One Bad Apple by Jo Jakeman

Pages: 416

Publisher: Little Brown Book Group UK / Constable

Release Date: September 19, 2024

 

Blurb

Welcome to Aberfal Boys High School. Independent jewel of academic and sporting excellence in the South-west -- until the headmaster is murdered in his study. And now the Year Seven School Mums' WhatsApp Group really do have something to talk about...

Clare Withoutani: OMG have you heard about Newhall?!!!
Becky Rupertsmum: Helen-Louise just texted. Can't believe it.
Asha: Not heard anything. What's happened?
Pam Geoffreysmum: What's he done this time? They're going co-ed, aren't they? I knew this would happen.
Clare Withoutani: Can't believe it, Becky. I'm in shock.
Pam Geoffreysmum: Are we going co-ed?
Becky Rupertsmum: No, Pam. Newhall died.
Pam Geoffreysmum: Oh GOD. Seriously??!! Can't believe it. So sad. He'll be such a loss to the school. The boys will be devastated. Will the school be offering grief counselling?
Rose Oliversmum: Anyone know what pages they're meant to do for chemistry? Ollie's homework diary says 'do questions 1-4' but no page numbers!

As the resulting police investigation reveals more and more of Aberfal's long-hidden secrets the list of suspects who wanted the headmaster dead grows by the day. And far from being a glittering jewel of exclusivity and excellence, it would appear Aberfal Boys High School is rotten to its core...

 

Review

“You really never can tell which one’s the bad apple.”

Asha Demetriou had no intention of enrolling her son Cassius in Aberfal Boys High School when she gatecrashed the open day. People with Asha’s background don’t belong in the privileged world of private schools. But Jerry Newhall, the headmaster can be persuasive and almost against her better judgement, Asha finds herself accepting a bursary for Cass and as a result, entering a world she doesn’t think she belongs to.

Initially, Asha is in awe of the school, the people who work there, and the other mothers she interacts with but it isn’t long before she notices that the school isn’t as shiny as it appeared at first glance. And when her son is the subject of bullying, Asha springs into action. But it isn’t until the day of a cricket match when Jerry Newhall is found dead in his office that things at Aberfal Boys High School come to a head.

While it’s clear that somebody murdered Jerry, nobody has seen the perpetrator and since his personal assistant states that she didn’t leave her post outside Jerry’s office all afternoon and didn’t see anybody enter, it appears we’re dealing with an impossible crime. Except that just as the school isn’t what it appears to be, neither are the circumstances of Jerry’s death. Everybody has secrets and nobody is telling the (full) truth.

The story in this book isn’t told in a linear way. The narrative jumps backward and forwards in time, but chapter headings make sure the reader doesn’t get confused. Witness statements are interspersed throughout the story. Those statements are a one-sided affair in that the reader only sees the answers given by the various characters and not the questions posed by the investigating police officer. In fact, Detective Mullins doesn’t make an appearance until the very end of the story. All the reader learns about the investigation comes from those statements and the (online) conversations between the mothers of the pupils.

The author hit the nail on the head with the dynamics between the various players in the story. The interactions between the mothers both in the WhatsApp group and face to face are recognisable for anybody who has ever been part of such a group. Everybody appears to have an assigned position in their social circle until the murder and the subsequent unravelling of secrets upsets the apple cart. Everybody has something to hide or is pretending to be something other than who and what they are. It isn’t until the extravagant end-of-term summer ball that things come to a head and Detective Mullins makes his appearance to arrest the murderer.

But remember even when the story appears to be over: “You really never can tell which one’s the bad apple.”

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The writing is smooth, and the story captured my attention from the start. The characters in this book were recognisable as were the interactions between them. At times reading the book was a little like watching a car crash in slow motion as slowly but steadily relationships and reputations unravel. All of it kept me captivated from the opening paragraphs until the surprising and unconventional ending.

The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre

 

400 pages

Publisher: Little Brown Group UK

Publishing date: July 18, 2024

 

Blurb

            FORGET WHAT YOU THINK YOU KNOW

THIS IS NOT THAT CRIME NOVEL

You know Penny Coyne. The little old lady who has solved multiple murders in her otherwise sleepy village, despite bumbling local police. A razor-sharp mind in a twinset and tweed.

You know Johnny Hawke. Hard-bitten LAPD homicide detective. Always in trouble with his captain, always losing partners, but always battling for the truth, whatever it takes.

Against all the odds, against the usual story, their worlds are about to collide. It starts with a dead writer and a mysterious wedding invitation. It will end with a rabbit hole that goes so deep, Johnny and Penny might come to question not just whodunnit, but whether they want to know the answer.

