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 … 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.
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Murder in the Air is the 12th book in the Kate Shackleton mystery series but this is the first one that I read. You can certainly read this as a standalone, as I did, but I think it would be more enjoyable to read others as I really didn’t warm up to Kate and she really doesn’t have a main role until almost midway through the book.
There were two unrelated deaths in this book. The first one is wrapped up and solved before the second occurs . In fact, the book blurb doesn’t even mention that murder at all and goes right to the second. I’m not sure why the first murder was thrown in, the book would have done well to just focus on the second.
And when that murder is resolved, there was another villainous act that just drags the story on even longer. I can understand why it was added as it does wrap up a family situation but…
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. however, the opinion expressed is my own
This is the twelfth in the series & is set in the 1930’s in Northern England . William Lofthouse owner of Barleycorn Brewery asks Kate to investigate some mishaps. When there they get caught up in accompanying wages clerk Ruth Parnaby’s engagements as Northern Breweries’ beauty queen. On one of Ruth’s first engagements, a garden party at the brewery, she leads children to the stables for pony rides but 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. Then another murder follows
I am really enjoying this series & like Kate, Jim & the other reoccurring characters, I found this to be a well written book although the pace was slow to begin with it did pick up & what started as a so so read turned into a captivating page turning one. There are plenty of twists & turns as well as red herrings, but the ever level headed Kate works her way through to solving the crimes
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read
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!