested, was to drink sody- pop and maybe kiss his wife. And no one liked the idea very much, the wives included."

"I’d been chasing females all my life, not paying no mind to the fact that whatever’s got tail at one end has teeth at the other,"

"I loved was myself, and I was willing to do anything I god- dang had to to go on lying and cheating and drinking whiskey and screwing women and going to church on Sunday with all the other respectable people."

"And I don’t suppose you’re at all responsible, are you?’ ‘Not a speck,’ I said. ‘Just because I put temptation in front of people, it don’t mean they got to pick it up.’"

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Sins of The Father by Lawrence Block

They Shoot Horses Don't They? by Horace McCoy

The Black Dhalia by James Ellroy

• About The Author...

Jim Thompson was born in Anadarko, Oklahoma. He began writing fiction at a very young age, selling his first story to True Detective when he was only fourteen. Thompson eventually wrote twenty-nine novels, all but three of which were published as paperback originals. Thompson also co-wrote two screenplays (for the Stanley Kubrick films The Killing and Paths of Glory). Several of his novels have been filmed by American and French directors, resulting in classic noir including The Killer Inside Me (1952), After Dark My Sweet(1955), and The Grifters (1963).

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

 

320 Pages

You can buy The Murder of Roger Ackroyd...Here

You can read about Agatha Christie...Here

• The Blurb...

Mrs Farrars is found dead of an apparent overdose one year after the death of her husband. The villagers of King's Abbot are suspicious. The rumour is that she poisoned her husband and was in love with Roger Ackroyd. When he is found murdered the following day, there is little to go on.

Luckily one of the newest residents who has retired to this normally quiet village is none other than Monsieur Hercule Poirot.

• Our Review..

I decided to read this after hearing in a podcast that TMORA  is one of Christie's classic mysteries in that it has a conclusion that comes out the blue and knocks you sideways similar to her other belters "Murder On The Orient Express" and "And Then There Were None." If you have read them or seen the film/tv adaptions then you will know what I men. No spoilers. I throughly enjoyed reading both those novels and yes I failed to spot the culprit(s) 

Now I'm one of them. Yes I'm the guy who spots the wrong un well before the end. Sadly, I actually pride myself on it. Very rarely do I fail to pick out the killer hidden in plain sight. So I then I'm up for the challenge. Agatha isn't going to do me three times in a row.

The book opens with the news that Poirot has retired to grow marrows in the hamlet of King's Abbot. He is missing his former confidante and scribe Hastings. However his neighbour is the local GP Dr Sheppard. They quickly become friends. The good Dr becomes Poirot's new sidekick. Poirot is requested to enter the fray one more time. Together they investigate the murder of local bigwig Roger Ackroyd who has been literally stabbed in the back.

There are numerous potential perps and most have means, motive and opportunity. Is this Poirot's final case also his toughest?

The task of the crime writer is a hard and complex one. To plan a murder and then devise and leave all the clues visible but to then obfuscate and camouflage them to such an exponential degree that they cannot be seen even in plain sight. Then find a way to unravel the thread that connects them all in sequence. There is a reason why Christie is the greatest selling novelist of all time. She is a genius at it. More magician than writer. When the culprit is revealed and taken back through the timeline, you are left slapping your head and giving your best Homer Simpson! D'oh! Of course how did I not see it all along.

 The prose is very Christie like way, all middle class, servants, gossips and ner-do-wells. I found myself relaxing into the comfortable words and rhythm  like a favourite, comfy armchair. Even if I had actually worked out who the killer was, it would still have been a very good book. The fact that she had done me again just elevates it a little. It just came out of nowhere and yet was so logical. Well played again Agatha. It was first published 97 years ago and it's still a great sucker punch.

Really good book, with a great reveal.

• Selected Quotes...

"Ackroyd was sitting as I had left him in the armchair before the fire. His head had fallen sideways, and clearly visible, just below the collar of his coat, was a shining piece of twisted metalwork."

"Not mentally responsible. That’s the line to take, clearly. I read only the other day that they’re very happy in Broadmoor—it’s quite like a high-class club.”

“Never worry about what you say to a man. They’re so conceited that they never believe you mean it if it’s unflattering.”

