"Death in a Shetland Family" by Marsali Taylor

 

These murder mysteries starring sailor and sleuth Cass Lynch are getting better with each novel. 

In fact, the whodunnit element is increasingly taking a back seat to an exploration of life in the Shetlands. In this novel we enter the horse world with an escaped stallion and a horse show. We learn about crofting, Roman Catholicism, and genetics. And, of course, there is the sailing.

There is also a murder. Cass doesn't know the family herself, but she knows those who do. She listens to the gossip, weaving together the testimonies to try to find a story. Red herrings are deftly presented. Ambiguities are exploited. And in the end Cass is imperilled, captured, fleeing, hunted. This is a skilfully written classic cosy crime with a dash of jeopardy.

Gavin, the policeman boyfriend? He is in the Highlands because his mother is ill. Meanwhile Cass has to tend their small-holding, including hens, ponies and sheep. She worries whether she can cope with living off the water.

Real characters with real dilemmas.

And the book is brightened by some fabulous descriptive passages, of which my favourite were:

• "Even though it was a bonny day, blue and warm as summer, the colours had turned. The orange hens-and-chickens along the Tingwall verges had withered to brown lollipop heads, and the royal purple of the heather on the hill behind them had bleached to a creamy white, with blue pincushions of scabious growing through." (Ch 1)
• "Kitten was the colours of spices shaken over a worktop, ginger and nutmeg and cinnamon all mixed together" (Ch 2)
• "I woke to a shepherd’s warning; the glass of the window reflected a red light onto the white shade of the overhead lamp, and the window framed thin cirrus tinged coral-gold which faded as the sun rose. A grey shroud lay over the hills, somewhere between a summer heat haze and an autumn mist. In the garden, a last magenta rose flared among the cloud shape of the daisy bushes." (Ch 4)
• "The sea was fretted over with ripples; the hills were auburn, with hummocks of moss like jade rocks among the heather." (Ch 7)
• "I looked west as I came out of Cribba Sound, past the Atlantic swell rolling in from the sea road leading to where there was nothing in the world but your ship poised on a saucer of shining water under a great arch of sky, and felt my heart ache for it." (Ch 9)
• "It was only five o’clock, but the light was already mellowing to tints of evening, the hills dusted with gold, the moorgrass stems glistening. The yellow buttons of tansy by the gate were translucent above their fresh green leaves." (Ch 9)
• "The sun was behind the hills now, but there were slanting gold shafts of light through the gaps in the clouds, and over the soft green hills, and the sound was filled with whisky-amber water." (Ch 21)

Marsali Taylor must be a talented artist: she can certainly paint irresistible pictures with words. These passages are a literary equivalent of a promotional film for the Shetlands tourist board. If only she hadn't mentioned the midges!

She's also very good with psychology, showing a deep understand of human (and, in the first quote, horse) nature:

• "He’s got himself into that high state where he wants things to be back to normal but doesn’t quite know how to get there, like a toddler refusing to go to bed." (Ch 1)
• "Even Vaila, who knew her own mind and shared it generously, paused to think when Rainbow suggested caution." (Ch 2)
• "He oozed superiority, but if he really felt that far above us all, he wouldn’t need to try so hard." (Ch 3)
• "‘So,’ I said, summing up, ‘a man in possession of a good croft needs a wife with a good income to support him.’" (Ch 16) Okay, she's nicked that one but it's a lovely bit of humour.

This series now transcends the crime genre. Exceptionally entertaining but also a delightful read.

July 2026

Published by Headline Accent in 2026

This review was written by

the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling 

and The Kids of God

This is the fourteenth novel in a crime fiction series that gets better and better. The books, in order, with alternative names, are:

• Death on a Shetland Longship
• The Trowie Mound Murders (Buried in a Shetland Tomb)
• A Handful of Ash (The Shetland Night Killings)
• The Body in the Bracken (Grave of a Shetland Sailor)
• Ghosts of the Vikings (The Shetland Poisonings)
• Death in Shetland Waters
• Death on a Shetland Isle
• Death from a Shetland Cliff
• The Shetland Sea Murders
• A Shetland Winter Mystery
• Death in a Shetland Lane
• Death at a Shetland Festival
• An imposter in Shetland

"A Deadly Fall" by Jon Neal

Not just a classic cosy murder mystery but a beautifully written exploration of the relational dynamics in a small secluded group. With this, the third of the Stanley Messina whodunnits, Jon Neal has ripened into a fine writer. 

