THE BOOKSHOP DETECTIVES: DEAD GIRL GONE By GARETH WARD & LOUISE WARD
With the end of the year quickly coming, I have been trying to catch-up on some of the releases from earlier in 2024 that I did not get to at the time. One of these is The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone, (Penguin, September 2024), by Gareth Ward and Louise Ward.
Like the authors, The Bookshop Detectives is about two former British police detectives, Garth and Eloise, who now run a bookshop in small town Havelock North in New Zealand. Presumably unlike the actual authors, Garth and Eloise find themselves caught up in a possible case of murder while dealing with bikies and a secret book launch.
When a mystery parcel arrives at the Sherlock Tomes bookshop, husband-and-wife owners Garth and Eloise, and their petrified pooch Stevie, are drawn into the baffling case of a decades-old missing schoolgirl.
Intrigued by the puzzling, bookish clues the two ex-cops are soon tangled in a web of crime, drugs, and floral decapitations, while endeavouring to pull off an international celebrity book launch. With their beloved shop on the chopping block, and the sinister suspect who forced them to run away from England reemerging from the shadows, Garth and Eloise may have bitten off more than they are can chew.
A couple of quick points. Firstly, The Bookshop Detectives is not as cosy as it looks. There is plenty of swearing in it and the violence, when it occurs, is authentic and hard, but not overly gruesome. The themes in the book also dip into serious areas, including the sexual grooming of teenagers, domestic abuse, homelessness and flower beheading.
Secondly, it is one of the most enjoyable books I have read this year. The plotting is very assured, the story flows along at a brisk pace, and there is plenty of humour. The alternating viewpoint between Garth and Eloise produces a swathe of witty observations and the constant reflections on books and bookselling are highly entertaining. Finally, The Book Detectives never forgets that it is supposed to be a crime novel, and the twists and turns come at a steady pace all the way down to the surprising outcome.
Regular crime readers and frequenters of bookshops will enjoy the in-jokes, including a reference to a previous book by one of the authors, and the inhabitants of Havelock North also provide a rich vein of humour. There are lots of amusing exchanges, including this one about a frequent fully Goth customer who never smiles:
“‘I find her intriguing but it’s the way she just looks at you and doesn’t talk. What’s she hiding?’
‘A rich inner life.’
‘Or a regularly re-landscaped back garden’, counters Amelia, eyes narrowing.”
In short, give it a go. I do not think that you will be disappointed. It will also make for a great Christmas present for a fellow crime reader.
The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone was released in Australia on 23 July 2024. It is available in the United Kingdom on Kindle and in the United States on Kindle and in paperback.