A cross-genre hybrid of Agatha Christie and Michael Connelly, The Cracked Mirror is the most imaginative and entertaining crime novel of the year, a genre-splicing rollercoaster with a poignantly emotional heart.

 

Review

Unique, original, and unlike anything I’ve read before are statements that get overused in reviews. However, for me they truly apply to The Cracked Mirror. There are plenty of twists and turns in this book but 85% into the story I gasped because I didn’t see that particular twist coming.

But, let’s start at the beginning.

It would be both right and wrong to say that The Mirror Cracked has two main characters because this book starts off with two different stories with different titles, different ways of numbering them, and written in different tenses. Penny Coyne is the main character in one story. She’s a lady in her 80s who lives in a picturesque Scottish village where she has solved numerous crimes. Johnny Hawke, the main character in the second story, is an LAPD police officer with a reputation for getting his partners killed. These two characters have nothing in common and should never have met except that they both end up at the same wedding.

There’s a third story headed Private Investigations followed by a place name. The PI in question is Dan Rattigan. These sections are short, and it doesn’t become clear how Dan is connected to Penny and Johnny’s stories until the end of the book.

That’s all I’m going to say about the story in this book. I hate spoilers in general, but it would be a crime (pun intended) to give anything away here.

Apart from apparently investigating the same mystery, Penny and Johnny don’t appear to have anything in common. It was only when I neared the end of the story that I realised there were other similarities between them. Once Johnny and Penny start cooperating the story is neither particularly cosy nor overly hard-boiled. Johnny adjusts to Penny’s sensibilities while Penny learns to accept that her cosy way of solving mysteries doesn’t always work.

“Penny felt unmoored. In her world, the police did not lie like this.”

This book takes you on a wild rollercoaster ride. Nothing is what it appears to be, and twists and turns keep the reader on their toes. Looking back now, a few days after finishing the book, I want to say that this story shouldn’t have worked but it somehow pulls off what are multiple shocking surprises without this reader rolling her eyes. Also in retrospect, I realised the author played fair with the reader. There were clues as to what was actually happening laced throughout the story. I just didn’t recognise them for what they were until the story spelled it out for me. And just when I thought I had all the answers the story ended and I realised that maybe, just maybe I didn’t. And that that is exactly as it should be.

I’m not sure if this book is ‘the most imaginative and entertaining crime novel of the year, but it is most certainly in the running for that honour. For me, it is a title to add to my very short list of extra-special books because, as I said at the start of my review, this book deserves to be called unique, original, and unlike anything I’ve read before.

The Examiner by Janice Hallett

416 pages

Publisher: Viper

Release Date: August 29, 2024

 

Blurb

 Six Students. One Murder. Your Time Starts Now...

The students of Royal Hastings University's new Multimedia Art course have been trouble from day one. Acclaimed artist Alyson wants the department to revolve around her. Ludya struggles to balance her family and the workload. Jonathan has management experience but zero talent for art. Lovely Patrick can barely operate his mobile phone, let alone professional design software. Meanwhile blustering Cameron tries to juggle the course with his job in the City and does neither very well. Then there's Jem. A gifted young sculptor, she's a promising student... but cross her at your peril.

The year-long course is blighted by accusations of theft, students setting fire to one another's artwork, a rumoured extra-marital affair and a disastrous road trip. But finally they are given their last assignment: to build an interactive art installation for a local manufacturer. With six students who have nothing in common except their clashing personal agendas, what could possibly go wrong?

The answer is: murder. When the external examiner arrives to assess the students' essays and coursework, he becomes convinced that a student was killed on the course and that the others covered it up. But is he right? And if so, who is dead, why were they killed, and who is the murderer? Only a close examination of the evidence will reveal the truth. Your time starts now...

Review

WOW!!!

Where do I start?

This is the fifth book by Janice Hallett I’ve read, so I had a pretty good idea what to expect but WOW, the author managed to exceed my very high expectations with this well-plotted and intriguing story. It made for compulsive reading from the start with the tension initially building gradually until, by the time I reached the last quarter, the story suddenly exploded and rushed forward with shocking revelation after shocking revelation. And just when I thought I had all the answers, Hallett had another trick up her sleeve; one that will have me thinking and wondering about this book for some time to come.

