Beth Haldane, SE21’s answer to Miss Marple, thinks she is going for a carefree stroll on Peckham Rye with her best friend, Katie, and her annoying new puppy, Teddy. But before Beth knows it, she is embroiled in her most perplexing mystery yet.
Strange events from her family’s past, present-day skulduggery in the art world, and the pressures of moving school in south London threaten to overwhelm Beth. Will she be able to piece together the puzzle before her son’s crucial interview at Wyatt’s? Or will Beth’s insatiable curiosity finally drag down all her dreams for the future?
Join Beth, her irascible on-off boyfriend, Detective Inspector Harry York of the Metropolitan Police, and the dog walkers of Peckham Rye in a tale of murder, mayhem – and bloody revenge.
My Rating:
So, you’re telling me there’s a bit of a #MeToo movement building up in the park against young Teddy here? … Perhaps you might want to think about getting him, erm, done? I’m not sure what age they need to be to have the op, but that would definitely sort out his hormones, I should think. Even a Dachshund isn’t going to look that irresistible if you’ve had your danglers cut off, I dare say.
‘Liquorice? Oh, is that your dog?’ looking under the bench at the
little wiry-haired creature… ‘He’s very cute,’ said Beth dutifully, looking at
Liquorice doubtfully. She supposed it was like being presented with other
people’s babies. No matter how much they resembled Winston Churchill sucking a
lemon, you were still obliged to say how utterly gorgeous they were.
Beth sometimes wondered how she’d grown to adulthood with such a
light hand on the parental tiller. Her father had always been at work. She
remembered trying to get into the garage, as a small child, as that was the
place her father disappeared to every morning and the spot he emerged from
every night. With her child’s logic, she assumed he spent his days shut away in
there, and already she could see why he might want to.
Delving in the bread bin, she made the unwelcome discovery that
she only had white sliced, which she was pretty sure Katie equated with crack
cocaine. More horrifying still, one slice had a tiny fleck of blue on one edge.
Mould! Hastily chopping off all the crusts and hurling them in the bin dealt
with that problem. And penicillin was good for you, right?
… such an oily charmer, he’s totally the type to sell a double bed
to the Pope. I’d take every word he said with a mine of salt.
Bursar looked as though he had been poured into his suit but had
forgotten to say ‘when’.
My Review:
While she appeared to have
started with an exceptional skill set and an enviable level of innate ability,
Alice Castle continues to hone her craft as each new installment of this
pleasantly entertaining and enticing series has proven to be even better than
the last. Each cunningly plotted tale has
provided ample servings of clever wry humor, engaging storylines, endearingly
flawed and intriguing characters, and an unusual and unpredictable murder
mystery. I am besotted with this quirky
collection of characters; several of which reappear in each interconnected
book. I am also totally enamored with
this series and keenly await each new tale.
The main character of Beth
is a pint-sized, pixie boot wearing young widow and single-mom with an
insatiable curiosity, a somewhat short attention span, and a tenacious tendency
to follow her own instincts. I adore
her! She is as prone to daydreaming and
being easily side-tracked as she is to stumbling into crime scenes and
discovering murder victims. Her
domestic skills and time sense are humorously haphazard yet she somehow keeps
her beloved young son and well-adored pets fed and content, and is fortunate
enough that her work output is largely unmonitored and her frequent absences go
unnoticed. Beth generally intends to
show up at her office, yet she just cannot seem to keep herself from careening
off-track to snoop and delve into the lives of those unfortunate creatures she
has found without a pulse. All despite
the rigorous admonitions from her overworked and jaded police detective
paramour to cease and desist.
In addition to providing
high-quality entertainment, Ms. Castle has gifted me with a toy box full of new
terms and idioms and for my Brit Word List with: in bits - to be very upset;
titchy – a small person; chuntering – talk or grumble monotonously; swish –
fashionable; inside gen – information; and Bonio – a popular brand of dog
biscuit. What would I ever do without
my blessed Mr. Google?
Empress DJ
About the Author
Before turning to crime, Alice Castle was a UK newspaper journalist for The Daily Express, The Times and The Daily Telegraph. Her first book, Hot Chocolate, set in Brussels and London, was a European hit and sold out in two weeks.
Death in Dulwich was published in September 2017 and has been a number one best-seller in the UK, US, France, Spain, and Germany. A sequel, The Girl in the Gallery was published in December 2017 to critical acclaim. Calamity in Camberwell, the third book in the London Murder Mystery series, was published this summer, with Homicide in Herne Hill following in October 2018. Alice is currently working on the sixth London Murder Mystery adventure. Once again, it will feature Beth Haldane and DI Harry York.
Alice is also a top mummy blogger and book reviewer via her website.
Social Media Links –
http://www.alicecastleauthor.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alicecastleauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DDsDiary?lang=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alicecastleauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DDsDiary?lang=en
Giveaway
Win a signed copy of Revenge on the Rye
(Open Internationally)
*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will be passed to the giveaway organizer and used only for the fulfillment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data. I am not responsible for dispatch or delivery of the prize.
*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will be passed to the giveaway organizer and used only for the fulfillment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data. I am not responsible for dispatch or delivery of the prize.
