I wonder, when reading books like this it helps that I have a suspicious nature! For a while I suspected anyone who wasn’t Tess!! Then I composed myself and focused on the many clues and red herrings offered by this author and figured out who the perp was. Does that make me smartass of the year? Probably not but I do experience a degree of smugness when I make my deduction and get it right. It makes up for all the times I get it wrong!!
‘Restoring the country house seemed like a dream come true for Tess. But during rehearsals for the play that forms the opening weekend’s flagship event, her dream turns into a nightmare as those around her begin to fall victim to terrible accidents.’
‘FOUR TRAGIC DEATHS.
OR FOUR BRUTAL MURDERS?’
And that’s the blurb. A thankfully brief one giving little away. So the reader can settle down, strap themselves in, and begin this crime rollercoaster. This is my first Sam Blake book but it sure as hell won’t be my last. I was gripped from beginning to end, frantically trying to piece together the jig saw pieces of the puzzle. How did the past impact on the present? Who was who, and why were they, and what where they, and when did they etc etc.!!! There are times when I read crime novels and I feel that the writer is trying to outwit the reader, daring them to figure things out. But, here, the clues were all there and it was as if this writer was willing the reader to work it out bit by bit.
This is a deliciously, twisty ‘Big House’ crime story with something of an Agathesque feel to it. Not a locked room mystery exactly but all the action happens on the Kilfenora Estate. There are lots of characters that you need to get straight in your head, you definitely need to pay attention. In the opening stages of the book you get no real feel for who are the good guys and who are the bad guys but as the pace picks up and you start to process all the clues that list gets narrowed down. And watch out for Merlin, the cat! He is my favourite character. I also enjoyed Clarissa, touch of the Marples here, and Gen, mother and daughter. Tess, as the main character, I warmed to slightly less for some reason even though she had a lot to deal with both past and present. Lots of surprises, a certain amount of the predictable. (I sometimes wonder that when you read a lot of books within a certain genre you becomes skilled at figuring things out?) The ending is a killer one! (Ooops no pun intended).
The story might come under the cosy crime mantle. I’ve always been perplexed by that. How can crime ever be cosy?! But it’s a book to lose yourself on a drab winters afternoon and you’ll emerge thoroughly entertained.
My thanks to Team Corvus at Corvus Books for the copy I won in their giveaway.
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