“He would say so,” I remarked bitterly. “Modesty is certainly not his middle name.” “I wish you wouldn’t be so horribly American, James.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Hangman's Holiday by Dorothy L Sayers

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

One by One by Ruth Ware

• About the Author...

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie is the best-selling author of all time. She wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in Romance. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, she remains the most-translated individual author, having been translated into at least 103 languages. She is the creator of two of the most enduring figures in crime literature-Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple-and author of The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theatre.

Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in Torquay, Devon, England, U.K., as the youngest of three. The Millers had two other children: Margaret Frary Miller (1879–1950), called Madge, who was eleven years Agatha's senior, and Louis Montant Miller (1880–1929), called Monty, ten years older than Agatha.

Before marrying and starting a family in London, she had served in a Devon hospital during the First World War, tending to troops coming back from the trenches. During the First World War, she worked at a hospital as a nurse; later working at a hospital pharmacy, a job that influenced her work, as many of the murders in her books are carried out with poison. During the Second World War, she worked as a pharmacy assistant at University College Hospital, London, acquiring a good knowledge of poisons which feature in many of her novels.

Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, came out in 1920. During her first marriage, Agatha published six novels, a collection of short stories, and a number of short stories in magazines.

In late 1926, Agatha's husband, Archie, revealed that he was in love with another woman, Nancy Neele, and wanted a divorce. On 8 December 1926 the couple quarreled, and Archie Christie left their house, Styles, in Sunningdale, Berkshire, to spend the weekend with his mistress at Godalming, Surrey. That same evening Agatha disappeared from her home, leaving behind a letter for her secretary saying that she was going to Yorkshire. Her disappearance caused an outcry from the public, many of whom were admirers of her novels. Despite a massive manhunt, she was not found for eleven days.

In 1930, Christie married archaeologist Max Mallowan (Sir Max from 1968) after joining him in an archaeological dig. Their marriage was especially happy in the early years and remained so until Christie's death in 1976.

Christie frequently used familiar settings for her stories. Christie's travels with Mallowan contributed background to several of her novels set in the Middle East. Other novels (such as And Then There Were None) were set in and around Torquay, where she was born. Christie's 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express was written in the Hotel Pera Palace in Istanbul, Turkey, the southern terminus of the railway. The hotel maintains Christie's room as a memorial to the author. The Greenway Estate in Devon, acquired by the couple as a summer residence in 1938, is now in the care of the National Trust.

Christie often stayed at Abney Hall in Cheshire, which was owned by her brother-in-law, James Watts. She based at least two of her stories on the hall: the short story The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, and the novel After the Funeral. Abney Hall became Agatha's greatest inspiration for country-house life, with all the servants and grandeur which have been woven into her plots.

To honour her many literary works, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1956 New Year Honours. The next year, she became the President of the Detection Club.

(From Goodreads.com)

All Come To Dust by Bryony Rheam

 

526 pages

You can buy All Come To Dust...Here

You can follow Bryony Rheam's blog...Here

I have received a free copy of this book from AMA books and Parthian Books 

 in exchange for an open and honest review.

You can find AMA books...Here

You can find Parthian Books...Here

• The Blurb...

Marcia Pullman has been found dead at home in the leafy suburbs of Bulawayo. Chief Inspector Edmund Dube is onto the case at once, but it becomes increasingly clear that there are those, including the dead woman’s husband, who do not want him asking questions.

The case drags Edmund back into his childhood to when his mother’s employers disappeared one day and were never heard from again, an incident that has shadowed his life. As his investigation into the death progresses, Edmund realises the two mysteries are inextricably linked and that unravelling the past is a dangerous undertaking threatening his very sense of self.

• My Review...

Well, what an unexpected gem.

All Comes To Dust tells the story of black Police Officer Edmund investigating the murder of wealthy ex-pat Marcia Pullman in modern day Zimbabwe. I think the book succeeds because it engages the reader on many levels. 

Firstly there is an excellent, convoluted, multi-layered murder mystery ala Agatha Christie or PD James. Or I should say there are three mysteries at play. Who (if anyone) murdered Marcia Pullman, who defiled her corpse and what happened to the McDougal family. The McDougal family were Edmund's mother's employers who took a special interest in Edmund, ensuring that he got a good education. However, one day during Edmund's childhood they just disappeared. 