Like Hallett’s previous books, the story is told in email messages, texts, and essays as the narrative follows a diverse group of students in an art master’s programme where nothing and nobody is as it appears to be at first glance. Also as in her previous books, we have a small cast of main characters. There is Gela who needs students for her new master’s programme before her funding is cut. She ends up with a hand-picked group of six students who couldn’t be more diverse. From the very first day the students are nothing but trouble, but it isn’t until Ben Sketcher, the external examiner who has access to all the communications between the university and the participants, starts asking questions that it becomes clear exactly how worrying the situation is. Ben is convinced one of the course participants is in serious danger or possibly, already dead. From the start there are growing tensions between the course participants. Messages between the participants individually or between Gela and one or another of the students imply that there’s stuff going on behind the scenes the others, and therefore the reader, aren’t aware of.

Although I took pages worth of notes while reading this story, I don’t want to say anything else about what happens for fear of spoiling it for other readers. Suffice to say that nobody in this story is who they appear to be. Much to my delight I was able to answer one or two questions before the author spelled the answer out, but I have no idea if that was Hallett’s intention or if I’m getting better at solving some of the mysteries in her story. What’s more, finding those answers only threw up new questions because the full mystery wasn’t unravelled until the very end. As it should be.

The writing in this book is excellent. All the main characters have their own, distinctive voices and I was impressed with how the art the candidates create comes to life on the page and becomes visible to the reader. This story hooked me from the start and never released its grip. Just when things appeared to become a little clearer everything turned more obscure. The format means the reader doesn’t get all the information, only that which the characters want you to know, and that meant I was kept guessing for the longest time. Every time I thought I had a grip on what was really going on, something happened to make me rethink everything I thought I knew.

In my review of The Appeal I wrote: ‘After having read all three of Janice Hallett’s currently available titles I have to conclude that she is something of a genius when it comes to slow reveals and misdirection while still giving the reader all the information they need to keep up with the investigators.’ The Examiner has only strengthened that opinion. I’m in awe at how Janice Hallett managed to tie everything in this story together and answer (almost) every question the reader might have. One question remains unanswered, though but that perfectly fits the complexity of the story as far as I’m concerned. It also ensures that this is a book I will be thinking about long after I finished reading it.

Related reviews:

The appeal: https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-appeal-by-janice-hallett.html

The Twyford Code: https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-twyford-code-by-janice-hallett.html

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels: https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-mysterious-case-of-alperton-angels.html

The Christmas Appeal: https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-christmas-appeal-by-janice-hallett.html 

The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne

288 pages

Publisher: Pushkin Press

First published: 1922

Re-release Date: September 3, 2024

 

Blurb

In a quaint English country house, the exuberant Mark Ablett has been entertaining a house party, but the festivities are rudely interrupted by the arrival of Mark's wayward brother, Robert, home from Australia. Even worse, not long after his arrival the long-lost brother is found dead, shot through the head, and Mark is nowhere to be found. It is up to amateur detective Tony Gillingham and his pal Bill to investigate.

Between games of billiards and bowls, the taking of tea and other genteel pursuits, Tony and Bill attempt to crack the perplexing case of their host’s disappearance and its connection to the mysterious shooting. Can the pair of sleuths solve the Red House mystery in time for their afternoon game of croquet?

The Red House Mystery marked Milne’s first and final venture into the detective genre, despite the book’s immediate success. Praised by Raymond Chandler and renowned critic Alexander Woolcott, this gem of classic Golden Age crime sparkles with witty dialogue, an intriguing cast of characters, and a brilliant plot.

 

Review

“…an acknowledged masterpiece of the art of fooling the reader without cheating him.”

Raymond Chandler in The Simple Art of Murder.

As Anthony Gillingham approaches the country house where his friend, Bill Beverley is staying he walks straight into a mystery. A man who turns out to be Matthew Cayley and who is obviously distressed needs help getting into a locked room in the house. Cayley has heard a gunshot and is very worried about his uncle and employer, Mark Ablett. After they force their way into the room, Cayley and Gillingham discover a body. It is not Mark Ablett who is dead though but, much to Cayley’s relief, Ablett’s ne’er-do-well brother Robert. Of Mark, who was seen entering the office to meet with his brother there is no sign. While the local police is on the case, Anthony Gillingham and Bill Beverley decide to conduct an investigation of their own with Bill Beverley playing Watson to Gillingham’s Sherlock Holmes.

This is the most British of stories. In fact, if it had been written one or two decades later, I would have called it a spoof version of a Golden Age of Mystery story. This is by no means a criticism. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the picture it painted of Edwardian Britain. I figured out part of the solution to this locked-room-mystery early on but that didn’t lessen my enjoyment of the rest of the story. It was a joy to follow Anthony and Bill as they followed the clues and Gillingham’s intuition until they found the answers.

