Scan barcode
A review by miggsisalot
The Dead Shall be Raised & Murder of a Quack by George Bellairs
4.0
Having been pleasantly wowed by the first Detective Inspector Littlejohn mystery I’ve ever read, Death of a Busybody, I went into this double feature volume with mild expectations and wasn’t disappointed. In the first tale, The Dead Shall Be Raised, Littlejohn and his wife Letty are spending their Christmas holiday with friends in the town of Hatterworth, after their Hampstead flat is damaged in an air raid. During a festive Christmas evening, the remains of a man who had gone missing in 1917 are uncovered, and Littlejohn is persuaded by the local superintendent to aid in what soon becomes a case of double murder dating back to the years of the first World War. The second tale, The Murder of a Quack, Littlejohn is called to the village of Stalden to investigate the death of Nathaniel Wall, a homeopathic practitioner, or ‘bonesetter’. Mr. Wall’s body is discovered hung up inside of his own surgery-room by his housekeeper and the local constabulary. Renowned for his skills and well-liked by the villagers, Mr. Wall didn’t seem like a man with many enemies, so who could have murdered him in such a brutal fashion, and why?
While both stories are typical procedural mysteries, the elements that made Death of a Busybody so entertaining and enjoyable are very present. The Dead Shall Be Raised, the denser of the two, is chock-full of colorful characters and memorable scenes, even a few tense moments where you think you’ve sussed out the perpetrator but it isn’t what you expected. The Murder of a Quack is more of a straightforward procedural, not as twisty-turny and perhaps a bit grimmer. I did let out a happy yell with the return of Littlejohn’s trusty associate, Detective Sergeant Cromwell.
I’m now well and truly hooked on the Littlejohn Mysteries, and I do hope that The Publishing Powers that Be release more of George Bellairs’s (real name Harold Blundell) work, because I will eat it right up.
This review was originally posted at: http://armchairamusements.com/the-roundup-books-i-read-in-august/
While both stories are typical procedural mysteries, the elements that made Death of a Busybody so entertaining and enjoyable are very present. The Dead Shall Be Raised, the denser of the two, is chock-full of colorful characters and memorable scenes, even a few tense moments where you think you’ve sussed out the perpetrator but it isn’t what you expected. The Murder of a Quack is more of a straightforward procedural, not as twisty-turny and perhaps a bit grimmer. I did let out a happy yell with the return of Littlejohn’s trusty associate, Detective Sergeant Cromwell.
I’m now well and truly hooked on the Littlejohn Mysteries, and I do hope that The Publishing Powers that Be release more of George Bellairs’s (real name Harold Blundell) work, because I will eat it right up.
This review was originally posted at: http://armchairamusements.com/the-roundup-books-i-read-in-august/