There is also a slightly comedic/tragic aspect to Edmund. He is a very shy, bookish introvert bumbling along in his investigation. He finds a collaborator in semi-alcoholic,white-trash, handyman Craig. Craig is a cynical and resentful man. Set this against the incompetent and corrupt background of the comically under resourced  Zimbabwe Police Force and it can make for a  situation ripe for ridicule.

In addition the author offers some very interesting takes on a culture that is alien to most western readers and one that would also seem to be in a slow decline. She gives a fascinating insight into the once powerful but now diminishing  white Zimbabwe/ ex Rhodesian community.

As well as the regional insights into class, culture and colour of her community, the author also portrays parts of the universal human experience very well. Loneliness, religion, despair and hope are deftly handled. How the past comes back constantly and intertwines with the present is also a thread through out this intriguing novel.

The first part of the novel is steadily paced, but ramps towards the end and the denouement. Where Edmund gathers the suspects together and goes through their various, nefarious and complicated intrigues one by one. If there was a tweak to be made, I think the complex plot and numerous back stories, while all well done, means the narrative is possibly slightly too long.

I started this book expecting a bog standard cozy crime caper. I was pleasantly surprised. The balance of cozy to crime was just how I like it. The hinterland of excellent socio-political with a philosophical tinge writing was a huge bonus.

• Selected Quotes...

"I envy you, Chief Inspector

Me? Why?

Because your black. You belong to a community, a race. Living here,being white is such a burden. We've been cut adrift from wherever we came from, amputated like a gangrenous leg that no longer works. We have no roots, no base."

"The kind of policeman she was used to was watchful but for other reasons. Their eyes followed you with a watchful greed. How could they get what they wanted be it money or goods - or sex? But the truth, the truth was rarely something a police officer looked for unless it benefited them in some way."

"I went to Sir Herbert Stanley Primary School he said without really knowing why he said it. In his embarrassment he wanted to find a reason for his intelligence, as though he didn't deserve it. I was very fortunate to have been sent there by my mothers's employers.

Her wry smile broadened. You're very lucky. But intelligence has little to do with education. I know a lot of educated people who aren't very clever at all.

"Always he felt the loss of that faith. It was like the loss of a childhood belief in faries or Father Christmas.What was the difference in those beliefs - God and Father Christmas - except at a certain age someone told you the truth about the latter and let you get on with the former? What would life be like as an adult if you still believed in a fat bearded man who came down the chimney once a year? You'd be mad. Yet a God who was never seen, never had been seen lived on and on - and on"

• If You Liked This, You May Like...

The Last Resort : A Memoir of Zimbabwe by Douglas Rogers

My Brother-But-One by TM Clark

• About the Author...

Bryony Rheam was born in Kadoma, Zimbabwe. Her debut novel This September Sun won Best First Book Award in 2010 and reached Number 1 on Amazon Kindle. She has also published a range of short stories in anthologies. In 2014, she won an international competition to write a chapter of an Agatha Christie novel. She has attended the Ake Book and Arts festival in Abeokuta, Nigeria and Africa Utopia at the Southbank Centre in London. Rheam is a recipient of the 2018 Miles Morland Writing scholarship. She is an English teacher at Girls’ College and lives in Bulawayo with her partner and their two children.

An Honest Life by J.F. Conroy

 

You can buy "An Honest Life"...Here

You can follow J.F. Conroy...Here

357 Pages

• The Blurb

Ruthless crime lord Declan Hennessy has  only one ambition; to rule Dublin’s northside. Once he is in control of the drug trade, he can take his foot off the pedal and enjoy the empire he has built for his family. ​Incompetent amateur Martin Lynch has charm and no real malice. At heart an honest man, he struggles to provide for his family as a result of bad debts and worse luck. Declan and Martin despise each other but over the past two decades, their families’ lives have become intertwined in unsettling ways. Despite the common traits they share, nothing can resolve the long-standing conflict between them.When two rival gangs enter Declan’s territory, a violent struggle for power ensues; a struggle that both families cannot avoid.  Whilst Declan and Martin will do anything to protect their families, they soon realise that the only thing they need protection from is… themselves. If they cannot find a way to unite, they will lose everything. An Honest Man is a powerful and stirring crime novel with a dark sense of humour that reveals the redemptive power of adversity.

