Murder by Mistake

I am a fan of Veronica Heley's Ellie Quicke series and the latest one - Murder by Mistake - lives up to the high standard set by the previous books. Ellie is married to Thomas and living in Aunt Drusilla's house now that her aunt is dead. She is playing host to Ursula's wedding reception and looking after Mia as she recovers from her ordeal at the hands of her family and their friends. Ursula and Mia appeared in the previous book in the series Murder in House.

Everything is going smoothly with the wedding plans until Ellie's obnoxious daughter Diana appears and announces she wants to hold her own wedding reception at the house on the same day and Ursula's will have to be cancelled. But Ellie puts her foot down about it and refuses to cancel Ursula. So then it's two wedding receptions on the sane day - which would have been fine if someone hadn't decided to try and wipe out Mia and/or Ellie by various means.

This is a fast paced plot with an excellent mixture of fascinating characters. The constant battles between Ellie and her daughter are always interesting; and Ellie's endless curiosity about friends and neighbours and her efforts to help unravel their lives make for entertaining reading. The sub text is always Ellie trying to live up to her Christian principles - with her successes and failures. This could be sickly but isn't because Ellie is a strong character with a sense of humour and a well developed sense of the ridiculous as well as a good knowledge of human nature.

This is a series I collect in hardback and regularly re-read. It deserves to be better known in my opinion.

Murder in House

I stayed up late last night to finish Veronica Heley's latest Ellie Quicke mystery - Murder in House. This is a darker mystery than usual but still just as gripping as the rest of the series. Ellie has a terrible cold and would rather wrap up warm and stay inside when new husband Thomas asks her to talk to Ursula who is staging a sit in at a church. Ursula asks Ellie to look into a murder which has been treated as an accident and to find her fried Mia who has disappeared.

Ellie can't see how she can solve the problems - or even whether she wants to. But she does as Ursula asks and returns her engagement ring to her former fiance who behaves in an extremely strange fashion and Ellie's curiosity is aroused. She quickly tracks Mia down and finds the mystery is even more complicated and unpleasant than it first appeared. It also involves an exceedingly nasty local business man who is putting pressure on Ellie's cousin Roy to come up with a large sum of money.

There are some brilliant scenes involving Ellie's ruthless daughter Diana with Ellie increasingly getting the upper hand. All the usual characters appear including son-in-law Stuart, cousin Roy and wife Felicity, Ellie's friends Kate and Armand and ageing housekeeper Rose. The climax of the book is perfect and shows Ursula to be a more complex character than at first appeared. The dialogue throughout the book is full of humour and humanity and Thomas is shown at his best. There are some marvellous minor characters as well.

I love this series though some might find it too tame. There is bad language only by implication and there is an emphasis on the human virtues and a belief in God but the books are not pious and Ellie is never a saint in human form. She doesn't always behave well and is all the more believable and likable for this. This story involves rape, murder muggings and attempts by a pillar of the community to bribe and cheat his way through life. So the nastier aspects of human behaviour are not glossed over they are merely not described in excessive detail - leaving it to the reader's imagination. I loved it and think it is one of the best in this series.

Murder in the Park

I have finished reading Veronica Heley's latest Ellie Quicke mystery. If this is the finale to the series which she has indicated before that it could be, then it was a worthy finish. But there are enough loose ends for there to be other stories. Ellie is called to the aid of her friend Felicity who has witnessed a murder by a dangerous dog in the park where she was walking her baby. Ellie decides - encouraged, if not commanded by her formidable Aunt Drusilla - also Felicity's mother-in-law - to find the dog and owner before another killing takes place. But this is easier said than down and another person is injured. This time it is one of the ladies who helps in the charity shop where Ellie herself used to work. Ellie appears on the scene immediately after Mae is attacked apparently by the same dog and this makes her more determined to find the dog and alert the police. On top of this task she has to help look after her Aunt who's health is giving cause for concern, and try to keep her daughter Diana's schemes for increasing her own wealth in check.

For those of you who have followed this series it is interesting to see how much Ellie has come into her own strength of character. She takes charge of difficult situations on several occasions in this book and does it very successfully. Her relationship with Thomas the vicar is growing enjoyably until he announces he will soon be leaving the parish. Ellie realises how much Thomas matters to her, but it looks as though there isn't going to be a happy ending. Can she resolve the situation and catch up with the dog owner before a tragedy strikes? On top of all this there is a fire which badly damages her own house and Ellie is accused of starting it. Will she cope with all this and find a dangerous criminal as well? I am now going back to the beginning of the series to read them through again so that I can watch how all the characters develop.

On another topic - I only realised today that 'Writing Magazine' had published a letter of mine in the latest issue. It wasn't on the letters page which was why I missed it when I first flicked through the magazine. They'd done a letters extra page and it was on there! That's the first thing I've had published for months so I was quite chuffed about it.

My book has not had anything added to it since last weekend. Partly because I seem to have pulled a muscle in my back sitting in an upright chair is painful - that's my excuse anyway. I'm ok if I'm lying down or standing up, or even walking, but sitting down is quite painful - must be a different angle or something. It is easing off now, but I'm trying to spend as much time as possible this weekend horizontal with a book in my hand to give it a chance to return to normal before I go back to work on Monday. Work last week was only possible because I kept getting up every twenty minutes or so and having a walk round. If it's not better by mid week I shall go to the doctors. Easy with ours as there are no appointments - you just turn up.

Off to have a shower.