The Whitby Murders (A Yorkshire Murder Mystery Book 6)

The reason this wasn't 5 stars is because I figured out the killer pretty much from the beginning. I also had an idea about how it was done as well. The story was well done other than that. I enjoy the relationships within the main characters of the series. This story developed them even further.

The Whitby Murders takes DCI Jim Oldroyd off his beaten track to Whitby in the far north of Yorkshire. Whitby plays a prominent part in Bram Stoker's Dracula; the Count leaves the ship bearing him to England in the form of a huge black dog. The ruins of Whitby Abbey overlooking the town make a perfect setting for "Goth Weekend" when tourists invade for spooky good fun. DCI Oldroyd's young adult daughter, Louise, and a group of her friends head off to one of Whitby's "escape rooms." There, they role-play and try to escape from the room with the clues supplied. Things go drastically wrong when one of a couple, Dominic, stabs his partner, Andrea, to death and escapes. The couple is known to have a volatile relationship, and CCTV says that is what happened. But Louise has a gut feeling that something is wrong. She calls in Jim, hoping that he can look into the case.There is nothing I like more than a classic locked-room mystery, but I am afraid The Whitby Murders missed the mark for me. The plot seemed unnecessarily complicated; I had the "who" but not the "why" figured out quickly. I also thought that the Whitby detective was entirely too cooperative with Jim messing about with her case, even though they were former colleagues. That being said, I did enjoy the characters, as usual, especially Andy Carter and Stephanie Johnson, Jim's investigative team.Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an advance copy. I have read and enjoyed the previous books in the series much more than this one, so this was a bit disappointing. The opinions are my own.

It starts out lighthearted and fun. It also gives a good amount of information about an interesting city I once visited. Whitby.a pace that stirs the imagination on the dark side. Tee were many clues and I caught on to an important fact before the detective, but that helped with the suspense. A surprise ending, great characters, and a peek at the dark side of humanity.

Found to be another great riveting Mystery, all the twists and turns . Have always enjoyed trying to solve them.

Interesting concept and very interesting characters. A little wordy but enough plot to keep you engaged. The investigative team is engaging and add a. storyline worth following.

Mr. Ellis has a very fluid writing style. I like it. The story was also conceived well. All were good except the fact that Mr. Ellis cannot stop veering off. The book is full of unnecessary distractions. The backgroud stories and romances of the hero police officer, soggy and sobbing melodramas all are simply slow the tempo down. Instead of having the reader reading till the end in one breadth, it makes the reader gets annoyed to lose track and reader has to keep turning pages to gloss over the distractions to fimd the pont when the main storyline gets picked up. If the idea Mr. Ellis is trying is to put a humane face to his police officers, there are many other ways you can do that without creating this very crude melidramas in the back. None of these helps the story. It just kills it. Again, this is a 5 star quality story toldin a 3 star way.I wish i have a Mr. Ellis mystery which is without any extra didtractions.

I enjoyed another “A Yorkshire Murder Mystery “ .Kept my attention to detail and was clueless until close to the end.

I read through all six books of the Yorkshire murder mystery series and I really loved and enjoyed them all. However, this is my least favorite book so far. It has too many characters, weird occurrences, vampire motives and it is getting way too close to home... No spoilers. Having identified with the characters I almost feel their pain and it is not as pleasant and amusing as the previous books.

A thoroughly enjoyable and well-thought-out novel, but it suffers from somewhat amateurish writing which makes the flow a little uneven. Nevertheless, I would recommend it as a good read.

I don’t think the police could have found the knife that killed Andrea in Ben’s drawer if it was sticking out of Andrea’s chest when she died. Surely the police or the coroner would have it. We were told everyone saw it sticking out of her chest when she died.

I like the series even though the plots are always extreme. This was no exception. But it was not as well written. It was repetitive, they explained the plot too many times. Very little happened on the relationships. Overall disappointing and felt like filler. Liked the first ones enough that I will try the next and hope it improves.

Where do I start with this review? I have read all the previous books in the series and enjoyed them as a means of escapism. I am Yorkshire born and bred so I like the settings. This book, is far below the standard of the others, not even the fabulous town of Whitby can save it. The author has no idea about police procedure, he clearly has never heard of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, and he has no understanding of how police teams operate. I can forgive some of that because it’s a work of fiction, and every day police work and procedure would be very boring for most people, but surely there has to be some research done and an attempt at authenticity? No senior police officer would allow another officer to have any part investigating a case involving a member of his family, and to allow him to go to another police area with a sergeant to do so is absolutely ridiculous. Who was supposed to be doing Oldroyd’s work in Harrogate in his absence, along with that of the sergeant? Oldroyd is held up to be some kind of genius, held in awesome esteem by his junior officers, yet his interview technique is appalling. He doesn’t interview a suspect, he just tells them his own theories, and they crack and confess all due to his ‘superior intellect and insight’. What a load of rubbish. The author is not alone in writing like this, most detective fiction writers do. Why they insist on having a uniformed officer in the room whilst detectives interview suspects is beyond me. It never happened in the 30 years I was in the police where I served as both a uniformed officer, detective and a senior officer, but as I say, it’s fiction. However, it’s frustrating when the basic police procedures and relationships are set aside. There is rarely any mention of the detective constables the two detective sergeants are there to supervise. There wouldn’t be two DS’s working solely with a DCI. The whole rank structure is askew, and it wouldn’t take much effort to find out how a general CID office operates. The plot in this book is paper thin and overall it was a disappointment. By far the worst faux pas is Oldroyd interviewing the suspect who has also tried to kill his (Oldfield’s) daughter. This just would not happen, it would jeopardise the whole investigation and would leave the police wide open to accusations of malpractice etc. Even in the world of fiction, I find this to be unbelievable. I enjoyed the other books in the series because the plots were different from the tedious outpouring usually on offer, but this one just doesn’t work for a number of reasons. What a complicated, ridiculous chain of events to steal a painting. Morton could have just burgled the flat or arranged someone else to do it for him, rather than needlessly killing three people. Of course, the author has taken a plot from a classic piece of literature and woven it into his own offering purely to enable his DCI to recognise the similarities and lead him to solving the case. Certainly not this author’s best, but I’ll read the next one in the series as I find the police set up completely laughable, but entertaining nonetheless.

Very enjoyable read.