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A Wesley Peterson
Murder Mystery - Book XVII
Kate Ellis
Piatkus (Little,
Brown)
28 February 2013 / ISBN-13: 9780749958022
Mystery / Contemporary / Devon, England
Amazon
US -
UK
Reviewed
by Rachel A Hyde |
Back
in 1994 two women living in an isolated farm were tried and
convicted for the murder of two teenage girls. Dorothy and
her daughter Lilith Benley were self-confessed witches who
had fed the girls' bodies to their pigs. Eighteen years later
Lilith is out of gaol and back living at Devil's Tree Cottage,
but it seems as though she is back in business for soon the
body of a young woman is found nearby. Wesley's boss Gerry
worked on the earlier case and is convinced of the woman's
guilt, but there are plenty of other suspects, especially
after Wesley's archaeologist friend Neil has an accident after
uncovering a strange doll while excavating the cellar of a
house where a 17th century witch once lived.
I can't get enough of these and look forward to the latest
in the series every year. Why are they so special? Ms Ellis
cooks up the perfect recipe for a mystery novel with just
the right balance of convoluted plot, a frisson of eeriness,
some lurid history, tangled relationships and a spot-on portrait
of a part of Britain not often covered in fiction. I live
in the county and applaud the author's insightful depiction
of modern Devon that provides a good backdrop to the events
with its mixture of scenery, history, tourism and economic
struggles. Everything dovetails tidily together in these novels,
sometimes a little too much so as all events seem to point
towards the case, however unlikely, but even this serves to
make the story that much more complex and intriguing. By now
the series characters seem like old friends and as with other
long-running series it is always good to look in on them and
see what they are up to. I hope Ms Ellis continues to write
these books for a very long time.
An
Hallowed Grave #3
The
Bone Garden #5
A
Perfect Death #13
The
Flesh Tailor #14
The
Shadow Collector #17
The
Shroud Maker #18
House
of Eyes #20
The
Mechanical Devil #22 |