"Cosy crime readers, discover your new favourite Cornish community, harbouring secrets all along its pretty coast, and unexpected investigators combing for clues "
I’ve long admired Emylia Hall as a colleague and writing mentor (and indeed, lovely person!) and so I was particularly looking forward to settling in to read her first in this new cosy crime series set in a place that’s clearly close to her heart – the Cornish coast.
The setting really is a character in this novel, where the sea is woven throughout, varyingly soothing and sinister. This fictionalised remote coastal community provides a perfect location for delicate personal histories, hierarchies and rumours to grow to fever pitch – where the connections of people to their old cottages or new glass mansions can be life or death.
A distinctive feature of this novel is that you dip into multiple different characters’ points of view – going close into the perspectives of not just the main detective duo Ally and Jayden, but also other members of the community, from bumbling policemen, beloved business owners, to violent suspects. You can tell Hall had fun giving them each distinctive habits, turns of phrase and idiosyncrasies, and these really bring the whole extended cast to life for the reader. I think so many readers will see themselves unexpectedly in these secondary characters, and Hall is lovely at using them to give depth and breadth to what would otherwise be throwaway characters. Even though there are, of course, crimes, I found this contributed to an ethos which held a fundamentally benevolent view of human nature, and the complicated psychologies and contexts that might lead people to behave the way they do – even to commit murder.
I’m sure this will continue to enchant cosy crime readers and I look forward to what the Shell House Detectives investigate next!
| Primary Genre | Crime and Mystery |
| Other Genres: |
Welcome to the coastal paradise of Porthpella, where murder lurks among the dunes…
Late one night, a distraught young man knocks on the door of retired and recently widowed Ally Bright’s remote home on the Cornish coast. But before she can make sense of his confused words, he’s gone—not to be seen again until he’s found the next morning at the foot of the nearby cliffs.
In an instant, the peace of Ally’s beachcombing life is shattered. Feeling responsible for the young man’s fate, she wants to help find answers—as does ex-cop Jayden Weston, whom Ally meets at the scene. He shares her certainty that there’s more to the story than attempted suicide. When it emerges that the man is newly released ex-offender Lewis Pascoe, and that Helena, the wealthy new owner of his grandmother’s home, has subsequently disappeared, the tight-knit community of Porthpella is thrown into turmoil.
Driven by their need to know more, the duo decide to investigate the mystery together. Is there a connection between the Pascoe family’s tragic history and Helena’s disappearance? And if there is a killer stalking Porthpella, do Ally and Jayden have what it takes to catch them?
The Shell House Detectives features in the following genres: Crime and Mystery, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Romance / Relationship Stories, Crime and mystery: private investigator / amateur detectives, Crime and mystery: cosy mystery, Crime and mystery: women sleuths, Fiction, General Fiction
The Shell House Detectives is available in Paperback
The Shell House Detectives was written by Emylia Hall and published by Thomas & Mercer an imprint of Amazon Publishing
The Shell House Detectives has 384 pages
Yes it is part of A Shell House Detectives Mystery series
£8.09
