A Cursed Inheritance by
Kate Ellis
hbk out March 05
Published by Piatkus
at £18.99
Kate Ellis has over the years quietly gathered an enthusiastic following for her series
about Tradmouth-based cop Wesley Peterson and recently her fame has begun to
spread. A nomination for a CWA Short Story Dagger was followed by her appearance
on the long-list for the Theakston's Old Peculier Award for the best crime novel of
the year. 'The Plague Maiden' deserved that accolade and its successor is at least as
good. The set-up is intriguing: the death of a true-crime writer leads Wesley and co. to
take another look at the massacre of the Harford family 20 years earlier. The case had
been considered open-and-shut, but now it seems that the assumptions made by the
original investigators may have been too glib. There are plenty of atmospheric
incidentals, including a dodgy regressive hypnotist, dead crows nailed to a door, and a
doll's house transformed into a recreation in miniature of the crime scene. As usual in
a Kate Ellis story, the action is counter-pointed with the unravelling of a historical
mystery, this time set in the New World settlement of Annetown (Ellis explains in an
afterword that the inspiration came from the real-life Jamestown). This is a complex
book with an extensive cast of characters and an ingenious plot. For anyone who
loves the traditional, elaborate English mystery, Ellis has produced a must-read.
Expect her to feature even more prominently in future awards lists.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
A Cursed Inheritance by
Kate Ellis