The setting is a stately home on an estate in the Sussex countryside. The owner is a former Hollywood actor. The staff include his personal assistant, the housekeeper, and a gardener. The gatehouse is rented to a tenant, the housekeeper's husband helps with clearing trees. And there was another employee who mysteriously fell to his death from a tower abutting the main building. Did he fall, did he jump or was he pushed? The inquest was equivocal. Now Private Investigator Messina has a week to find a definitive answer.

It's not a police procedural; the nature of the problem rules out forensics. Instead, Messina concentrates on developing a respectful understanding of the psychology of the suspects, and thus to analyse the group dynamics. He often does this by comparing what he observes to events and challenges in his own life, for example: “It was incredible, Stanley thought, the myriad of ways a living could be made. Career paths were intensely individual — reflections of a person’s interests, skills, and experience — and yet so often followed with little appreciation or due respect.” (Ch 8)

This is where the novel takes off. Messina's approach necessitates that the characters (including the protagonist) are complex, three-dimensional and carefully developed. This is where Neal excels. He has crafted more than just a classic mystery. It develops a deep appreciation of the protagonist, a caring and empathetic man with a tortured past of his own, at a crossroads in his professional life. 

But it's not just about the characters. The plot is well-paced, clues and red herrings are perfectly and subtly placed, and there is a tumble of revelations at the end, including a clever final twist. Of course all of the suspects have secrets and these are teased apart with a deftness of touch shared by author and detective. 

The verisimilitude of the setting is established with a wealth of fine detail, lightly presented, for example:

• “The peacock was circling. It looked at him suspiciously before throwing back its head angrily and letting out a cry, dragging its heavy tail in its wake.” (Ch 1)
• “The ornate doorways felt like entrances to mazes, each one beckoning him to see what lurked within.” (Ch 18)

The novel is written is the 3rd person past tense, mostly from the perspective of Messina; although one chapter is a flashback from the PoV of another character.

Selected quotes: 

• “The newly reinvented Alison Fencroft haunted the rooms of the gatehouse like a ghost. …Or maybe, Stanley thought with a shudder, like a prisoner.” (Ch 5)
• “One question bred another, and certainty felt further away than ever. All they could do was keep going, trusting that the path might eventually lead somewhere solid — though Stanley knew well enough that some paths never did…” (Ch 9)
• “‘It’s the real-life bit I’ve always found difficult. The messy day‑to‑day business of real life. Give me a script – with everything plotted out, all loose ends tied up neatly – and then I’m happy.” (Ch 19)
• “The apple cart, thought Stanley. The steady equilibrium. That place in life where everything was stacked just perfectly. A place of legend — and maybe also of myth.” (Ch 22)

As the author says in chapter nine, this fine novel provides "proof that his once uncertain career path had become something sustainable."

July 2026; 170 pages
First published in 2026

This review was written by

the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling 

and The Kids of God

Other novels by Jon Neal:

• A Twin Room: his debut
• Burnt Out: a mystery novel set in Australia

Stanley Messina novels, in order:

1. The Other Path
2. Death Behind Closed Doors
3. A Deadly Fall

"A Shilling for Candles" by Josephine Tey

A classic whodunnit from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. Tey's Inspector Grant on his second outing investigates the drowning of a Christine Clay, a movie star (married to the son of a duke), off the south coast. Recurring characters include Sergeant Williams, actress Marta Hallard and journalist Jammy Hopkins. The suspects include the husband, a man who was staying with the 

