The Shrine by Lesley Thomson

The Shrine by Lesley Thomson

The Shrine by Lesley Thomson was published by Head of Zeus.

My thanks to the author and publisher for sending me a copy to review and to 

Rachel's Random Resources for inviting me onto the tour.

Synopsis

Stella Darnell knows her partner Jack is hiding something. After following him one evening, she discovers he's been consulting a psychic in a desperate attempt to reach his dead mother. A sceptic by nature, and feeling betrayed by his lies, Stella fears what this means for their relationship.

Seeking distraction, she accepts DI Toni Kemp's invitation to join her for a holiday in a small village in Gloucestershire. But the visit is derailed when a body is discovered at a shrine where a woman died decades earlier.

Drawn into the investigation, Stella must confront the legacy of a once-famous psychic whose shadow still hangs over Prestbury – while in the darkness, someone bent on revenge waits patiently for the perfect moment to strike...

My Thoughts

This is the first of Lesley’s books that I have read and consequently this first time I have come across The Detective’s Daughter Series. It is the eleventh book in the series and though it does read equally well as a standalone I personally think I will go back to the beginning of the series and build up my knowledge of Stella and her past.

For me it took some getting into as I struggled to place all the different characters especially as it jumped between Stella and Jane in the telling .

However, once I had the characters sorted it started to become clearer in how it was progressing sniffing I have to be honest, even though I had an inkling, I didn’t get the final link until just before the end which is always the sign of a good Detective mystery.

It is a storyline which, for me, reminds me of Detective stories from the 60’s / 70’s. There is not the blood guts and gore that we seem to constantly encounter nowadays, and the subtlety and twists within the developing plots are synonymous with the writings of some of the first murder mystery writers that I came across many years ago .

This is one of those murder mystery books you can read at night without any fear of nightmares, however, I may be thinking twice about going camping and going into the shower blocks on my own late at night moving forwards.

About Lesley

Lesley Thomson is the bestselling author of The Detective’s Daughter series, which has sold over 850,000 copies worldwide. The tenth instalment, The Shrine, marks a major milestone in the acclaimed series. Renowned for her atmospheric, character-driven mysteries, Thomson’s writing has been likened to Barbara Pym for its keen psychological insight and wit. Her debut, A Kind of Vanishing, won the People’s Book Prize, cementing her reputation as a distinctive voice in crime fiction. She lives in Sussex with her partner and their dog.

Visit her website at www.lesleythomson.co.uk