Lexi Verity, the star of the small screen, thought she had a sanctuary in the Yorkshire village of Eaglethorpe, but it clearly wasn’t as safe as she thought. When her body is found floating in her swimming pool, DI Joe Plantagenet and DCI Emily Thwaite lead the investigation. But a lifetime in the spotlight can lead to hatred hiding in the shadows…

As Joe and Emily find the list of suspects getting longer and longer, Joe’s friend, a local priest, comes to him with another problem. A father who has just moved into a renovated pub is worried that his son and daughter are being terrorised by a pair of ghosts. But that can have nothing to do with Lexie’s murder. Can it?

Kate Ellis Day came early this year! It’s normally in August when Kate’s latest Wes Peterson book drops through my letterbox, but it looks like there’s a bonus this year as Kate has returned to her other recurring sleuth Joe Plantagenet, last seen in 2015 in Walking By Night. While the Wesley Peterson series always has an archaeological subplot, the Plantagenet series tends to have a supernatural one. To be clear, the murder mystery plot is completely grounded in reality – there’s a flesh and blood murderer and they’re not running around wearing a ghost mask.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I love Kate’s books. They are masterpieces of plotting – reading her books are like watching a tapestry being woven. So many seemingly disparate threads that come together slowly to form a complete picture. Things that seemed irrelevant suddenly becomes part of the main plot, but in a way that makes sense. Kate is an author who plots her books out in advance on a wall-chart and it shows, but that isn’t to say that books aren’t full of character and atmosphere too.

Joe is a strong lead – he has issues in his past (and seemingly future, so I’m guessing this isn’t a one-off return) but not so much that he’s dark and brooding. Emily makes a good contrast, and we never have to revert to “being thrown of the case” tropes to keep the tension going. I said earlier this year that I’m staying away from police procedurals this year, but I’ll always make exceptions for Kate. Besides these aren’t really police procedurals, they’re mysteries first and foremost. And while there’s a supernatural element in the story, it just enhances the mystery rather than distract from it.

Any niggles? Well, I do wish Kate had just called York York, rather than Eborby, but I guess that’s been locked in since book one. But the only other complaint is that it’ll probably be another year before we see Joe again – and that’s a long time to wait. Who knows, maybe Wesley Peterson will pop along before then to pass the time…

Killing In The Shadows is out now from Constable in hardback and ebook. Many thanks to Kate – sorry, “The Million-Copy Bestselling Author Kate Ellis” – for the review copy.