ʻProficient writing, an inventive plot, and Evans’ usual well-crafted procedural detail, make this sixth entry in the Rafferty series a good choice for those who can’t get enough of British coppers.’
A Little Laughter. A Little Mayhem. A Little MURDER…
Detective Inspector Joe Rafferty manages to become chief suspect in his own double murder investigation. And all he’d been doing was looking for love…
It had been his sergeant's wedding that had brought home to him that, far from still being the 'Jack the Lad' of old, he was not only lonely, but in danger of turning into a sad old git. So, with his fortieth birthday on the horizon, he decides it's time to take the initiative.
To this end, he signs up with the Made in Heaven dating agency. Wary of his colleagues discovering his shameful secret, he persuades his more up-market cousin to let him borrow his ID. It's just unfortunate that the first two women with whom he strikes up a rapport should wind up murdered, and with himself – or rather his alter ego – in the frame for the crimes.
Put in charge of the double murder investigation, Rafferty foresees plenty of difficulties ahead. Not least how he is to conduct the case without the witnesses pointing the finger, and saying: 'But that's him. That's Nigel Blythe. The murderer!'
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'Recommended as a real whodunnit you'll be glad you read. Enjoy. I did.'
For Readers of who enjoy detective novels with a little British humour.
A robbery gone wrong, Detective Joe Rafferty thought, when the latest murder victim, wealthy widow, Clara Mortimer was found battered to death in her home. Then Rafferty learned she wasn’t a widow at all – and her estranged husband was living in the same block under a false name.
But that's not the only suspicious aspect of the case: Clara Mortimer's family add another complication, not eased either by their several deceptions or by the difficulties in Rafferty's personal life, which, as always, seems to be guided by a malign fate and take his eye off the investigatory ball. But could he help it if his automatic reaction when his live-in girlfriend Abra said she might be pregnant, wasn't exactly New Man?
Their investigation brings Rafferty and Llewellyn face to face with just how down and dirty families can be... and not just the families of murder victims.
'Another page-turner!'
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ʻI'm hooked! After reading the first two books in this series, I'm a definite fan of Geraldine Evans. Well written, nicely plotted, very entertaining.’
A Little Laughter. A Little Mayhem. A Little MURDER...
A most unlikely killer, is British Detective Joe Rafferty's immediate thought, when the slender and bloodied Felicity Raine stumbles into the police station and confesses to murdering her husband.
Rafferty thinks her an even more unlikely murderer when he meets her in-laws, and catches them out in several deceits. There is something peculiar going on, he is convinced. Because although Felicity isn't down to receive any financial benefit from her husband's death, others in the Raine family are. Is one of them attempting to set Felicity up to take the murder rap?
The case prompts Rafferty to more deeply investigate what lies beneath the surface—not only in his current investigation, but in his tangled personal life, too.
'If you read one, you will seek out the others. The Rafferty & Llewellyn books are great.'
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'Clever plotting and polished prose make this a cracking good British police procedural.' B00KLIST
’Cracking Crime Mystery with Depth and Laughs.’
Lapsed Catholic British Detective Joe Rafferty is dismayed that his latest murder investigation should centre around the local RC Convent, where a dead (male) body has been discovered in a shallow grave.
The nuns' order is an enclosed, contemplative one, and access to their house and grounds, with its surrounding 8-foot-high walls, far from simple. But Rafferty, unlike his Sergeant, Dafyd Llewellyn, who isn't prejudiced by a rigid Catholic schooling, finds it easy as sin to believe that this is an inside job, and that the religious are as capable of murder as other frail mortals.
As if to punish him for his blasphemy, the spiteful fates take the opportunity to add some mischief sure to cause Rafferty palpitations. Because amongst his list of 'holy' suspects is his Parish priest and personal bête-noire, Father Roberto Kelly. Turns out the determinedly soul-saving, uber-hypocritical, 'greatest sinner in the parish', is the nuns' confessor.
As if all that's not enough for Detective Rafferty to cope with, he is also beset by personal problems of a blackmailing nature, stemming from a previous investigation that has come back to haunt him…
Rafferty must dig deep into the past and the mores of an earlier generation to try to find the killer, and into his own recent past to identify his blackmailer.
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‘Solid, straightforward detection mingled with family mayhem.’
