A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy

I read this for the "Raven square" for Halloween Bingo 2021.

Ahh. Back to it my peeps.

So this was a great book in the Inspector Ramsey series. "A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy" really shows what happens when a do gooder is also a fanatic in a way. Something very good to read right now due to the insanity of the world around us. Isn't it always hard to deal with someone when they claim to have "right" on their side and won't listen to other people's points of view? We have Ramsey showing once again that it's important to listen to what is not being said and he is able to pinpoint who the murderer in this one, though it costs him something.

Ramsey has become my favorite character in a series in a long time. I had no idea that show more Cleeves had written this series, but I really wish she had continued it. Books 1 through 2 have been enjoyable to go through as I am dealing with house and medical stuff. I keep calling the villages he goes to darker Midsomer Murders because there's always a lot of other stuff going on with several people in these stories. show less

The first half of this was excellent as Ramsay gradually got a picture of the kind of woman the victim was, but then it began to drag. The conclusion was certainly not the one I was expecting, so points for misdirection, but the motivation of the murderer was not really something the reader could have anticipated.

Dorothea Cassidy, the middle-aged vicar's much-younger wife, has been murdered. Everyone loved her -- well, almost everyone -- so who would want to kill her? She had interacted with a wide variety of people that day. Every Thursday was "her" day to tend to her projects. Trained as a social worker and filled with altruism, she got involved in lots of causes and cases and ruffled quite a few feathers. Which of them made someone mad enough to kill her? And what does it mean when another body is found?

This short (215 page) book was a nice nuts-and-bolts whodunit. The characters are less developed than in the more recent Shetland Island novels by the author, but the plot was clever. There were lots of possible suspects who clearly had show more secrets -- the question being "is it the big secret?" as in being the murderer -- and a fair number of red herrings were thrown into the mix. I did not guess whodunit until the actual moment of the arrest.

Cleeves also captures the atmosphere of the village carnival quite splendidly, and it makes a marvelous backdrop for some of the action.

I must say, the basic premise is a lot like the previous book in this series: a woman who everyone supposedly loves is murdered, but it turns out she's a bit of a busybody. Mrs. Cassidy's involvement in other people's affairs is more professional than nosy, but the same kind of dynamic appears to be in operation. show less

Another great mystery from Ann Cleeves. Ann does a great job of keeping me guessing right up to the reveal. Once revealed, I sit there and wonder how I didn't see that coming because it all makes perfect sense.

I could listen to Simon Mattacks all day. His voice is mellow and soothing and fits Inspector Ramsay perfectly.

Dorothea Cassidy is not everybody's idea of a vicar's wife. She is much younger than her husband and an unlikely candidate for murder. Thursdays are the day when she "does her own thing" and thursday night is when she was last seen.

Stephen Ramsay is first alerted to Dorothea's disappearance by his aunt who lives in a retirement village where Dorothea was supposed to have given a talk in the evening. It is another 12 hours before her body is discovered in a local park. The circumstances are complicated by a music fair running over a number of days.

Stephen tries to put together a timeline relating to when Dorothea was last seen. She had last been involved with a child protection case being managed by a local social worker.

These are very show more readable, and credible stories. Recommended. show less

A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy is written by Ann Cleeves.
This title is Book #3 of Ms. Cleeves’ Inspector Ramsay series.
“For Dorothea Cassidy, Thursdays were special. Every week she would look forward to the
one day she could call her own, a welcome respite from the ordinary, tedious duties of being a
vicar’s wife. But one Thursday in June would be her last - the day Dorothea was strangled.”
A very clever title and plot line - a murder occurs and is solved that same day, all due to
keeping very close track of time by Inspector Ramsay.
I did like the book. This series is an early work of Ms. Cleeves and each title in the series gets
a bit more ‘fleshed out’, and the characters, especially Stephen Ramsay, more show more multi-dimensional.
There are two more titles in the series and I look forward to reading them both.
**** show less

The vicar's wife is murdered. Her body is found in a park in a small village in Northumberland.

Turns out Dorothea Cassidy had won over a great deal of the village. A young, beautiful woman, she also cared deeply about others. She was a former social worker and still had the skills. So she was everywhere, trying to fix things, helping, trying to save others. Apparently most people did like her, even though she could be a bit rigid.

Her husband, the Vicar, was about 20 years older and had a grown son. Both professed to care deeply for Dorothea, and the vicar said nobody said boo about the difference in ages. But was everything so rosy?

Dorothea had been involved in the placement of a child in care when her mother announced her intention to show more follow her lover on the road. Apparently Dorothea saw nothing good for the little girl in this arrangement and got the social worker to take the girl. This caused a rift between Dorothea and the mother as well as the boyfriend.

There were other complications. Inspector Stephen Ramsay was not willing to jump to any conclusions, much to the dismay of others in the force. He took the time it took to talk to everyone who might be able to shed light on the situation. And finally he saw the answer. It didn't make him happy. show less