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The Quartet Murders, JR Ellis
Thanks to NetGalley and to Thomas & Mercer for an advance copy of The Quartet Murders by JR Ellis.
This is the second in the series of Yorkshire murders for JR Ellis, and once again I really enjoyed the setting. It’s nice to see DS Carter settling into his new surroundings.
There was still quite a lot of head-hopping in this sequel. It’s okay to swap out viewpoint characters, but it’s usually best to give the reader a clue. This can be by changing chapter or by using section breaks between paragraphs. It’s confusing, though, to suddenly see something from the point of view of someone else when you’re already inside another character’s head.
I was pleased to see that the investigation wasn’t repeated over and over again in this story. There was much more quick recapping or mentioning the recap in passing before learning something new. I was also happy to see the author stick to fewer storylines.
My only real bugbear this time was when the cat, Godetia, did some of the police work for them. That didn’t sit well at all with me. I didn’t like having to suspend disbelief. It could have been written much less clumsily.
But it’s another good tale, and I’d like to see more.
