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A Snapshot of Murder (Kate Shackleton Mysteries) by Frances Brody (view source)
Revision as of 09:13, 12 August 2020
, 09:13, 12 August 2020no edit summary
This is the tenth book in the series and it's going from strength to strength. For those of us who know the area there's all of Frances Brody's trademark research into just what it was like in the late nineteen twenties. It's not just the social mores of the time, but the locations too, all delivered with a skilled hand and informative without leaving you feeling educated. There couldn't be a better basis for a book. The regular characters are all here, although Jim Sykes and Mrs Sugden don't play such a large part in this story. Every other character comes alive brilliantly - even Sergeant Dog the Bloodhound, of whom I expect great things in the future.
The plot is good too. I was certain I knew the name of the murderer although - as usual - I was wrong, despite there being plenty of clues. It was an excellent read and I finished it all too quickly. There's a bonus with the book too: I was somewhat surprised, with seventy -five or so pages still to go to find that ''A Snapshot of Murder'' was finished and we were into the acknowledgements. Then I found ''Kate Shackleton's First Case'' - was this a taster for the first book in the series? I even found my copy of [[Dying In The Wool: (Kate Shackleton Mysteries) by Frances Brody|Dying in the Wool]] so that I could check. No it wasn't that - with no fanfare I'd been given a Kate Shackleton short story and it's an absolute cracker. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending me a copy of the book - and for the unexpected bonus.
''A Snapshot of Murder'' would read perfectly well as a standalone - you get enough of the backstory so that newcomers are not lost but not so much that old hands wonder why they bought the book, ''but'' you will get so much more out of it if you've read earlier books in the series - and it's hardly an imposition. You'll find a chronological list [[Frances Brody's Kate Shackleton Mysteries in Chronological Order|here]].
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