Cast, Crew and Carnage; the Filming of Castlewood by Veronica Cline Barton(My Goodreds Review)

Cast, Crew and Carnage; the Filming of Castlewood Manor by Veronica Cline Barton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In the first story, Cherrywood Hall wins the rights for the new and exciting TV saga serious called Castlewood Manor. This is done with the help of a distant American cousin who helps the aristocratic family in the contest. The American lady is 27 years old Gemma Lancaster Phillips.

In this second story, Gemma is organising various promotional events for the up and coming show. They have a wide range of publicity agents and helpers among the British upper classes who want to help. There are models for the period costume designs. TV interviews etc. All manner of things is happening. Gemma Lancaster Phillips is in the thick of it and in love with her distant Lancaster family cousin, Kyle. Everything is going swimmingly well. Until diabolical scheming and then murder rears an ugly head.

Gemma finds herself the target of attention from the fiendish and anonymous attentions of un-well-wishers. A splendid who is doing this read. Lots of great characters too. If you like Murder Mystery and suspense with upper-class glamour, champagne and paparazzi, I’m certain you will like the Cherrywood Hall sagas.

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Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell (My Goodreads Review)

Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ouch, I hate to say this BUT...

A very hard hitting and exceptionally violent murder story. OK, that will draw the reader in straight away. It is set in Sothern Sweden and the year is 1990. Inspector Wallander of Ystad Police Department must find the savage murderers of an old age couple on their isolated farm. The whole thing is very compelling.

As Wallander digs deep into the mystery we go on all sorts of twists and turns. It is splendidly written and I would advise anyone to read these Wallander stories.

I do, however, have one big axe to grind with this particular story. I obviously can’t say too much because of spoilers. The writer Henning Mankell focuses on a very emotive and much-discussed subject. It is commendable and brave to do this. However, I also wished the plot was not watered down by a counterplot of the opposite angle. It always happens that this type of subject must have a compulsory or secondary issue. It has to be brought in. It spoilt the story for me. I felt it was trying to appease the PC brigade. It is just a personal opinion of what was a rather well-written story. That is why I only gave an average mark despite the superior writing ability of Mankell's very good stories.

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The Crown for Castlewood Manor: My American Almost-Royal Cousin Series by Veronica Cline Barton (My Goodreads Review)

The Crown for Castlewood Manor: My American Almost-Royal Cousin Series by Veronica Cline Barton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A young American woman named Gemma Alexandra Lancaster Philips decides to visit her ancestors in Britain. One of her distant and late aunts had married into the British aristocracy back in the 1930s. Her related Brit family estate is competing for the rights to have a new and hopefully popular TV saga filmed on location at their grounds. Such a project would increase revenue for running the vast family mansion and grounds. With TV revenue and an increase in visitor attraction, such a win would be a lucrative deal and set the estate’s financial balance in good order for the foreseeable future.

The estate is known as Castlewood Manor. This is the first story of my American Almost Royal Cousin Series. Gemma is persuaded by her actor mother to go over to Britain and help her aristocratic cousins win the competition. She leaves behind her Malibu house and cheating boyfriend and begins a new adventure with her dashing cousins, Kyle and Evan to win the important TV competition.

The problem is, there are other aristocratic estates participating in the competition too. And there is a complete lack of British sportsmanship about the whole affair. The dirty tricks are being pulled out of the bag in the most ghastly of ways. The coveted prize knows no bounds. For even the diabolical murder of participants is entertained.

Gemma and her cousins must walk a tight line as the competition progresses. Even when the Queen and other members of the Royal family attended functions, foul play is still lurking for the participants. We have the typical English cad and the rude obnoxious Brit rich bitch all thrown into the mix.

If you enjoy Cluedo board game style Murder Mystery or Hercule Poirot etc, I think you will enjoy this. One of the things we all do is to try and see if we can guess the murderer. Then when we find out, we all think ‘Oh blast!’

Well, I never see the end coming the way it did. I don’t think you will either. A very enjoyable read.

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Dissolution (Matthew Shardlake) My Goodreads Review

Dissolution by C.J. Sansom

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dissolution is the title of the first Matthew Shardlake novel. This man is a hunchback and lives in the time of King Henry VIII’s England. It is the year of 1537 and the month of November. Queen Jane (The King’s third wife) has just died one month earlier.

Our hero is a reformist living in the confined world of religious upheaval. The king has turned against the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church is all but illegal in England.

Within this confined world, Matthew Shardlake is a lawyer who views the reformist acts as a liberation from the corrupt shackles of Catholicism. The new Protestant fundamentalism is perceived as a release, and Mister Shardlake regards ministers like Thomas Cromwell as a moral champion for the good of all English people. He is summoned to Thomas Cromwell’s office in London and sent on a mission to a Benedictine Monastery on the south coast of England.

The last man of Cromwell’s administration to go there has been murdered while investigating the Monastery’s accounts. Matthew Shardlake must find the killer and bring about the Abbott’s supplication to the new reformist laws of Protestant England.

The story is full of intrigue with a very gripping climax. If you enjoy murder mystery and suspense with a colourful period setting, then the first Matthew Shardlake story is a very fine thriller indeed.

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The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (My Goodreads Review)

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A clever murder mystery and suspense story set in Northern Italy during the year of 1327. I read it back in the eighties when the book first came out. I saw the film also but read the book first. The movie was good but the ending was distorted from the book.

If my memory serves me correctly, the monastery is run by Benedictine monks and two other monks come to the monastery. One is a Franciscan and another a fellow Benedictine monk. These visitors turn up as head of a delegation for a summit. One is English (Franciscan) and called Brother William of Baskerville. Obviously, paying homage to another historical super sleuth. The other is a younger apprentice monk.

He (Benedictine) is a young German apprentice who narrates the story as he recalls the tale many years later. It is written in first person singular, the way we read Sherlock Holmes via Doctor Watson's narrative.

Upon arrival at the grand monastery, high in the remote mountains of Italy, Brother William is approached about a mysterious death of a young monk prior to arrival. Then more strange murders begin to happen and Brother William is drawn into a complex and compelling mystery. There are also Dolciminain heretic monks living under the protection of holy sanctuary too.

The story is splendidly crafted and the monastery contains a great library of vast and classical knowledge - another compelling lure for the inquisitive mind of Brother William and his insatiable quest for knowledge.

The young monk who narrates the story gives the reader a side by side walk through this gripping medieval and extraordinary murder, mystery story. Well worth reading with lots of further developments and complications as the story comes to consequences of the Holy Inquisition and a climatic conclusion. Splendid stuff!

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The Shape of Snakes - My Goodreads Review - Retro Brit

This is my favourite Minette Walters story. I could not put the book down and liked the main character who decides to get to the bottom of a murder she witnessed many years ago. This story had it all. I was thinking I had worked out the murderer, but wow! I was wrong. Smashing story and would highly recommend.

This page turner will have you gripped from the first page as we are offered all sorts of worthy and vile characters who made this murder victim's life terrible. Our victim is a black lady who suffers from tourettes syndrome. At the time of her murder, the crime is unsolved until over a decade later. A neighbour who discovered the dying woman decides to investigate the mystery herself. 

It is done in a way that is totally believable and not like an amateur sleuth story. Our lady has some insight and leads from the past that she decides to dig up. It is a sort of skeleton in her cupboard and she cannot let it lie any longer. We go on this journey with our champion character as she begins to unravel secrets of the past by visiting many who lived in the street where the crime took place.