The Shell House Detectives (A Shell House Detectives Mystery Book 1)
£1.00
“A cleverly plotted and thoroughly enjoyable book about dark deeds in beautiful places.”—Elly Griffiths
Welcome to the coastal paradise of Porthpella, where murder lurks among the dunes…
Late one night, a distraught young man knocks on the door of retired and recently widowed Ally Bright’s remote home on the Cornish coast. But before she can make sense of his confused words, he’s gone—not to be seen again until he’s found the next morning at the foot of the nearby cliffs.
In an instant, the peace of Ally’s beachcombing life is shattered. Feeling responsible for the young man’s fate, she wants to help find answers—as does ex-cop Jayden Weston, whom Ally meets at the scene. He shares her certainty that there’s more to the story than attempted suicide. When it emerges that the man is newly released ex-offender Lewis Pascoe, and that Helena, the wealthy new owner of his grandmother’s home, has subsequently disappeared, the tight-knit community of Porthpella is thrown into turmoil.
Driven by their need to know more, the duo decide to investigate the mystery together. Is there a connection between the Pascoe family’s tragic history and Helena’s disappearance? And if there is a killer stalking Porthpella, do Ally and Jayden have what it takes to catch them?
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Additional information
| Publisher | Thomas & Mercer (1 July 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 5743 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 381 pages |
by Jackiesreadingcorner
This was just the read I needed, a lovely cozy mystery set on the Cornish coastline. Porthpella a beautiful spot for surfers, or for walking along the beautiful coastline. But when a young man knocks on Ally Brights remote house asking for her late husband Bill, saying he had promised to help him, she has to tell him that he is no longer alive. The young man disappears off into the night. But Ally’s shell house is not the only house he visits that night. He has been to the next property along which belong’s to Roland Hunter and his wife Helena. He also visits that same property the following morning.
The following morning Ally is walking her dog, called fox, beachcombing, collecting bits and bobs the sea has washed up, she has been doing this for years and uses what she collects on art work, this particular morning she spots a flash of pastel pink, as she drawers closer to it she spots metal shining, wrapped in seaweed, picking it up she finds it’s a watch on the back an engraving Roland & Helena. 17/09/2018, she puts it in her pocket. It’s only as she gets further down the beach that she sees the blue lights of an ambulance up ahead. As she gets closer she spots that on a stretcher is the young man who had been banging on her door the previous night. The people around are saying he had jumped off the cliff. Ally’s blood turns cold. It’s the same spot that 20 years earlier a local Paul Pascoe had committed suicide off the cliff.
Jayden Weston has just moved to Cornwall and is attempting to surf, badly, after losing his wife’s surfboard he sits on the sand admiring the view, a few minutes later he hears a call behind him for help. As he gets up he can see a body at the bottom of the cliff, without even thinking about it Jayden rushes to help, the young man still has a pulse, it’s not long before an ambulance arrives rushing him to the nearest hospital.
The young man turns out to be Lewis Pascoe, the son of Paul Pascoe, had he tried to commit suicide like his dad had? Or is there another answer? Ally feels shook up could she have prevented this by speaking to him the night before? Jayden hears Ally asking the PC on the scene questions, he also sees the look on her face after. He asks her if she is alright, Ally tells Jayden of her late night visitor. But this isn’t the only drama happening in Porthpella this morning. A woman is also missing, she had gone on her usual run but had not come back home. Could the two things be linked.? Someone had seen a female running but running away from something rather than jogging. Could that be the same woman who is missing? The investigation begins.
I love it when a book has great characters and this one has plenty. Ally Bright had lost her husband, Bill, a year earlier, he had been a local well respected police officer, Ally missed him. They had a daughter Evie who now lives in Australia with her husband and children, she is trying to persuade Ally to go out there to live with them. Jayden Weston was a police officer in Leeds until he lost his partner and quit the police, he has now moved to Cornwall with his wife Cat who is currently pregnant, Cat had grown up there, so has friends and family, the idea is they run a business for campers, as well as help out on Cat’s families farm. Jayden is struggling to settle in, he is used to city life.
Roland Hunter and his wife Helena, have a big house called Sea Dream, not too far from Ally’s place, the land used to be owned by Maggie Pascoe but she had sold it to the Hunter’s. Maggie’s property had been demolished and a new property had been built, Roland’s brother Nathan, is also staying with them briefly.