• My Review...

The author has created an unusual yet enticing mix of black humour, tragedy and crime. 

The book really falls into three parts. In the first part we focus on the the lovable loser Martin. He is a Del Boy type of character but with added alcohol issues and we learn a little of Declan's backstory. This section is paced at a relaxing, enjoyable meander rather than a romp. We learn of the episodic comic exploits of Martin. While the tales are enjoyable you struggle to see the relevance of them. This however becomes clear when something unexpected happens in the middle of the book. It will have you gently sobbing into your tea. The author does a great job of breaking your heart and it was at this point I realised that the first part of the book was subtly and subconsciously drawing you in to investing in the characters, before punching you in the face. It was a Mr Miaggi moment, when I realised the wax on, wax off of the first half the book was sneakily developing you for what was to come. 

Throughout the book there is a strong sense of community and friendship but tempered by hardship. Its a very working class sense of community. It reminded me of the sense of innocence and hardship in the film "Belfast." and indeed my own childhood growing up in the Welsh valleys. 

The wives of the two protagonists are friends as are their adolescent sons. These friendships are not without their challenges as the fathers issues with each have a detrimental effect. The last part of the book deals with the gangland war and focuses more on Declan, the vicious gang-lord, and the redemption of both men. This part was more straightforward.

Some call it banter, some call it taking the piss, here it is called giving out and it is brilliantly done. The humour is as thick and black yet there is a sprinkling of thought provoking home truths that help cut through the bravado.

An unusually plotted crime novel, with a rich vein of black humour. Makes you laugh, makes you cry. All you could want from a Irish tale. Chapaeu Mr J.F. Conroy

• Selected Quotes

"Now what's with this drinking all the time? You don't see me at breakfast with a can of lager with my toast do you?

    I don't see you at breakfast at all Da - you're always sleeping off the drink from the night before"

"Love comes and goes, but jealousy is bred on the bone."

"It takes years to get to this size.

Is it a gland problem ye have?

No it's a repetitive knife and fork problem."

"What are your plans over the Easter holidays?

Shrugging his shoulders, Martin raised then dropped his hands to his sides in surrender.  'The same as Jesus' he quipped 'disappear on Friday, turn back up on Monday"

• If You Liked This, You May Like...

Struggled with this because I haven't come across many books like this 

best I could do...

A Man With One Of Those Faces by Ciamh McDonnell

Ways To Die In Glasgow by Jay Stringer

• About the Author

If you have already read An Honest Life, you are probably thinking, ‘That’s a fine story told by a good solid Irish writer’...Well, the truth is, I am about as Irish as a Caribbean coconut… ok, let me take that back a notch. This story starts from humble beginnings rather much like my own. My mother and father moved over from Ireland to the UK and met around 1970. They married and had three children that grew up at 22 Holmewood Road, Brixton Hill, LONDON. If you tap this address into Google Earth, you will get a feel for the surroundings from chapter one. I grew up amongst the Irish community attending céilithe and festivals and absorbed in the characteristics of the Irish charm. So, rather much like an onion soaked in vinegar, you could say that I am a pickled Irishman… yes, I like that statement. I am a pickled Irishman.

Astrid & The Girl in the Tangerine Dress by Alan Roderick

 

You can buy Astrid & The Girl in the Tangerine Dress...Here

The Blurb...

Ace Welsh Private Investigator Astrid Price is up to her neck in murder and mayhem and facing a series of seemingly unsolvable problems. Who is the elusive Girl in the Tangerine Dress and why has she disappeared? Where is the missing first ever recording of the Welsh National Anthem? And why are so many people being knifed to death?

As the sun beats down relentlessly and the Welsh Republic prepares to vote in a new government, amidst increasing tensions with England and Ireland, Astrid pounds the mean streets of the twin cities of Casnewydd and Maendy in search of answers.

In her quest for truth and justice, she encounters ‘bent coppers’, is threatened, abducted, violently attacked and survives attempts to frame herself, and her best friend and closest confidant for murder, whilst trying to decide what is the role of the Casnewydd Super Dragons in all this and last, but certainly not least, what exactly are her feelings towards the new man in her life.

The text is enhanced with eighteen of Ella J Wilding’s charming black and white drawings.

