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The pacing was glacial. The character development was non-existent (unless you count getting a tan and growing a beard...) The plot was thin and incredibly dull. The mystery wasn't much of a mystery, the "detective" basically does nothing of value to solve it, and the solution lands in his lap in a last-minute sequence that contained the only real action in the book. The first one, Death Under a Little Sky, is out now and I’ve got a deal to write three more. So there will be four of them. The second one is pretty much written and being proof edited and I’ve actually finished the first draft of the third one. I don’t know if the publisher is happy or just bemused by me, because all I want to do is sit and write these books. I’m not worried about deadlines, I’m not thinking, ‘How am I going to get it done?’ All I want to do is sit and write. But then, what starts as a fun village treasure hunt turns deadly, when a young woman’s bones are discovered. And Jake is thrust once again into the role of detective, as he tries to unearth a dangerous killer in this most unlikely of settings Times Radio’s very own Stig Abell joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch to talk about his first crime thriller. Life in the middle of nowhere is everything Jake could wish for. His home is beautiful and his surroundings are stunning. While the locals are eccentric, they are also friendly, and invite him to join their annual treasure hunt.
Jake ligt in scheiding met zijn vrouw en vanwege een erfenis van zijn oom besluit hij om weg te gaan en als voormalig rechercheur naar het helemaal afgelegen dorp waar hij eigenaar is geworden van een woonboerderij te gaan, die van zijn oom was. Tijdens een spel vind hij botten van een vrouw en raakt hij verwikkelt in het onderzoek om te ontdekken wie deze vrouw is en wat er met haar gebeurd is.I’m a bit of a newbie to the crime detective genre and the pace was a slow burn, but I can confirm I was satisfied with how the plot escalates as the case draws to a head, the last few chapters had me gripped and the realisation over what’s been happening in the calm, cosy, peaceful village is unsettling to say the least! Once ensconced in his new rural home, he is a changed man. No television, internet, or even phone service would be enough of a deterrent for many people, but not Jake. He embraced this solitude and reverts make to nature. He swims in his own lake, runs on his own acreage, and reads from his new and extensive library of crime fiction that his uncle bequeathed to him. Idyllic right? Yeah, the prose was so purple it was nearly eggplant. And speaking of which, the romantic subplot (main plot, more like) was bad. Insta-romance between paper thin characters that only served to give the author the opportunity to describe her milky breasts and his pubic hair. No, really. There was a mix of characters.. you're usual country folk, the single mum and her daughter.. the criminal tough guys and of course.. the young retired detective [Jake] who has never experienced country life before. I really enjoyed getting to know him, and I hope we will be seeing our off the books detective more in the future. To say there wasn't a huge number of characters, the author did a great job at bringing them life and fulfilling the realistic sense of community you get in a small village.
The isolated setting worked well, although it was fairly unbelievable that you could have a whole house and modern extension, with some modern fittings, without any kind of access road or lane. There seemed to be no issue with vehicles travelling across anybody’s land (and the locals are hardly amenable.) However I would be interested to read another novel by the author, to see how his writing develops in the future. Ik wil World of Thrillers en uitgeverij HarperCollins bedanken dat ik dit boek, Dodelijke afloop van Stig Abell, mocht lezen voor een review. Abell was from 2016 to 2020 editor of The Times Literary Supplement and from 2013 to 2016 managing editor of The Sun. He was formerly a fiction reviewer at The Spectator and reviewer at Telegraph Media Group as well as The Times Literary Supplement. He was also a presenter on LBC Radio. This is classed as a thriller but it’s more of a cosy thriller imo. The pace here is very pedestrian due partly I feel to the thriller element not having much meat on the bone. The mystery itself moves at a snails pace.
The stunningly written, evocative new debut crime thriller you won’t want to miss!
I enjoyed this one to a point. It did seem a bit confused about what it wanted to be. Starts as a mystery thriller then veers into cosy thriller, a sort of self discovery book and a romance novel. The end I thought was a bit of a let down and a bit hard to swallow. We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview. Thank you to @instabooktours for hosting, @harperfictionpr for my copy and @thestigabell for the descriptive setting, strong character building and for introducing me to a slow burn detective series! 🔍❓
Firstly, let's start with the setting.. the countryside.. the author made this superbly atmospheric.. throw in a murder and you've got the perfect story. The fact that the small village was completely isolated from any real civilisation made it a whole lot more eerie.
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The plot is rather less convincingly done, in that it disappears for long stretches while we follow Jake’s progress in adapting to his new life. Obvious investigative avenues are left neglected both by Jake and, even less credibly, by the local police, who seem quite happy to leave the bulk of the job to Jake. However, the story underlying the plot is both dark and interesting. The bones, we soon learn, belonged to a young farmgirl, whose status as both foreigner and incomer left her isolated even within the general isolation. But her youth, friendliness and beauty caused her to become an object of attraction, even obsession, for several of the men in this woman-starved community. Is this why she died? Or did she inadvertently learn a secret that was dangerous to someone? Or did she, as the original inquest decided, simply slip and fall to her death? And why is someone so determined to have her death reinvestigated?
There are some lovely references to detective fiction - in Jake’s reading and as he considers his investigations. In Jake I felt a sense of Morse and Endeavour; of catching a first glimpse of a great new detective at his inception.
All this green, all this prettiness, the quiet of the river.. you realise its a hard place to make a life sometimes.’ Firstly, let’s set the scene, Jake has given up his detective job following a letter from his uncle, leaving him a property in a beautifully depicted rural escape. Jake leaves for a fresh start, but everything isn’t quite as beautiful as it seems following the annual treasure hunt and he winds up pulled into old boots to assist with solving the mystery of an uncovered death! As you know I’m always on the lookout for debut Crime Novels and when I saw Death Under A Little Sky, I was immediately drawn in by the beautiful cover and the premise. And to be honest, the premise of being left a property in the middle of the countryside, sounded like a wish come true to me, but maybe not with these happenings! A former London police detective who's fled his life and failed marriage by moving to his wealthy late uncle's house in the English countryside investigates a cold case no one wants to talk about. Het verhaal wordt vanuit Jake verteld. De sfeer van de woonplek wordt zeer geloofwaardig beschreven. Als lezer krijg je een kijkje in het leven en de gedachtes van Jake. De dagelijkse beslommeringen die horen bij een verhuizing en het opnieuw leren kennen van een woonplek spelen een grote rol in het verhaal.
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