A Medal for Murder

The pawnbroker Mr. Moony is not happy; someone pretending to pawn a pocket watch had, when Mr. Moony’s back was turned, abruptly robbed the jeweller of the contents of his safe. These included items that people had left with him with the full intention of redeeming them as soon as possible, and it is therefore an embarrassment that their trust in Mr. Moony has been so abused. He asks Kate Shackleton and Jim Sykes to approach the owners of those items and explain the situation to them. Luckily for Kate, one of the female customers lives in Harrowgate, where she herself is planning to attend an amateur play at the invitation of a new acquaintance who is directing the play. Once at Harrowgate, however, she finds herself almost literally show more stumbling over a murder victim - a man associated with the play and heartily disliked by pretty much the whole town. Kate’s allegiances are torn: whether to ignore the murder and continue her charge for the pawnbroker, or to put her detective skills to work on the more serious case…. This is the second Kate Shackleton novel, and our intrepid detectives have become more comfortable with each other (Mr. Sykes is even starting to drive a car!), while Kate herself is feeling more confident after having successfully solved her first paying case. In this novel, we learn a lot about stage jargon in 1920s England, as well as occurrences during the not-too-distant Boer War of 1900 and its aftermath. I enjoyed this, although I’m beginning to think that this series doesn’t quite fit the “cozy” label; yes, it has all the trappings (young woman detective, attractive settings, complicated characters and plot), but I think it might be a bit more serious than that label tends to suggest. Again, recommended! show less

'Medal for Murder' is the second Kate Shackleton mystery by Frances Brody, eagerly awaited and highly enjoyable! Murder mysteries always elude me - watching the detectives is more my style - but the puzzle kept me engrossed, and I was surprised by certain twists and false clues.

Now a fully fledged private investigator, with an assistant and a cherrywood filing cabinet, Kate Shackleton is hired to investigate a robbery at a pawnbrokers in Leeds. A strange coincidence leads her investigation to Harrogate, where an eccentric theatre acquaintance is also staging her first production. After the play, Kate and her friend find the body of one of the play's sponsors in a doorway, and a starlet from the cast goes missing. Her grandfather, a show more veteran of the Boer war, is sent a ransom note, and asks Kate to help find her. Involved in three apparently separate cases, Kate's inquisitive nature is aroused, but the deeper she delves, the more secrets are uncovered.

I vastly prefer 'cosy' detective mysteries to the more hardcore police procedural series out there, and the Kate Shackleton books have the added bonus of being set in 1920s Yorkshire! Kate is a thoroughly modern lady of independent means, running a business with former policeman as an assistant, driving her own car, and flirting with Scotland Yard detectives. Although Frances Brody keeps the post-WW1 era in mind, her brave and intelligent heroine is never held back in her determination to find the truth, and even uses her 'gentle sex' and genteel appearance to her advantage. The only time in this novel that I thought Kate was perhaps being rather too daring was the romantic development towards the end, but I suspect that relationship is going to continue with the series, so maybe Kate knows best after all!

I really enjoyed the South African backstory and the guided tour around Harrogate, which Frances Brody obviously researched well, and I didn't suspect the real murderer at all. My only gripe is that I had to wait so long for the sequel! show less

After an amateur production of a dramatisation of Anna of the Five Towns, Kate finds a body in a shop doorway and the lead actress goes into hiding and sends a fake ransom note to force her grandfather to give her her inheritance so she can go to RADA.

Good well-paced story which provides sympathy even for unsympathetic characters and skillfully avoids threatened toe-curling embarrassment for the reader.

It was okay. I liked it. I didn't like it as much as the first though. What I didn't like were the occasional chapters from a point of view other than Kate's. It wouldn't have mattered as much if the entire novel was from the same point of view but having chapters in third person and then Kate's first person made the book lack cohesion.

A better book than her first. And that’s not faint praise. Well plotted. Interesting diversions that keep interest in the characters and nice plot twists near the end. (More than 1).

The second in the Kate Shackleton series, this is well-plotted. I found this one particularly interesting because key characters have a connection to the Boer War and the novel features several flashbacks to that period. This series so far has been interesting with lots of references to historical events but not heavy "period pieces" either.

After the second book in the series I'm still undecided as to whether or not to keep going. The plot was over-complicated and I guessed one of the key clues quite early on in the book.I also didn't warm to any of the main characters in the book as they were just so unlikeable,

But I do like the idea of Kate, not quite a war widow, setting herself up as a private investigator and I do like her relationship with Sykes, which looks to develop in interesting ways. Am less convinced by the relationship with Inspector Marcus Charles, but we will see how this develops in the next book.