Shades of Murder (edition 2001)

The book was very light on police procedure. Accepting that Markby would be allowed anywhere near a murder in which he had direct contact with all of the suspects, even living with one of them; because such stretches are sometimes necessary for a crime novel, the police seemed to operate upon a Sherlock Holmes/Hercule Poirot approach whereby the little grey cells were all and finger prints, etc. were non existent.

I would have forgiven this, but a good whodunnit should have a twist: this one did not. After a very long build up - over 150 pages before the murder is committed, the book proceeded quite well, until the end. I would have liked some of the frightfully upper class villagers to get their comeuppance but the green wellie brigade came out on top; even though one of their number was a murderer. The complex series of events that lead to Jan Oakley's demise were unconvincing and left me feeling a little cheated.

The writing style was good and the 400 pages slipped by without effort. This is one of a series of 'Mitchell and Markby' books and I may well try another because this has the air of being out of kilter with said collection: Markby is very much a secondary character, having been somewhat sidelined by the pedestrian Minchin (due to Markby's connection to the case) and Meredith Mitchell is relegated to a point even further towards the edge of the picture. I am guessing that this might be a rogue offering - the one that didn't quite work. ( )

This book was an excellent read. There are two murders in the Shade family, a hundred years apart. You switch back and forth between the two times getting information from both murders. It was well written with both times separate and yet parallel. ( )

Nice one of this series, also the who-done-it is not so mysterious. ( )