Laurence Harford is found murdered outside his business in Sydney, Australia. Detective Chief Inspector Alistair Fitzjohn is on the case to solve the crime.
This novel is the second in the series but can be read as a stand-alone. Sadly it is very similar to the first novel in the series. Again the novel is split between the police investigating the crime and a family member, this time the victim’s nephew, getting to the bottom of this cosy mystery.
In this pedestrian tale we once again have Alistair Fitzjohn pottering about in his gardening gear and lots of coats being taken off. Oh yes, we have lots of cars pulling away from the curb - funny that, never thought they would be parked in the middle of the road, yet Jill must remind her readers that cars can park along a “kerb”. Thankfully later on Jill reveals that car wheels are fitted with “tyres” rather than those misspelled American rubber things they call tires.
Also like in the first book, The Celtic Dagger, we have the inclusion of dodgy accountants, blackmail and paintings. Again there is plenty of repetition, this time I noticed far too many people asking “Can I help you?” and whenever the police knocked on a door the conversation went “Mr Surname?” and the other person replies “Yes, I’m First Name - Surname” every time it became a bore. Then every single hot drink any character had was “steaming” - good grief Jill, watch out my girl, contents may be hot! Not forgetting there were an awful lot of people who “hovered” in a doorway, thank goodness it was not a typo making the locations clean by being hoovered!
I found Murder At The Rocks to be a disappointing and predictable piece of easy reading that was a POOR dull read. There were no special police skills OR any WOW! Factor. I think the plot was mundane and typical of an afternoon television drama. This was a second rate novel that gets just 2 stars from me.
Murder At The Rocks was written in 2013 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.
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