BLUE MURDER

 4 stars out of 5

When, thanks to a recommendation from a thoughtful cousin, I read the first book in this series, I was hooked. Even before I finished that one (Ice Blue), I'd headed back to Amazon to get the next two (and the day after that, the final two). I must say this one didn't delight me quite as much as the first, but neither did it in any way disappoint.

Lord Anthony Hetheridge, Baron of Wellegrave and chief superintendent of the New Scotland Yard, didn't get the answer he wanted when, in the first book, he proposed marriage to the beautiful Detective Sergeant Kate Wakefield, a relatively new member of his team. But he's not about to give up; now, he's even got an engagement ring at the ready and is waiting for the right opportunity to make another request. But as fate would have it, murder intervenes. They, and other team member Paul Bhar, are called to a posh home in Chelsea, where two young men have turned up axed to death in the midst of an out-of-control fraternity-style party. One of the victims crashed the party, and the other just happens to be the boyfriend of Emmeline Wardle, whose conveniently absent parents own the home. Compounding the issue is that an old nemesis of Lord Hetheridge - a suspected serial killer - lives right next door.

Going on and on about how the investigation proceeds would do nothing except spoil the story for others, so I'll just say that most things up for grabs at the beginning are resolved by the end (and add that if things don't work out as planned between you and Kate, kind sir, message me and I'll happily send you my number). 

Blue Murder by Emma Jameson (Lyonnesse Books, December 2013); 254 pp.