The Railway Murders - Book Review

 

 

The Railway Murders
A Yorkshire Murder Mystery #8

by J.R. Ellis (2022)
Audible narration by Michael Page, 8:15 h

The 8th installment in J.R. Ellis' series about DCI Oldroyd & co in Yorkshire. I enjoy these books for a combination of reasons: The Yorkshire setting, likeable main characters, and focus on classic mystery solving rather than on too much detail of violence and forensics etc. 

In The Railway Murders each chapter starts with a reference to classic films/books about other murder mysteries involving trains. In this book, the setting is a museum railway, and the murder takes place in connection with a film shoot. It's a classic "locked room" mystery, as a film star has been shot dead in a train carriage, with the cameras rolling outside. But the victim was alone in the carriage, and nobody else was seen going in or out... So the mystery is as much about figuring out how it was done, as by whom.

For me, it was easy to imagine the setting of this book... My father was a railway and steam engine enthusiast, and on two family holidays by car in England and Wales back in the early 1970s, we visited several museum railways like this, also including train rides. 

What I also appreciate about this series is that besides the Kindle books being fairly cheap, one can also add the audio book at a real bargain price when buying it together with the Kindle book. I don't really know who Michael Page is, but I find listening to him reading these stories a joy in itself. So I mostly listened to this book, even if I also bought the Kindle.

Murder in the Dales

Last month, I also read two murder mysteries by J.R. Ellis. According to the presentation on Amazon, the author is a retired teacher who has lived in Yorkshire for most of his life. I've never come across him before, but it turns out he has written a series of (so far) four murder mysteries. I happened to find the first one as cheap daily deal (or something) for Kindle+Audible - and as I have a soft spot for Yorkshire (spending a bit of time there in my teens), I let myself be tempted. 

That I was not disappointed is probably proved by the fact that after finishing that one, I went straight ahead and bought the next one in the series as well. (I suspect I'll also get No 3 and 4 at some point.) 

The Body in the Dales by J.R. Ellis
Audio book narrated by Michael Page (9:48)

In the first book, a body is discovered in a cave beneath the Yorkshire Dales. The deceased man was well known in the village, but not well liked. A big part of the mystery is how his body came to be found in a very remote part of the cave system. There are details involved that make all suggested explanations just seem impossible. In charge of the investigation is DCI Jim Oldroyd, a Yorkshire man with plenty of local knowledge and experience, and his new partner DS Carter, who has just come to join them from London ('city boy' getting a rather tough introduction to rural Yorkshire). 

I liked both the setting and the main characters (the detectives); and I also enjoyed the Yorkshire dialect (both in the written form and the audio narrative). 

The Quartet Murders by J.R. Ellis
Audio book narrated by Michael Page (9:30)

The second book starts with DCI Oldroyd actually witnessing a murder. A world-famous violinist is shot during a concert, with Oldroyd sitting in the audience. Whoever did it disappears - and so does a unique and very valuable violin... A lot of twists and turns follow before the mysteries are sorted out; and the reader also gets an insight into the world of fanatic collectors of priceless old instruments - like Stradivarius violins.