Lead Review (The Room of the Dead)
- Book: The Room of the Dead
- Location: Suffolk
- Author: M R C Kasasian
This is no. 2 in the Betty Church Mystery series: no. 1 is Betty Church And The Suffolk Vampire, The Ghost Tree is No. 3 and this cosy crime works fine as a standalone.
This is the story of Suffolk folk and of the police officers based at Sackwater police station, where Betty Church is the star sleuth. Her colleagues have some strange names in the Dickensian tradition, which adds whimsy to this tale of backwater life. Crime is low and consists mainly of tracking down an AWOL pensioner and determining the whereabouts of a missing bookmark. A bomb, however, is dropped (WW2 has, until now, seemed a long way away but the war has clearly arrived on home turf) and then a man’s body is discovered on the beach, which gets Betty’s investigative juices flowing.
The novel meanders around the lives of the people based in this quaint, bucolic area, it is entertaining and engaging, with just a slice of darkness. The author has an easy-to-read writing style that carries the reader along, with nicely drawn characters populating the pages, all peppered with humour and good observation.
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