My Review...

Astrid and The Girl in the Tangerine Dress is a cosy crime set in an alternative and independent Wales.  The characters are vibrant and interesting. I feel the particular strength of the book is it's ingenious setting. The Republic of Wales is newly independent with it's own currency (the Glyndwyr) and armed forces (the Llewellyn the Last regiment being the equivalent of the SAS.) But all is not well in the new Republic  and tensions are rising with both the English and the Irish. There is a terrorist threat in "The Hammers of Edward," who want to reunite with England. That is a nice mirror image of Meibion Glyndwr.

However I feel the strength of the book maybe a also be a slight weakness. While I am a proud Welshman and man of Gwent, the Welsh references are, if anything, too numerous and may discourage a reader not familiar with the area or culture. I feel the pudding may have been over-egged or perhaps I should say there is too much halen in the cawl.

 

I like that the author draws inspiration from literature in a subtle way. The title seems similar to a Stieg Larrson novel and the plot is very similar to a famous Sherlock Holmes short story. No it's not the one with big dog.

I found the opening few paragraphs intriguing and a very good hook. The knock about comedy was enjoyable and the illustrations were an added bonus. I feel the book lends itself to a younger audience. 

As an aside, when the author switched tack from cosy crime and was in descriptive mode (e.g. opening few paragraphs of Chapter 17) I thought he was very good and couldn't help thinking what the author could do with a serious, alternate history/future  book, similar to Fatherland by Robert Harris, but set in the Republic of Wales.

A fascinating and funny look into the near future in Wales. Fans of Boyd Clack and  Satellite City will love it.

Selected Quotes...

"I had long since ceased trying to count them. Hills with names like Bryn Derwyn, Bryrn Terfel, Brynhyfryd and Bryn Meredith."

"The latest move by Mary Hopkin, our new president, was proving to be a bone of contention with many people. Basically, it meant that all 'slave names' as she insisted on calling them: Wales, Newport, Swansea etc. were effectively outlawed and banned from official usage,"

"Talk about money for old rope, this was going to be easy; I could feel in my Brecon Careg bottled water,"

"..She was wearing a tangerine dress when I saw her...

    Bloody Blackpool supporters,"

About the Author...

Born Newport, Gwent. Educated St Mary’s Primary School, Duffryn High School. Studied French and German, Bradford University, 1965 to 1969, graduating with a Joint Honours Degree in Modern Languages.

Worked at BBC Monitoring Service in Reading. Taught English in the 1970s in Remscheid (where I met librarian Božena Roš) and Ansbach, West Germany.

In 1975, completed Teaching English as a Second Language Certificate at the University College of North Wales, Bangor. Married Božena Roš in Bangor, June 14th, 1975.

Taught German, Bryn Hafren School for Girls in Barry and French and German at Caldicot Comprehensive School.

1980 won the Local History Competition organised by the Gwent Local History Society and the South Wales Argus with my History of the Welsh Language in Gwent.

Articles published in numerous publications. Written/edited fourteen non-fiction books.

Fiction: Astrid Investigates, Astrid and the Golden Lovespoons, Astrid and the Girl in the Tangerine Dress.

Finalist in the John Tripp Spoken Poetry Competition, 2004 and 2011. Read poetry in Newport, Bargoed, Bristol, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath, Penarth, Cardiff, Swansea.

Since November, 2013, organised monthly poetry nights at Newport’s Murenger House. Chairman of The Cwtsh Arts Centre in Stow Hill, Newport.

2020, published: Selected Poems, 1978-2015; Twelve Days In Intensive Care, October 21st to November 1st, 2010, A Poetic Record; After You’d Gone, Poems 2016 - 2020. Edited Božena’s Book, a collection of my wife’s writings and artwork.

The Corpse With The Granite Heart by Cathy Ace

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐

You can buy The Corpse with the Granite Heart...Here

You can visit Cathy's website...Here

The Blurb...

Welsh Canadian criminal psychologist Cait Morgan, and her retired-cop husband Bud Anderson, are in London, England, to meet their friend John Silver’s freshly minted fiancée, the daughter of a recently deceased Shakespeare aficionado, and captain of industry. The trip is supposed to be filled with art galleries, good food, and Christmas spirit. However, an untimely death at a posh dinner party threatens to send shock waves through the upper strata of London society.