Other characters are Saffron who runs a coffee shop, and Gus Monroe who is renting a house near Sea Dream, he is there to write a novel.
As the story develops Ally and Jayden become a team, determined to find out what is going on, neither of them have a lot of confidence in the local police. It seems they have decided that Helena has come to harm by the hands of Lewis Pascoe and then he has tried to kill himself the same way his father had. They are doing very little to look for any other explanations. But when Ally and Jayden start digging they find more than they expected.
If you like a book with some great characters and a good mystery then grab yourself a copy of this, the story flows, the characters grow, I love the relationship between Ally and Jayden she is an older lady who has spent most of her life keeping the home going, she had a happy marriage but losing her husband just after he retired has left her adrift. So when her and Jayden start investigating she comes alive again. What could have happened to Helena? Will Lewis wake up from his coma? There are several twists and turns I thought I had guessed what had happened but I got it wrong. Can you solve what has happened before you reach the end of the book?.
I can’t wait to read more about these characters and despite Porthpella being a made up place it is very believable, the descriptions the author gives of the sky and the sea it makes you feel like you are there. This is a series I will definitely be following, perfect for curling up in a comfy chair, or sitting in the garden depending on the time of year and the weather!
by Christopher Hood
After three books set in California (“Malibu Burning“, “What Never Happened” and “To Die For“), “The Shell House Detectives” brought me back to the UK – being set in a fictional town in Cornwall. The timing of reading the book was good as I had recently visited Cornwall for the first time, which certainly helped relate to some of the descriptions of the area and people.
I have to admit when I first read the blurb for the book, I wasn’t sure about the book. I can’t remember now what the issue was, but, whatever it was, it was misplaced as I got into the book really quickly and raced through it.
Chapters tend to focus on one of the many characters in the book and primarily tell things from their point of view during that chapter (there is some switching during chapters, but this is primarily how it works). Now, for someone (like myself) who struggles to remember names, having multiple characters could be a problem. However, “The Shell House Detectives” has a solution for people like me by providing descriptions of the other people as we switch between view points during the early chapters. A nifty and very effective trick.
There were a number of lines that I particularly liked. For example,
Truth. A word that delivers a sharp and precise cut, every time she thinks of it – so mostly she tries not to.
and, in relation to people potentially taking their own lives,
sometimes all it takes is for someone to interrupt the runaway train of thought.
and
She felt drained, suddenly, the need to be near people replaced by the far more familiar desire to be alone.
As I am working on the manuscript for the 2nd edition of my book “Japan: The Basics“, and have written seven other books (including three novels) and am working on two other books (including a novel), I could certainly relate to the following,
A novel is something to hang on to. Something solid. Even if it’s terrible – and it will undoubtedly be terrible – you wouldn’t be able to argue with the fact of its existence.
I could also relate to the part where the person working on a novel is often asked whether there is any sex in it – perhaps one of the most common questions I get asked about my novels (“Hijacking Japan“, “Tokyo 20/20 Vision“, and “FOUR“).
“The Shell House Detectives” also brought up the issue of premonitions and a position which I can appreciate: “He doesn’t believe in premonitions. But he doesn’t quite not believe, either”, but later brought up the cliche of “doesn’t believe in coincidences” (these four words should be banned in books… though I’m sure it’ll appear in one of my novels one day (if it hasn’t already!)).
It was coincidental that I was reading this book so soon after visiting Cornwall. There was another geographic coincidence that made me smile – when someone’s tears were described as being like Niagara Falls. It made me smile as by the time I was reading this I had just visited Niagara Falls on holiday.
Some other lines I did like were,
“…knows a thing or two about guilt. Logic, rationality – they don’t much apply once your head is set on a certain course.”
and
“…hates being rattled. He’s never been one to thrive on confrontation.”
While I liked the above quotes for one reason or another, there was one piece of text that really made me stop and think…
He was drawn to her then, he knows that now; inexplicably, he wanted to stay in her orbit. Maybe that was how it worked: certain people came into your life at just the right moment – only you didn’t know it was the right moment, not at the time. That only came later.
Overall, I really enjoyed “The Shell House Detectives”. There is already a second book in the series, which I may read at some point (I have a long backlog of books at the moment). I could also imagine the first book being turned into one of those comforting TV detective programmes one day. Until then, I suggest you pick up the book.