Old Mrs Alice Shepherd is a resident
at old people’s home Fellside Court, and convinced that
somebody is trying to kill her. But when she confides her
suspicions to private detective Samson O’Brien, he dismisses
them as the ramblings of a confused old lady. But there does
seem to be something suspicious going on at the home and a
farmer is keen to hire Samson as well to look for the mysterious
missing Ralph. With still nowhere to live he is eager for
the work, and soon he has a death to investigate.
This is the second in a series of mysteries set in the Yorkshire
Dales town of Bruncliffe, following on from Date With
Death (also reviewed on this site). PI Samson and dating
agency owner Delilah Metcalfe worked together to solve the
crime and are doing so again, investigating the goings-on
in the retirement home. This setting adds poignancy to the
tale and some darker moments than a typical cozy, balanced
out by the fact that the events take place in the runup to
Christmas. As with the first book, the best thing about this
series is going to be the author’s knowledge of what
makes Yorkshire special, and this permeates every aspect of
the story. There is more going on here than just a mystery,
which tends to take a back seat some of the time to the minutiae
of life in a rural Yorkshire town and its outlying farms.
We get to know a bit more about the series characters including
hints about the mystery surrounding Samson, and if you were
a fan of Nicholas Rhea’s Constable books or the Heartbeat
TV series, you ought to enjoy this.
Previous
reviews for this series:
Date
with Death #1
Date
with Malice #2
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