My Review...

This is the 11th book in the Cait Morgan series by Cathy Ace. In this series Cait travels the world to iconic locations tripping over corpses and investigating murder. 

This book can be read as a standalone or as part of the series.

For fans of Cluedo and Agatha Christie. A locked room, or in this case a closed mansion, mystery with only a few potential killers. This is a densely layered cosy, crime who-dunnit, which takes some unpicking. Set in suburban London mansion at Christmas, the bodies fall faster than snow. The story benefits from a fairly complex plot which makes the killer not too easy to spot. (Well I didn't spot them, so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.) The characters will be familiar from the genre. The mis-matched twins, the old, blustering knight of the realm, the grasping, gold digger, the grim police detective et al.  

Only one thing threw me a little, and this is probably down to me being an old git and not "down with kids."The author uses the phrase mugged several times. As in "mugged a grin" or "mugged a salute." I couldn't work it out for a while. I was thinking, robbed in the street, with the threat of violence. Nope 🤔 eventually worked it out, it means to over react often in a smug/smarmy way. So there you go. Everyday's a school day. Apparently it's quite a well known thing too, these days. So its just me then....

The mansion is quite intricate with numerous rooms, outbuildings, stairs etc. The book may have benefitted from a floor plan, just to keep the locations clear. 

The author has an unusual style. It's like getting drawn into a conversation with a gossipy neighbour, and eventually becoming entangled into her world. Or when something like "Loose Women" is on TV. One minute your'e walking through the lounge and the next  you find yourself sat watching, wondering what will happen now that Simon has left Joanne with the kids and gone to shack up with that gold digger Serena Chardonnay.

Written in the first person. The protagonist is a very interesting character psychologically speaking. For one she has a propensity to say and do things to blend into her social surroundings whilst actually thinking something totally different. This duality/incongruence is not something I often come across. The only other protagonist I can think of like this is Patricia Highsmith's Talented Mr Ripley. Cait's chameleon act is very subtle and not as drastic as Ripley's but is there none the less. (see selected quotes.)

Secondly, it would appear she has some up close experience of the English Class system and definitely NOT a fan. A view with which I would have some sympathy. I could have picked several quotes to illustrate this but settled for just two (see selected quotes). Cait often uses her "think one way, act another" skill to camouflage herself in the society she dislikes intensely.

There is a section where Cait lists four characteristics of a psychopath. As I read them I thought, yep and you have at least three of them, but that doesn't make her a bad person just an effective investigator

All in all a very quotable and excellent example of the genre with a fascinating lead character. Always thinking outside the box... She would be a fantastic villain. 

Selected Quotes...

"I plastered what I hoped was a sympathetic look onto my face."

“Bella and Sasha, and Charles of course, were away at school for years,” began John. “Cheltenham and Eton, respectively.” Oh, the delights of moving in circles where the assumption is that all children go to boarding school, was what I thought. “Of course,” was what I mumbled

 "It was the first time I’d encountered the titanium mesh that binds together those who’ve endured the particular brand of cruelty and indoctrination that’s the stockin-trade of the English public school system."

"I reckon he’s overcompensating for something, though I don’t know what.” Possibly an unhappy childhood, packed off to board with the well-heeled but not necessarily super-bright? Was what I thought."

“Women have a much greater ability than men to be desperately cruel.”

"Until that moment I’d never considered a voice to be capable of slithering,"

About the Author...

Cathy Ace migrated from her native Wales to Canada at the age of 40. She is the award-winning author of the traditional Cait Morgan Mysteries featuring her Welsh Canadian criminology professor sleuth who travels the world tripping over corpses, which have now been optioned for TV. She also writes the cozier WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries featuring a quartet of female PIs who run their business out of a Welsh stately home. Both series have been well-reviewed. Her award-winning standalone, THE WRONG BOY, is a gripping novel of psychological suspense, set in Wales, and has also been optioned for TV.

Cathy's work has won the prestigious Bony Blithe Award for best Canadian light mystery, an IPPY and an IBA Award, and has been shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Story.

Her short story "Dear George" appeared on the UK's O Level English Language syllabus and, together with another story, "Domestic Violence", has been produced for BBC Radio 4.