This was A.A. Milne’s only mystery despite the fact that the last paragraph of the book seems to imply there might be more to come. I for one would have happily read more stories featuring Anthony Gillingham and Bill Beverley.

Guilty by Definition by Suzie Dent

400 pages

Publisher: Bonnier UK / Zaffre

Release date: August 16, 2024

 

Blurb

The debut murder mystery from the resident genius of Countdown's Dictionary Corner, Susie Dent.

An anonymous letter arrives at the offices of the Clarendon English Dictionary containing a challenge for the team of lexicographers working there. It's clear that's it's not the usual run-of-the-mill, eccentric enquiry. The letter hints at secrets, lies and a year. 2010. For Martha Thornhill, the new senior editor, that year can mean only one the summer her brilliant, beautiful older sister Charlie went missing.

After a decade living abroad, Martha has returned to her father, her family home and the city whose institutions have defined her family, but the ghosts she thought at rest were only waiting for her to return.

More letters arrive, pointing towards a secret in the heart of the dictionary itself. As Martha and her colleagues start pulling apart the clues, the questions become more insistent and troubling. Charlie's disappearance is one of a series of secret absences going back centuries, and someone wants to keep those secrets buried.

 

Review

 “Lexicographers sought out the thrill of the chase as much as detectives did.”

Ten years ago, Martha Thornhill’s sister Charlie disappeared, and Martha fled Oxford for Berlin. Now Martha has returned to Oxford where she is the senior editor of the Clarendon English Dictionary. When she and her staff start receiving cryptic postcards and letters, it soon becomes clear that the clues refer to the summer Charlie disappeared. As Martha and her team unravel the linguistic riddles they realise that while Chorus, the mysterious sender of the letters and cards, wants them to solve the mystery of Charlie’s disappearance there are other forces who will do anything to keep the secrets buried.

This book captivated me from start to finish and will almost certainly end up in my top ten for 2024. The mystery is intriguing, clever, and meticulously plotted. The characters are vivid, interesting, multi-faceted, and real. And the writing is smooth and easy flowing, pulling the reader deep into the story. The clues contained in the mail the editorial team received are all somehow related to words, reading, and writing, and invite the reader of the book to puzzle along with the characters.

It made a nice change to have a police officer, Oliver Caldwell, who does take the case seriously; more seriously in fact than Martha is initially prepared to do and it is her sister who has disappeared without a trace. But this is as much a story about Martha reluctantly coming to terms with Charlie’s role in her life and her feeling that’s she has always played second fiddle to her sister as a tale about Charlie’s unsolved disappearance.

This book is an absolute delight for anyone who enjoys words, puzzles, and a captivating mystery. Susie Dent manages to insert (obscure) words and their meaning into the mystery seamlessly and without interrupting the flow or taking the reader out of the story. In other words:

“It was excellent: scholarly and precise without overloading the reader with jargon.”

And the words that are explained both in the chapter headings and in the story itself are all appropriate to what is happening on the page.

“But she loved words as individuals. She knew their roots, their rhythms, their skeletons, shapes and stories. Fitting them together to create something meaningful took a different skill altogether.”

This book is proof that Susie Dent doesn’t share this word-related problem with her main character. Unlike Martha, she has very successfully put words together to create something not only meaningful but also smoothly flowing and captivating.

Long review short: Guilty by Definition is a fascinating, original, and well-plotted mystery as well as an ode to words. I can only hope there will be more word-related mysteries by this author in the not-too-distant future.

 

The Good Liars by Anita Frank

400 pages

Publisher: HQ

Publishing Date: August 17, 2023

Netgalley

 

Blurb

In the hot summer of 1914 a boy vanishes, never to be seen again.

Now, in 1920, the once esteemed Stilwell family of Darkacre Hall find their already troubled lives thrown into disarray when new evidence leads to the boy’s case being reopened – and this time they themselves are under police scrutiny.

As the dead return to haunt the living, old resentments resurface and loyalties are tested, while secrets risk being unearthed that could destroy them all.

 

Review

If you take the blurb to suggest a dark tale, you would be right. This story is very atmospheric, as Darkacre, the name of the manor where the action takes place implies. Doom, gloom, secrecy, and shellshock all add to the undercurrent of evil. As the story progresses, that suggestion gets stronger until, in the end, it turns out not to be a suggestion at all.

I’m not sure how to label this book. It’s not quite a mystery, although there certainly are quite a few puzzles to resolve. And despite the haunting atmosphere, it’s also not quite a gothic thriller. And while there are hints of supernatural goings on and the departed certainly haunt those still alive, The Good Liars isn’t a ghost story either. This is however a fascinating and memorable tale; one that may well leave you wondering what you would do under similar circumstances.

