by Denzil Meyrick
SYNOPSIS
A village of secrets
It's December 1952, and a dead stranger has been found lodged up the chimney of Holly House in the remote town of Elderby. Is he a simple thief, or a would-be killer? Either way, he wasn't on anyone's Christmas wish list.
A mystery that can't be solved
Inspector Frank Grasby is ordered to investigate. The victim of some unfortunate misunderstandings, he hopes this case will help clear his name. But as is often the way for Grasby, things most certainly don't go according to plan.
A Christmas to remember
Soon blizzards hit the North York Moors, cutting off the village from help, and the local doctor's husband is found murdered. Grasby begins to realise that everyone in Elderby is hiding something - and if he can't uncover the truth soon, the whole country will pay a dreadful price...
REVIEW
After an unfortunate horse related incident, Frank Grasby is seconded out of York CID to a small constabulary in secluded Elderby. There he finds a small team with a questionable level of experience - the most they usually have to deal with is the odd drunken bar fight in the local pub.
In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Frank is sent out on his first case. There has been a potential break-in at Holly House owned by Lord Damnish but according to his colleagues, a quick visit and look around will suffice. Unfortunately, bad luck seems to have followed inspector Grasby to Elderby, as while he is looking at what seems like a blocked chimney, a body falls out like a scene from a Christmas horror film! His quiet new life in Elderby where all he had to do was keep his head down is well and truly interrupted by a murder investigation.
Murder At Holly House has probably been the most surprising book that I've read this year. I hadn't read anything by author Denzil Meyrick before and didn't know anything about the story other than reading the blurb before starting, but I do love a good Christmas Crime novel so I really wanted to give it a try. Based on the blurb and cover design I thought I was going to be reading a historical crime novel set in the 1950s with more of a classic 'Golden Age' crime vibe. In many ways this was true, but that's why I was so shocked that the opening of the book is set in the present day. An introduction to the life of Frank Grasby is given directly to the reader and the main story is then told through Frank's own diaries and also police reports from his time in Elderby.
I absolutely love this epistolary element to the book. It's not on the same scale as Janice Hallett for example, but it broke up the historical side of the story and gave it a more modern feel - a mixture which worked really well. I also loved the way the 'author' spoke directly to us as the reader. This use of 'meta fiction' really helped to absorb me into the story in a way that I wouldn't have been if these sections were left out. It was almost telling you at the start to read it as 'true crime' rather than fiction and I honestly think it completely changed my reading experience with this book.
There was such a great mix of styles and tropes in Murder At Holly House (and they just so happen to be some of my favourite elements of crime fiction), so I am now a little bit obsessed with this story! It was really enjoyable, a good solid mystery, full of unusual and engaging characters and also very funny - there was a level of sarcasm running throughout which was just perfect for the story. Any crime fiction fans looking for a book to read in the lead-up to Christmas should bump this book to the top of their TBRs.
Thanks to Random Things Tours - @RandomTTours, Denzil Meyrick @Lochlomonden and Transworld Books - @TransworldBooks for the opportunity to read and review.
Publisher: Bantam Press / Transworld Books Genre: Police Procedural / Historical Thriller
ISBN: 978-1787637184
Pages: 368pp
Comments