KIRKUS REVIEWS ON A THRUST TO THE VITALS
Sir Rufus Seward, returning to his home town of Elmhurst many years after his involuntary departure, to attend a civic reception in his honour, had ignored the maxim that 'going back' is not always wise.
Especially when so many people had long memories. Especially when the same people still hated him. Found murdered after the reception, it is clear from DI Joe Rafferty’s questioning of the guests, that one of them had decided it was time to settle old scores.
And, judging from the phone call he had received at the scene, his younger brother was numbered among them.
Rafferty, aware that his brother had plenty of reasons to loath Seward, finds himself torn between protecting his brother and finding the killer.
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ʻGeraldine Evans penned a wonderfully entertaining story.’
A Little Laughter. A Little Mayhem. A Little MURDER…
With his wife-to-be’s wedding budget spiralling out of control, and his Superintendent demanding the swift resolution to the series of muggings of a local loan shark's collectors, DI Joe Rafferty is anticipating a long and trying week. And sure, enough, he isn’t disappointed.
When one John ‘Jaws’ Harrison is found with his skull caved in, in an alleyway backing on to rundown Primrose Avenue while on his way to collect debt repayments from the residents, Rafferty and his intellectual partner, Sergeant Dafyd Llewellyn, imagine the case will be easily solved. Armed with a list of local debtors, they begin their investigations. But they hadn’t counted on the conspiracy of silence amongst the residents — most of whom had good reason to want Jaws dead.
With the Super breathing down his neck and fiancée Abra sending his blood pressure to boiling point, Rafferty is forced to make some unorthodox decisions and stretch his intuitive powers to breaking point.
But if his only way to solve the murder is to get a little creative - with the truth or anything else - it's better he does it than anyone else on the team, especially one or two who are a little TOO free-thinking. It's really just a matter of getting away with it . . .
'Love this series.'
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A Little Laughter. A Little Mayhem. A Little MURDER...
For readers who like cozy mysteries, humorous mysteries and police procedurals.
‘Solidly written, with strong characters and realistic depictions of police work, Evans’ latest will appeal to procedural fans.’
BOOKLIST ON ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE
When Detective Inspector Joseph Rafferty visits his local pub for a quick drink, he’s looking to forget his troubles, not add to them. His ex-fiancée Abra is still refusing to talk to him, and he’s fast losing hope of a reconciliation. But Rafferty is not destined to enjoy his drink in peace. Because a man is found dead – stabbed in the pub’s car park – and a preoccupied Rafferty is to lead the investigation.
What at first appears to be an open and shut case quickly becomes a lot more complex. The witnesses all plead alcohol-induced amnesia, and Rafferty’s habitually cautious sidekick, Sergeant Dafyd Llewellyn, isn’t helping either—casting doubt on all of Rafferty’s conclusions.
And as Rafferty wrestles with the case, he must also wrestle with Abra’s determination to avoid their problems. Soon, he is in despair on both counts…
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'I love these books. The characters are so believable.'
A Little Laughter. A Little Mayhem. A Little MURDER...
For Readers who like Detective Series with a bit of humor and very little gore.
Murder victim Adrienne Staveley had a husband, a stepson, and several lovers. And while other men liked her too much, British Detective Joe Rafferty discovered her own menfolk had reasons not to like her very much at all. And as for her female in-laws--the less said about their opinion of the victim, the better.
Rafferty and his partner, Dafyd Llewelyn, had to sort through Adrienne's tangled love life to find just who had left her murdered -- strangled on her own kitchen floor. Needless to say, the seldom considerate fates had ensured Rafferty had suspects in plenty and motives too numerous to mention. The only thing he and his partner lacked was proof against any one of them.
And Joe Rafferty's wedding day was fast-approaching. Would he manage to solve the case and get off on his honeymoon? Or would the fates ensure he had to cancel and get in his bride, Abra's, bad books from the very start?
Things are not looking good for Rafferty on any front. Then they get even worse when he discovers fingersprints in the murder house that shouldn't have been there.
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ʻHer writing, along with red herrings, is usually done in such a clever way that when you leave the roller coaster you have had a thrilling ride."
A Little Laughter. A Little Mayhem. A Little MURDER...
For those who like detective mysteries with a little British humour.
When Sophia Egerton, matriarch of a family of fashion designers is murdered on her ninetieth birthday, British Detective Joe Rafferty wonders if one of her family thought she'd lived too long. Because most of the suspects just happen to be the wealthy Sophia's ever-loving relatives.
