Murder in House (Ellie Quicke Series #10)

by Veronica Heley

Overview

Ellie and her new husband Thomas are suffering from terrible colds when called to deal with Ursula, a young student, who has staged a sit-in at church and refuses to move. Ursula challenges Ellie to solve three mysteries: a broken engagement, her friend Mia's disappearance, and a murder. As she investigates, Ellie begins to suspect that there is more to these events than anyone is willing to admit. Soon she finds her own friends and family targeted as a powerful group hunts her down.

Meanwhile Ellie's ever-demanding daughter Diana makes herself homeless, and her architect cousin lands himself in yet another financial mess. Both become caught up in the race to ruin Ellie before she can produce the dreadful evidence of corruption and abuse that is haunting the council chambers. Every lead returns to Ursula, who has not been entirely open with the truth. But what can one young girl do, against such a powerful family?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780727867834
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	09/01/2009
Series:	Ellie Quicke Series , #10
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Veronica Heley (www.veronicaheley.com) has published more than fifty books, including crime fiction, historical, and children's titles. She is currently involved in the Ellie Quicke series of crime stories and a variety of other projects. A full-time writer, she has been married to a London probation officer since 1964, and has one musician daughter.

Editorial Reviews

In British author Heley's fine 10th Ellie Quicke mystery (after 2008's Murder in the Park), nosy Ellie, recently married to her minister, must try to solve a missing persons case. After Ursula Belton, a distraught university student, stages a sit-in vigil at Ellie's husband's church, Ellie's drawn into searching for Ursula's best friend, Mia Prior. Mia disappeared after the drunken fatal fall of a male friend during the opening of posh Prior's Place, a new block of upscale flats owned by Mia's high-profile developer stepdad. As Ellie probes into Mia's background, she comes under the radar of a gang led by Anthony and Timothy Prior, Mia's stepbrothers. They stalk Ellie, Ursula's mother and even Ellie's daughter, Diana, hoping to find where battered Mia and Ursula have escaped to. More strong-coffee crime than weak-tea cozy, Heley's unflinching take on just how low unscrupulous businessmen may go during recessionary times is an eye-opener. (Sept.)

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Publishers Weekly

An unscrupulous developer and his family threaten a middle-aged newlywed's connubial bliss. Life seems to have come around for Ellie Quicke (Murder in the Park, 2008, etc.). After years of widowhood, she's married Thomas, her former pastor. Although she mourns her Aunt Drusilla's recent death, she's moved comfortably into Drusilla's big house and begun managing the charitable trust the rest of her inheritance has funded. When Thomas fills in for a friend at Sunday service, he discovers a young refugee in the church: Ursula Bolton, who won't leave until Ellie promises to look into the fate of her friends Lloyd, who fell from the top story of Prior's Place, a posh new development, and Mia, who disappeared soon after. Mia's family, the Priors who built Prior's Place, insist that she's a tramp who probably ran off with her latest crush. But Ursula maintains that Mia was a virgin who must have been kidnapped. As the recession takes its toll on the housing market, the Priors not only thwart Ellie's attempts to find Mia but try to bully Ellie's architect cousin Roy into investing their tottering empire. Threats eventually give way to violence. Ursula's mother is beaten; Ellie's realtor daughter Diana is punched out while showing a house; and next-door neighbor Armand gets a poke in the nose from a young Prior, who is thrashed in turn. Until Ellie can persuade a reluctant police force to act, everyone she loves is in danger. Standard fare from an author whose puzzles take a back seat to domestic affairs.

Kirkus Reviews

"Heley's unflinching take on just how low unscrupulous businessmen may fo during recessionary times is an eye-opener"

From the Publisher

This might well be Heley's best Ellie Quicke mystery. A student stages a sit-in at the parish of Ellie’s husband to call attention to a suicide that she believes was actually a murder. Narrator Patience Tomlinson is at her best with clergy, young people, and thugs (listeners WILL take notice); she believably portrays a multitude of ages, personalities, and ethnicities. Her most noteworthy creation is Ellie's horrid daughter, Diana. Heley also skillfully weaves in Ellie's strong religious values without causing the least awkwardness. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2012 - AudioFile