Regular visitors to this blog will know that cosy crime is really not my go to thing as I tend to veer towards the darker side of crime fiction. However, I was willing to take a chance on Banking on Murder because I loved Whitelaw's Hellcorp series. And do you know what? I had a blast! And look at its gorgeous cover - it's got purple on and everything! Delighted to be helping to close off the tour today with my review. Many thanks to Meggy Roussel at Red Dog Press for inviting me and for my review copy.
The Blurb:
Martha Parker runs a small private detective agency in Glasgow with her two sisters, Helen and Geri. They specialise in catching cheating partners and those playing away from home.
The Parkers are hired by the reclusive wife of a wealthy banker she suspects is breaking their vows, but when he shows up murdered, it’s up to Martha, Helen and Geri to prove the wife's innocence in their most dangerous case yet.
Banking on Murder was published by Red Dog Press on 3rd December 2020 and you can get it direct from Red Dog Press or from Amazon.
My Review:
Martha Parker runs Parkers Investigations in Glasgow with her younger sisters Helen and Geri. They are hired by Tracey Coulthard to find out with whom her husband is cheating but what should be a simple job turns out to be anything but and madcap mayhem ensues.
The Parker sisters are a great trio of characters. Martha is the eldest and most sensible of the three, happily married, slightly dowdy and forever worrying. I was concerned how dowdy she was for only 40 and wanted her to embrace a bit of colour and style. And her thinking is definitely middle aged, verging on elderly! Helen is all frizzy hair and sandals, an academic and science geek. Geri is the baby of the bunch at only 21 and she likes to party! They bicker a fair bit, particularly Helen and Geri, and some of the time I was surprised they actually managed to get anything done! But, somehow, they do, and whilst their methods may be a little unorthodox, at least in this case, they do get results. Martha is like a dog with a bone and can't let things lie until she's sure she's got to the truth.
I love books set in Glasgow as it's the city I've called home for over 20 years. I didn't check if all the places mentioned in the book actually exist but there were plenty of names I recognised. The story takes the sisters to really posh houses, swanky hotel parties, glamorous penthouses, down-at-heel streets, the hospital and the morgue, so they certainly get about!
There's a lot of gentle humour here, in both the banter between the sisters and in the telling of the story itself. It reads like a bit of a madcap caper as the girls race around trying to pinpoint their target. It's a hoot. As you would expect from a cosy crime there's not much violence but there is plenty of action and the odd perilous moment. And I didn't work out who did what o r why before it was revealed.
Banking on Murder is a humorous crime romp featuring a great trio of protagonists. It had me smiling the whole way through, and I'll be interested to see what Whitelaw has planned for the Parker sisters in the future.
The Author:
JD Whitelaw is an author, journalist and broadcaster. After working on the frontline of Scottish politics, he moved into journalism. Subjects he has covered have varied from breaking news, the arts, culture and sport to fashion, music and even radioactive waste - with everything in between. He's also a regular reviewer and talking head on shows for the BBC. Banking on Murder is the first of three Parker sister novels. They follow his hugely successful HellCorp series. His debut in 2015 was the critically acclaimed Morbid Relations.
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