Murder is in the Air: A Kate Shackleton Mystery
Oct 2020 · Crooked Lane Books
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Frances Brody's twelfth Kate Shackleton mystery will positively intoxicate fans of Jacqueline Winspear and Nicola Upson.
A competition for the crown proves deadly when confidences are betrayed and secrets are spilled.
North Yorkshire, 1930. It's the season for warm and spirited countryside celebrations. Ever since the war, pubs have been in the doldrums, and in an attempt to promote and breathe new life back into the business, brewers select a charismatic employee as local queen--to be the face of their industry. And this year's queen, wages clerk Ruth Parnaby, has invited the ever intrepid Kate Shackleton and her niece Harriet to accompany her on public engagements at a garden party thrown in her honor. But when Ruth leads children to the stables for pony rides, the drayman is missing, later found in the last place imaginable--the fermentation room, deceased.
What looked to be a simple case of asphyxiation in the dangerous fermentation room is quickly clarified by the pathologist as murder--the drayman was already dead before he was taken into the room. Someone was looking to cover it up. The horse dealer who sold the pony to the drayman comes under suspicion, but more and more Ruth's nasty father, Slater Parnaby's strong motive to dissuade his daughter from any festivities lingers in Kate's mind, despite his having an alibi. The case is muddy, at best, and it's going to take Kate at her keenest to decipher the truth.
A competition for the crown proves deadly when confidences are betrayed and secrets are spilled.
North Yorkshire, 1930. It's the season for warm and spirited countryside celebrations. Ever since the war, pubs have been in the doldrums, and in an attempt to promote and breathe new life back into the business, brewers select a charismatic employee as local queen--to be the face of their industry. And this year's queen, wages clerk Ruth Parnaby, has invited the ever intrepid Kate Shackleton and her niece Harriet to accompany her on public engagements at a garden party thrown in her honor. But when Ruth leads children to the stables for pony rides, the drayman is missing, later found in the last place imaginable--the fermentation room, deceased.
What looked to be a simple case of asphyxiation in the dangerous fermentation room is quickly clarified by the pathologist as murder--the drayman was already dead before he was taken into the room. Someone was looking to cover it up. The horse dealer who sold the pony to the drayman comes under suspicion, but more and more Ruth's nasty father, Slater Parnaby's strong motive to dissuade his daughter from any festivities lingers in Kate's mind, despite his having an alibi. The case is muddy, at best, and it's going to take Kate at her keenest to decipher the truth.
Frances Brody's twelfth Kate Shackleton mystery will positively intoxicate fans of Jacqueline Winspear and Nicola Upson.
A competition for the crown proves deadly when confidences are betrayed and secrets are spilled.
North Yorkshire, 1930. It's the season for warm and spirited countryside cele...
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1 review
Janice Tangen
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October 7, 2020
1930s, England, private-investigators, law-enforcement, greed, historical-research***** It's 1930 and Kate is a widow who was a nurse in WW1 but has been working as a private detective with her married partner Jim Sykes, a former police detective, and with the help of her cook, dog, and "niece". The original problem she is to address is a financial one for her friend's husband's brewery and doesn't seem too bad until a key person in the organization is deliberately run down on her way to work. Meanwhile there is a very capable young woman with many secrets who is working in the payroll department and has been entered into a publicity campaign by Kate's friend. Cue another murder! The pace is somewhat irregular but the characters are well presented and the ending is a total twist! Along the way are a host of red herrings and misunderstandings all adding up to a very good read! I requested and received a free ebook copy from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley. Thank you!
About the author
Frances Brody lives in Leeds where she was born and grew up. After leaving school at 16, she worked and traveled, including a spell in New York. She then won a place at Ruskin College, Oxford, and afterwards studied at York University. Before creating the Kate Shackleton mysteries, Frances wrote historical sagas, winning the HarperCollins Elizabeth Elgin award for most regionally evocative debut saga of the millennium. When not writing or reading, Frances likes to test her less than brilliant map reading skills by walking in the Yorkshire Dales.
Frances Brody lives in Leeds where she was born and grew up. After leaving school at 16, she worked and traveled, including a spell in New York. She then won a place at Ruskin College, Oxford, and afterwards studied at York University. Before creating the Kate Shackleton mysteries, Frances wrote ...
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