Distressingly - although casual and not-so-casual anti-semitism was typical of its time - Tey is quite prepared to stigmatise Jews on the basis of alleged racial stereotypes. There's also a prejudicial comment about a woman who does not have white skin. As with her other books, she also has a strange obsession with the idea that one can read character from a person's face, displayed in a scene where Grant is looking at the faces of participants at a monastic service: “Some were cranks (one saw the same faces at ‘anti’ meetings and folk dance revivals), some fanatics (masochists looking for a modern hair-shirt), some simple, some at odds with the world and looking for sanctuary, some at odds with themselves and looking for peace." (Ch 21)

It is written in the slightly camp style associated with this sort of cosy mystery, especially when they involve film stars, actresses and assorted artistes. Very much of its genre. I was slightly disappointed that the crucial evidence was withheld until the denouement so I felt I hadn't been given a fair chance to solve it myself. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable and entertaining page turner.

Selected quotes:

• “Every six months she was in a different social sphere, she went up at such a rate. that takes a lot of living up to - like a diver coming up from a long way below.” ( Ch 5)
• “An unquiet life is a greater misery than wearing the badge of conformity.” (Ch 7)
• “Chamber music was much more attractive when one could combine it with tea at one's club and seeing about that frock at Debenham’s.” (Ch 19)
• “She had a high thin voice, and when she became enthusiastic or excited her delivery was painfully like a very old gramophone record played on a very cheap gramophone.” (Ch 19)

ASfC was adapted in 1937 into a movie called Young and Innocent which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

April 2026; 246 pages

First published in 1936 by Methuen (although my edition suggests first publication was in 1953 by William Heinemann)

My paperback edition was issued by Arrow Books in 2011

This review was written by

the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling 

and The Kids of God

Josephine Tey crime novels:

• The Man in the Queue also published as Killer in the Crowd, originally written under the pseudonym Gordon Daviot (1929)
• A Shilling for Candles (1936)
• Miss Pym Disposes (1946)
• The Franchise Affair (1948)
• Brat Farrar (also called Come and Kill Me) (1949)
• To Love and Be Wise (1950)
• The Daughter of Time (1951)
• The Singing Sands (1952)

"The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side" by Agatha Christie

A masterpiece. Not literature. It isn't meant to be. It is a puzzle.

Were I judging this in the same way as other books I would note the two-dimensionality of the characters (some of them paper-thin marionettes), the weaknesses of the plot (two characters intimately connected with the distant past of the supposed murder victim just happen to be within a few yards of her when the murder is committed; exactly how did the butler die?) and the overall lack of verisimilitude. But this isn't meant to be read like this. It is a barebones murder mystery, intended to bamboozle the reader, and as such it is a masterpiece.

I've read it before (I think I've read Miss Christie's entire oeuvre). I've seen the film at least once. But I had to read it again for the Grove Book Club before watching a stage performance at the Grove Theatre, Eastbourne so I thought I'd try reading it from the back, first reminding myself of the murderer, the means, the motive and the opportunity and then seeing how the author dropped clues and/or misled us.

I hadn't realised how much we are told, clearly, how the crime was committed, why, and by whom.

Everything else after this is a spoiler.

The victim is a Heather Badcock. Why was she killed? The first time the Mrs B encounters Miss Marple (Ch 2), our classic amateur detective, she tells her the story which will provide the motive. Miss Marple then tells her that she reminds her of someone who “always saw her own point of view so clearly that she didn’t always see how things might appear to, or affect, other people.” This person then died. The foreshadowing is blatant.

The actual death occurs just before the 25% turning point. It is reported to Miss Marple by her cleaner, Cherry. "Heather Badcock's kind all right ... Overkind, some people say. They call it interfering. Well, anyway, she up and died." (Ch 6) We are reminded of the character of the victim immediately before we hear of her death. Then, exactly at the 25% mark, to the page, Miss Marple’s very first discussion with her policeman nephew contains these lines: “Supposing you went into a shop, say, and you knew the proprietress had a son who was the spivvy young juvenile delinquent type. He was there listening while you told his mother about some money you had in the house, or some silver or a piece of jewellery. It was something you were excited and pleased about and you wanted to talk about it. And you also perhaps mention and even that you were going out. you even say that you never lock the house. You're interested in what you're saying, what you're telling her, because it's so very much in your mind. And then, say, on that particular evening you come home because you’ve forgotten something and there's this bad lot of a boy in your house, caught in the act, and he turns around and coshes you.” (Ch 6.2) The motive has been nailed down ... but immediately Miss C blows smoke into our eyes with an alternative theory: “I wondered if it might have been the wrong murder”. (Ch 6) This leads to considering the people that Marina might have seen over Mrs Badcock’s shoulder ... and we have a list of suspects. The usual detective inquiry proceeds.

