Lights! Camera! Action! Filming has begun at Hendale Hall in Yorkshire on Draculania, a gender-switched version of Dracula. The venue has been chosen because of the hall has a legend of its own vampire, an ancestor of the current Lord of the manor. But as the mist draws in, there seems to be something lurking out there in the fog… Can the Hensdale vampire be real?

Gwinny Tuffel is balancing dog-sitting a Jack Russell for an aging actor friend and playing Dr Jacqueline Seward in the film, but when the actor playing Luke Westenera is found stabbed through the heart with a prop stake while locked inside a trailer – locked from the inside, obviously – it falls to her to track down a flesh and blood killer. Admittedly, a flesh and blood killer who can apparently walk through walls…

Definitely wearing the “In Search Of…” part of the blog title at the moment, and those lovely people at Allison & Busby have auto-approved me on NetGalley so I thought I’d check out this one, the third Dogsitter Detective title.

I’ll be honest, I thought I was just going to get a simple cosy read out of this one. I had a train journey that I wanted to pass quickly and as I knew the train back would inevitably be populated by football fans, I thought this would be an ideal time-filler. It wasn’t, though. It was a really engrossing read, a clever mystery and a load of fun. Far more than what I expected, and it did an excellent job of distracting me from some over-excited Watford supporters – bless them, they don’t win that often.

Similar to the Rosemary Shrager books, the author here knows how to construct a mystery. A relatively small number of suspects (plus a few orbiting the plot who just might have something to do with it), an intriguing set-up, a sleuth who you enjoy spending time with, and there are clues as well.

And I’m a bit cross/happy about this one because I saw the crucial thing. I even considered the crucial thing. And then forgot about it with the other shenanigans going on. I was genuinely caught out by the murderer – it’s been a while (EDIT: oh, hang on, Thorogood did it too. Whoops!) so I was both surprised and impressed by this one. The locked room is pretty simple, but clever enough to fool people (i.e. me) and not only is the method clued, there’s a reason for it!

And the dog. I should say that I despise Jack Russell’s, as one bit me on the way to my own birthday party when I was 9ish, nasty yappy things, but Lily is the exception to the rule. Especially as she does contribute something to the plot, providing an interesting clue.

The setting is well done, the suspects are fun, Draculina is a plausible idea that isn’t played for laughs (although there are some good lines peppered throughout the dialogue) – all in all, it’s pretty convincing.

A really pleasant surprise, this one, and I’ll be taking the other two books out for a walk once I get my hands on some copies. Don’t be put off by the cosy title (which doesn’t make sense as Seward is very much alive), this is a well-constructed mystery that is well worth your time.

The Dog Sitter Detective Plays Dead is out this Thursday from Allison & Busby. Many thanks for the review e-copy.