Darkacre is a large manor house occupied by a cast of four. There’s Ida Stilwell, the mistress of Darkacre and the wife of Maurice Stilwell who two years after the end of WWI still suffers from shell shock. Leonard Stilwell is the younger brother who is an invalid, having lost the will to live after losing three of his limbs during the war. Finally, there’s Victor Monroe, a friend of the Stilwell brothers who has more or less been adopted into the family. Sarah Hove is a nurse/housekeeper who joins the family to look after Leonard and take care of some household duties. Eventually, this group will be joined by Detective Sergeant Verity, who ends up stranded there when bad weather makes leaving Darkacre impossible.

From the beginning, it’s clear that all is not happy and well with this family. And the tension increases when the police arrive to tell them that they will reopen an old investigation into the disappearance of a young boy in 1914. What’s more, they will be searching the estate’s woods.

Told from shifting perspectives, we watch as the situation in the house slowly moves from mildly uncomfortable to outright horrifying. But, as the title implies, we are dealing with a group of good liars. I mean, you have unreliable narrators, and then you have this lot.

And that’s probably all I should say about the plot. There are a lot of layers to this story, just as there is a lot of evil in it. It’s a fascinating tale though of the unravelling of a family who thought themselves to be untouchable and it asks some interesting questions about guilt, innocence, and justice.

The story is very well written and told. The descriptions of the house, the atrocious weather, and the surroundings add at least as much menace to the tale as the actions of the characters do. The words flow smoothly, pulling the reader along and the further I got into the book, the harder it became to take a break from reading. I did manage to figure out one or two plot twists before they were revealed on the page, but that didn’t diminish the story for me.

Overall, The Good Liars is a fascinating and thought-provoking book.

Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter

480 pages

Publisher: HarperCollins

Publishing Date: July 20, 2023

Netgalley

 

Blurb

 IT WAS A CASE THAT GRIPPED THE NATION

LUKE RYDER’S MURDER HAS NEVER BEEN SOLVED

In December 2003, Luke Ryder was found dead in the garden of the family home in London, leaving behind a wealthy older widow and three stepchildren. Nobody saw anything.

Now, secrets will be revealed – live on camera.

Years later a group of experts re-examine the evidence on Infamous, a true-crime show – with shocking results. Does the team know more than they’ve been letting on?

Or does the truth lie closer to home?

 Can you solve the case before they do?

The truth will blow your mind.

 

Review

It appears to be my time for reading different/original forms of mystery. And I’m loving it.

I have to admit that I haven’t watched any shows that investigate unsolved true crimes and I’ve only listened to one or two podcasts on the subject. So, I can’t vouch for how accurate the reconstruction described in this book is. What I can say is that the combination of crime, characters, set-up, and surprises made for a fascinating and all but unputdownable read.

As stated in the blurb, what we have here is a team of experts brought together to reinvestigate a murder that happened twenty years ago. The whole investigation will be broadcast over several episodes. The director of the show, and this is the first of many shocking revelations, is Guy Howard who was ten years old when his stepdad, Luke Ryder was killed in the garden of the house where they lived with Guy’s mother and two older sisters. The rest of the team consists of experts in a variety of fields such as former police officers, a forensics expert, and a psychologist.

As I said at the start of this review, this is a(nother) book not written in a traditional format. Apart from detailed descriptions of the episodes (in a screenplay/play-board sorta way) and verbatim excerpts from a chat group discussing the programme and the case, we’re also privy to private conversations (via text messages and emails) by those who play a role in the case and/or the investigation. And wouldn’t you know it? Those exchanges all manage to make those communicating look suspicious in one way or another. What we don’t get is any idea of what anybody is thinking while the story progresses. If it isn’t said or (possibly) betrayed by reactions or facial expressions, the reader isn’t aware of it. Almost as if we really are watching a show on a screen.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It hooked me from the start and the only reason I took a break from reading when I was halfway through is that I do need sleep occasionally. Having said that, there were one or two moments when I wondered how something could possibly be known by the person in question, or when I felt that maybe coincidence was pushed just a little too far and too hard. Obviously, I can’t say anything more about that since much of this story’s strength lies in the well-spaced reveals of new information at opportune times and I wouldn’t want to spoil those moments for others.

Overall, Murder in the Family, is a well-written and original story taking the reader from plot twist to plot twist without ever stopping to come up for air. Just when you think you’ve figured out what has been happening, a new spanner is thrown in the works, and the eventual solution will almost certainly take your breath away.