PLAYED TO DEATH by MIKE RIPLEY

Happy Publication Day!

Happy Publication Day to Mike Ripley for his crime novel Played To Death, (Severn House, 2 June 2026). According to Mike, it is possibly his 35th book!

Below is a review of Played To Death that I did earlier this year:

Last year Mike Ripley moved away from his Albert Campion continuation books, and provided a fresh, cheeky twist on the British murder mystery with Buried Above Ground. Now he has provided an even better follow-up with Played To Death.

Played To Death features a similar structure to Buried Above Ground, with the story being told through four viewpoints. Once again librarian and crime fiction expert, Roly Wilkes is central to the story. This time Wilkes is approached by a local solicitor to read and analyse a play that is due to be performed by the solicitor’s amateur dramatics group. The solicitor is of the view that the play plagiarses classic crime novels and wants Wilkes’ perspective. Of course things are not that simple and murder soon ensues.

The first part of the book is told progressively from the viewpoint of four potentially unreliable characters – Roly, the Librarian; Adam, the Lawyer; Jemma, the Producer, and Toni, the Police Inspector. After an intermisison the second part is told mainly from the perspective of the police detective, Inspector Toni Walker, and Roly.

It is a very clever structure that works well. Ripley keeps the story ticking over at a good pace and there is a solid mystery around who the killer is. There is also a good dollop of suspense at the end. The main pleasure from the book, however, comes from Ripley comprehensive knowledge of classic crime ficiton and publishing. The book is full of fascinating references to novels and authors, there is even an appendix at the end explaining some of them, and plenty of wry humour. The cultural references are cleverly woven and often quite amusing, as well as being astute. At one stage, Ripley adroitly moves from a whimiscal reference to Are You Being Served to a spot-on analysis of current day crime covers:

“[I wish] I had shares in Shutterstock images of young females in red coats walking off into a threatening landscape.”

In all, Played To Death is a real treat! Put it on your ‘to read’ list!

Link to original review and more: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/may-mayhem-new-crime-novels-by-john-connolly-jo-murray-and-mike-ripley/