DCI Peter Hatherall is called in to investigate a shooting on the Earl of Ditchburn’s country estate. The Earl’s activities have angered animal rights and environmental groups but subsequent deaths suggest Elmsgrove Racehorse Yard is the target. There is more at stake than a horse race and time is running out for Hatherall to solve the case before the culprit kills again.
Bells on Her Toes
By dianajfebry
I’ve been reading this series recently and have found all of the books real page-turners. This one, Bells on her Toes is particularly gritty and realistic. It starts off with an apparently straight forward drug-related execution murder, but what follows for DCI Peter Hatherall and his side kick Fiona embroils them in more twists and turns than a wriggling mamba. There are red herrings galore and by the end, when the series of subsequent murders is eventually solved, the reader feels deeply sympathetic to Hatherall and Fiona for the frustrations and time wasting leads that somehow always distract them from the real clues. As in real life, protagonists die before they can explain their role, so in the end we still don’t know the reasons for all the incidents along the way, but that is real life. I found this an exceptionally compelling and unputdownable mystery. I just hope Diana Febry will write some more DCI Hatherall books so I can learn how the poor detective solves his personal problems, a running subplot in all the books that gives him a somewhat prickly character at times. It would be good to see Fiona happy too, so keep on writing Ms Febry!
This such a wonderful and joyful book to read.
A brilliant and unputdownable murder mystery set in The Cotswolds within the horse racing fraternity. DCI Peter Hatherall along with his team have their work cut out for them after a body is found in a burnt out barn.
Well written; I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Thoroughly enjoyable read
I’ve read several books by this author and haven’t been disappointed. Happily, this story entertained me as much as the others. It’s an English small village detective story with a mystery set in the world of horse racing with a death in a racing yard, and the author give a great insight into that world. Lead detective, Peter Hatherall, investigates the murder. There is an array of suspects and some red herrings but the author has done an excellent job giving the main ones plausible cause to commit murder. Working out ‘who done it’ as the mystery deepens and body count escalates is challenging for the detectives and the reader. Characters have been well created and the plot is well-paced and imaginative with numerous twists and turns, so there is a lot to keep tabs on but ultimately rewarding. Highly recommended.
Classic Murder Mystery with lots of deliciously deceptive red herrings …
Set against the murky backdrop of the world of racehorse training, Diana J Febry has produced a real murder mystery and detective whodunit (and why), filled with twists and turns and lots of deliciously deceptive red herrings to keep the reader guessing and trying to fathom who the murderer is. Given the setting, it inevitably gives rise to comparison with Dick Francis, but having read both I would say this book owes more to the influence of say a modern day Agatha Christie – I could easily picture this book as one of those very English murder mysteries dramas although this is definitely more Morse than Frost. With her background and knowledge, Diana J Febry has used the horse racing and training world to give the story a character and feel all of its own but without immersing the reader too deeply in it; likewise with the investigative and police procedural elements, she has concentrated on telling a story rather than trying to impress the reader with her knowledge of the former.
The story starts off predictably enough with the discovery of a dead body (with a gunshot wound) in the barn of a country estate, but others are soon to follow. As the Detective duo, DCI Peter Hatherall and DC Fiona Williams start their investigations we are introduced to a wide and esoteric cast of characters. With each new character new theories arise regarding the initial murder, some more probable than others and some wildly speculative, though if I had but one small criticism in this area it would be that I think some of the theories and speculation alluded to by the locals was just a tad too off the mark and slightly out of sync with the overall feel of the story, taking it slightly into the realms of a thriller at times.
Due to the plot-driven nature of murder mystery stories, I don’t want to allude to too many specific elements of the plot for fear of spoiling it any way, but what I can say is that this is a well-crafted literary jigsaw encompassing lost and past love, possibe shady goings-on involving the environment, and official cover-ups to name but a few, all inviting the reader to reach premature conclusions as the author sends the reader in several different directions with the different lines of enquiry.
Given the number of characters, I was impressed with how well they were developed and how that development was incorporated into the overall story. The subplots were cleverly weaved into the wider story to give them relevance rather than being used simply to add extra pages. The dialogue between the two lead detectives and the rest of the characters was realistic, driving the story forward when necessary while at other times giving the reader time to pause and speculate as to which way the story is going, which for me is one of the enjoyments of reading this type of book. I also liked the fact that the relationship between the two detectives wasn’t without its problems, and I enjoyed watching how it developed with just the merest hint at a possible romance. Although this is the first of this author’s books I’ve read, I know from reading the blurbs of her other novels that this isn’t the last we’re destined to see of DCI Peter Hatherall and DI Fiona Williams I’m pleased to say. I would rate this in the region of 4.5 to 4.7, and since that’s way closer to 5 than 4, it gets a five-star rating from me.