Red as Any Blood

LoveReading Says

Meet your new favourite cosy crime detective duo. Set in 1950, with a classic murder-in-a-mansion-house context, Sue McCormick’s riveting Red as any Blood whodunnit is centred on a pair of amiably charismatic characters — actress Dame Elspeth Hollanby (better known as Holly) and Ivy, her working-class dresser.

With the festive season in full swing, Holly persuades Ivy, a young widow and former librarian, to spend Christmas with a gathering of her theatre friends at Black Gairy, a rather lovely mansion in rural Scotland. Among the guests is rich, powerful, predatory Sir Max Coyle, a man who was a “dangerous enemy” to make, and who happens to have many enemies among the people gathered at the mansion. 

As Christmas festivities get underway, news comes that the Stone of Destiny, an important symbol of Scottish independence, has been stolen from Westminster Abbey. Then, after being snowed in, with no means of communicating with the outside world, Max’s body is discovered: “Christmas had taken a gruesome turn. There was a killer at Black Gairy.”

Keen-witted and observant, Holly and Ivy find themselves drawn into investigating the murder — no easy feat, given that everyone has a motive and openly states their disdain for Max. In addition, most of the suspects are accomplished at the art of convincing. As Ivy observes, “Trust me to try and solve a mystery in a house of actors”.

Charmingly intriguing as the duo eliminate possible culprits and navigate a minefield of red herrings, Red as any Blood also unpacks class in the political context of 1950s Britain and flutters with complicated frissons of romance. As such, Holly and Ivy is set to be a must-read series for discerning aficionados of cosy crime.

Reviewed by Joanne Owen
Joanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
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