Date with Death
A Cosy Murder Mystery Full of Yorkshire Wit and Warmth
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4.0 • 250 Ratings
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
Meet two sleuths from a sleepy Yorkshire village as they investigate murders and discover the secrets behind the twitching curtains. Date with Death is the first cosy crime novel in Julia Chapman’s Dales Detective series, perfect for fans of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club and M. C. Beaton.
Samson O’Brien has been dismissed from the police force, and returns to his hometown of Bruncliffe in the Yorkshire Dales to set up the Dales Detective Agency. However, the villagers aren’t that welcoming to a man they see as trouble.
Delilah Metcalfe is struggling to keep her business, the Dales Dating Agency, afloat as well as trying to control her wayward dog, Tolpuddle, when Samson’s first case – a supposed suicide – takes an unexpected turn, and a trail of deaths lead back to the door of Delilah’s agency.
With suspicion hanging over someone they both care for, the two feuding neighbours soon realize that they need to work together to solve the mystery of the dating deaths. But working together is easier said than done . . .
Full of wit, warmth and characters you’ll care about, continue the murder mystery series with Date with Malice.
Praise for The Dales Detective series:
'Enlivened with numerous subplots, the story moves at a cracking pace' – Daily Mail
'Bags of Yorkshire charm and wit' – Northern Echo
'A classic whodunnit' – Cath Staincliffe, author of Blue Murder
'Full of dry wit and clever plotting' – Countryside
'Chapman delivers on every level' – Lancashire Evening Post
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This series launch from Chapman, a pseudonym for Julia Stagg (the Fogas Chronicles), delivers an engaging twist on the lonely-hearts killer motif. Since her divorce, Delilah Metcalfe has struggled to keep her web design and online dating businesses afloat in rural Bruncliffe, Yorkshire. After she leases out an office space, she learns that her new tenant is Samson O'Brien, her deceased brother's best friend, who abruptly left Bruncliffe for London years ago. Despite animosity from Delilah and other locals, who view his sudden return with suspicion, Samson opens a detective agency, and his first client leads him to a series of seemingly accidental deaths connected to Delilah's speed-dating events. Gentle humor and an evocative sense of the Yorkshire Dales landscape compensate for an implausibly prolific killer with hackneyed motives. Chapman barely hints at the potential for romance between Samson and Delilah, and their developing friendship and suggestions of coming scandals in Bruncliffe should leave readers eager for the sequel.
Customer Reviews
Great book
When I first started reading this book I thought it was too hard to get my head around the colloquial language. But I was so glad that I persisted. It was an excellent plot, funny in places and brought a smile to my face as I read it. Couldn’t put in down.
Date with death
Brilliant and gripping hope the second book ties up loose ends