September in South Devon, and Tradmouth CID are looking forward to the post-summer lull in local crime – but when some builders in nearby Sycamore House find a mummified corpse hidden in a wall, it seems that any respite that might have happened is over.
The body belongs to an academic, Aleric Donaal, who disappeared about a decade ago, while researching Devon’s medieval history. As Wesley Peterson and his team look into the inhabitants of the house at the time of the disappearance – when the house was a commune – a seemingly unrelated murder occurs. Convinced there is a link between the deaths, Wesley finds himself seeing links to old carvings of grotesques found in the grounds of the House. But it seems that there are more deaths to investigate than first appeared – and if Wesley doesn’t find the killer, then even more are going to happen…
Book Thirty – Thirty! – of the Wesley Peterson series. I don’t think there are many series that are that long, and certainly aren’t many that keep up the standard of this series. The structure of current crime mirroring/being mirrored by a past crime has shown so much flexibility over the series – even now, the story from the past in this one feels different from any that Kate has produced before.
Bit of a short review as I’ve got loads to write from my holiday reading, but anyone who has read any of my previous reviews of Kate’s books knows what I’m going to say – gripping read, interesting ideas, comfortable characters and distinctive suspects. I would say that I’d have preferred the villain to have made a couple more appearances in the tale before they are unmasked, but it’s the way that Kate can take so many apparently disparate strands in a story and draws them together into a whole that makes perfect sense that impresses me so much.
So, if you get the chance, do give the series a go – either this one, or any others. The order doesn’t particularly matter, but no matter which one you pick up, you are guaranteed a good read.
Many thanks to Little Brown and Kate for the review copy. The Chapel Of Bones came out yesterday in hardback and ebook.
The Wesley Peterson Series:
- The Merchant’s House
- The Armada Boy
- An Unhallowed Grave
- The Funeral Boat
- The Bone Garden
- A Painted Doom
- The Skeleton Room
- The Plague Maiden
- A Cursed Inheritance
- The Marriage Hearse
- The Shining Skull
- The Blood Pit
- A Perfect Death
- The Flesh Tailor
- The Jackal Man
- The Cadaver Game
- The Shadow Collector
- The Shroud Maker
- The Death Season
- The House Of Eyes
- The Mermaid’s Scream
- The Mechanical Devil
- Dead Man’s Lane
- The Burial Circle
- The Stone Chamber
- Serpent’s Point
- The Killing Place
- Coffin Island
- Deadly Remains
- The Chapel Of Bones
In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel 
I couldn’t believe that this was number thirty. It’s great that Kate Ellis is still able to make her characters and mysteries interesting. I really enjoyed this latest one.
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I know – thirty, still going strong and no sign of repetition. Amazing work.
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I’ve just bought a job lot of these, including the first three, based on reading about them here. After a long period of a predominantly Golden Age diet, I’ve recently been rereading contemporary crime (N.B. can mean “published since I learned to read”) and I thought I ought to try a couple of more recent series I’d missed. Your tastes are usually reasonably close to mine, plus the series is set round my way and I often rather like the “parallel plot” thing. I suspect I shan’t be disappointed and if there are thirty of them that ought to keep me occupied for a little bit.
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Hope you enjoy them. Of the first three, The Armada Boy always stood out for me, but it was The Jackal Man (my second read, I think) that hooked me. And Kate herself, who’s just lovely and the first author I met via the blog.
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It sounds very much my kind of thing. I’ve also ordered the first M.W. Craven, also based on your recommendation. As I say, while not identical, our tastes are generally close enough for it to be worth a punt. I wouldn’t normally buy a dozen books by an author I’ve not previously read so I grabbed a bundle of the first three but then the seller had a load more and it worked out about a quid per book so seemed daft not to.
A lot of the writers I was reading 20-odd years ago are, for reasons largely of mortality, no longer publishing new work, which is why I thought I’d try a few new to me. The only thing that tends to put me off is when writers follow the modern trend of using the present tense, thankfully this is fairly rare in mysteries.
I’ll keep an eye out here for other things to try. I don’t really want anything “cosy” though nor do I want graphic violence, etc. On the whole, and with exceptions, I’m not that keen on the comic crime novel either.
Anyway, I’ll let you know how I get on, the books ought to turn up later this week.
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Avoid Elly Griffiths if the present tense is an issue…
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Yes, I picked up one of hers in a bookshop, the blurb looked interesting but put it down again on reading the first page. It can work, of course, but best employed as an effect, as Dickens does in Bleak House (I’d guess this is where it started, though Esther’s narrative, i.e. most of it, is past tense). I think its modern prevalence comes largely from American Literary Lions (Updike, et al), followed by the success of the late Ms Mantel et al. I find it really annoying and often confusing.
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