Now we focus on the means and the opportunity. Mr Badcock remembers that Mrs B’s elbow was jogged so she spilt her cocktail all over her dress and that Marina gave Mrs B her untouched glass BUT this is framed by the detective (and therefore the reader) as the way in which the ‘wrong’ murder was committed. This 'wrong murder' theory swells. Marina herself gets in on the ‘wrong murder act’ in chapter 9.2 Jason Rudd tells the detective about Mrs B having flu when she met his wife years ago ... and within a page he ‘accepts’ the theory advanced for him that the intended victim was his wife “you’re quite right, Chief Inspector, I have been sure of it all along.” (Ch 10) The climax comes a page before the 50% mark when Inspector Craddock tells Miss Marple “I think the intended victim was Marina Gregg” and Miss Marple replies “that would seem almost certain, wouldn't it?” (Ch 12) The red herring has now been sanctified. And a red herring suspect is immediately introduced in the shaped of Marina’s adopted children, having dismissed the biological child (the actual motive) a paragraph before.

Now we spend several chapters running the red herrings in the form of blackmailers and further deaths. It is assumed that these are further poorly aimed attempts to kill Marina although soon we are reminded that Heather Badcock was “a woman who invariably talked about herself.” (Ch 14)

The next real clue comes from Gladys in Ch 16 just before the 75% turning point. She says that it was “funny” because “when she spilt the cocktail ... I’m almost sure she did it on purpose.” This is a masterful piece of misdirection because the ‘she’ and the ‘she’ are intended to be different people. This might be unfair of Agatha if she hadn’t already, several times, referred us to the problem of people misusing pronouns (when the carer keeps calling Miss Marple ‘we’). We are told in three pages (exactly at the 75% mark) that some one must have seen the murder being committed although the Inspector is referring to adding the drug to the cocktail glass. And on the next page one of the detectives says “All right ... The moron saw it, the moron didn’t grasp what the action meant.” Rather rude about Gladys but nevertheless ...

But the very final piece of evidence doesn’t come till the chapter before the denouement when Miss Marple is told that Heather Badcock covered up her illness with face powder, so it wouldn’t have been whooping cough. The page before the local doctor had talked about “real doctoring. Eight to ten cases of German measles, half a dozen whooping coughs, and a suspected scarlet fever.” (Ch 22)

I am utterly impressed by the way Agatha Christie hides her clues in plain sight while misdirecting masterfully. A classic of the genre.

Selected quotes:

“Old Laycock then displayed his particular genius which was that of enthusiastic agreement and subsequent lack of performance.” (Ch 1)

October 2024; 224 pages

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

 

"Aunt Bessie Assumes" by Diana Xarissa

 A 'cosy' murder mystery set on the Isle of Man. 'Aunt' Bessie (an old spinster who has provided tea and sympathy to generations of disaffected teenagers) stumbles over a dead body on her early morning walk along the beach. With the local bobby on the beat, and the receptionist at the police station, and a friendly Inspector from 'across' (the water, ie from the mainland), she forms a small posse of investigators whose strength seems to be Aunt Bessie's ability to tune in to the local 'skeet' (Manx for gossip). 

A classic of its kind, perfectly paced with not too many suspects and some nice red herrings. The prose is stripped to the bones to provide narrative without frills; the characters are as standard and as stereotyped as any you will find in the subgenre. 

Selected quotes:

• “Kys t’ou?” she asked. “Ta mee braew,” Bessie answered with a grin. “Actually, I’m not really fine, I’m quite upset, but I don’t know how to say that in Manx.” (Ch 7)

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God