Thank you to GetRedPR, Blue Box Press, #partner, for the finished copy of The Murders at Fleat House in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Blue Box Press
Published: April 19, 2022
Summary:
The sudden death of a pupil in Fleat House at St Stephen’s – a small English private boarding school in deepest Norfolk – is a shocking event that the headmaster is very keen to call a tragic accident.
But the local police cannot rule out foul play and the case prompts the return of high-flying Detective Inspector Jazmine ‘Jazz’ Hunter to the force. Jazz has her own private reasons for stepping away from her police career in London but reluctantly agrees to front the investigation as a favour to her old boss.
Reunited with her loyal Sergeant, Alastair Miles, she enters the closed world of the school, and as Jazz begins to probe the circumstances surrounding Charlie Cavendish’s tragic death, events are soon to take another troubling turn.
Charlie is exposed as an arrogant bully and those around him had both motive and opportunity to switch the drugs he took daily to control his epilepsy.
As staff at the school close ranks, the disappearance of young pupil Rory Millar and the death of an elderly Classics Master provide Jazz with important leads but are destined to complicate the investigation further. As snow covers the landscape and another suspect goes missing, Jazz must also confront her own personal demons…
Then a particularly grim discovery at the school makes this the most challenging murder investigation of her career. Because Fleat House hides secrets darker than even Jazz could ever have imagined…
My thoughts:
I have long been a fan of Lucinda Riley and her historical fiction novels and was both shocked and deeply saddened at her death a last year. Her Seven Sisters series is one of my all-time favorites and I recommend it to everyone! So of course, when I heard she had written a crime novel, I knew I had to read it. Had she lived to publish this book, perhaps it would have gone on to become the first of a series…I certainly see the potential, but unfortunately that is not to be the case.
I love a good murder mystery and I firmly believe after reading this book that Lucinda Riley would have made such a good crime writer. This book captured my attention from the get-go and I loved that she set it at a private boarding school – dark academia is one of my favorite tropes and she does it so well! This was such a well thought out mystery that really kept me guessing from start to finish. Detective Inspector Jazz Hunter was such a great character and I loved that we got her backstory – again, this is something that the author excels in and she didn’t disappoint here.
This book is tense and full of twists and turns. The further DI Jazz Hunter and her colleague get into the case, the more secrets the seem to uncover. It really is quite a complex case and the reveals come at just the right time. It is also very atmospheric and again, this is something that the author excels at – using the sense of place to her advantage.
I am so glad that this book was published. Lucinda wrote it back in 2006, without a publisher, and never got around to re-editing it. Luckily her son Harry, tasked with fulfilling her literary legacy, found this and made sure it made it into our hands. As I mentioned, I’ve read most of Lucinda’s books and I have loved each and every one, including this one. I know there is one more coming out – the final book in the Seven Sisters series – and then I have a few more to still read from Lucinda’s backlist that I have not gotten around to reading. These will all be cherished books that I will at some point definitely be rereading. If you have not had the opportunity to read her books, I highly recommend them. She truly was a gifted writer and one that I will miss terribly!