Rafferty's murder investigation is thwarted by his own parish priest, Father Roberto Kelly. The priest, so frequently Rafferty’s bête-noire, has turned up to offer succour to one of his lady parishioners. And Rafferty realises that it is only by getting the wilful priest on-side that he will ever get to solve this murder mystery and get a conviction.
But can he ever persuade the wilfully self-righteous priest that helping to solve a murder is more worthy of a nod from God, than protecting the secrets of the confessional?
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ʻJust love these stories, brilliantly sad and funny.'
A Little Laughter. A Little Mayhem. A Little MURDER…
Detective Joe Rafferty thinks: nice easy sex murder, when young schoolteacher Laura Scott is found murdered and half-naked. It puts his problems – from his brothers accusing one another when ‘stuff’ goes missing from their lock-up, to the Chief Constable’s porno-starring granddaughter – in perspective.
Until it doesn’t. Because his brothers, amateur entrepreneurs in a small way till now, have started to branch out. And the CC’s porno-star granddaughter? He’s to make it all just go away, though the message isn’t clear about just how he is to accomplish this convenient disappearing act in these days of videos going viral on Youtube.
Even his nice easy sex murder—isn’t. Laura Scott might have been murdered, but she wasn’t raped or interfered with in any way. In fact, the case gets a whole lot more complicated. Because it seems Laura Scott was all things to all people, and everyone can’t be right. To Rafferty, like Russia to Winston Churchill, Laura turns out to be ‘A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.’ But it is only by finding the real Laura that he can find her murderer.
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ʻThis series gets better and better.’
Little Laughter. A Little Mayhem. A Little MURDER…
A nine-month pregnant wife, a murder victim found on an archaeological dig minus his fingers, and very limited time, meant that Joe Rafferty wasn’t a happy bunny. Superintendent Bradley, media darling and determined to stay that way, only added to Rafferty’s stress.
They discovered that their murder victim had vanished from Spain, where he worked for Charlie Carver, a Mr Big of the Costa del Crime. But Rafferty’s visit to Spain was cut short when to Abra went into labour. And despite his promises that he’d be there at his child’s birth, wouldn’t you know the French air traffic controllers had staged their usual summer strike.
Superintendent Bradley, with the heady thought of promotion filling his mind, demanded he get Charlie Carver, who’d be a big feather in his cap with the brass. But Rafferty was convinced Carver wasn’t the murderer this time, whatever else he might be guilty of. Becoming a daddy for the first was a big thing for Rafferty, in more ways than one. But he didn't know how he was to satisfy Abra that he was pulling his weight with the baby and at the same time find the killer.
His first marriage had held similar demands, but he couldn't risk what he had with Abra, yet at the same time, he was determined to find the killer, whatever the cost.
ʻAlways entertaining.’
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Award-winning author.
DI Joe Rafferty knows that the murder case against Professor Babbington is as much of a sure thing as he is ever likely to get. So why does every piece of evidence against him also prove his innocence?
If you like Detective Series with a few laughs, you'll like this.
Sergeant Llewellyn's remark that, perhaps, 'Someone ELSE had made them a gift of Professor Anthony Babbington' as the murderer, was just sour grapes, in Detective Joe Rafferty's opinion.
But Llewellyn could plant a doubt where none had existed before. And Rafferty, sure in his own mind that they had the culprit, disregarded Llewellyn, who was known to greatly admire Babbington. They had so much proof it was embarrassing: Babbington's fingerprints on the murder weapon; the victim's blood on his shirt; and his DNA on the dead man.
Rafferty couldn't believe it when his 'sure thing' began to slowly unravel. He refused to admit his growing doubts about Babbington's guilt to Llewellyn, who championed the professor, and was as convinced of Babbington's innocence as Rafferty was of his culpability.
But gradually, all Rafferty's certainty vanished into dust, and he was left to prepare himself to face the music when Superintendent Bradley came back from his expensive holiday, to find that the 'sure thing' he had left with Rafferty, had inexplicably become anything but.
Unless Joe Rafferty could find some way to turn defeat into triumph…
'Darn good read.' 'Thoroughly enjoyed the whole series. Great characters and storyline.'
Geraldine Evans is a multi-published British novelist who believes in writing to entertain her readers.
