The Nidderdale Murders (Yorkshire Murder Mysteries #5)

The Nidderdale Murders is the 5th book in the Yorshire Mysteries by J.R. Ellis. Released 20th Aug 2020 on Amazon's Thomas & Mercer imprint, it's 301 pages and available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book and the rest of the series are currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

These books are well written engaging procedurals which are tightly plotted, set against the Yorkshire countryside: hills, moors, and fells. Although it's part of a series, it works quite well as a standalone. There are references to occurrences from previous books in the series, but they don't play a central role in the action and readers new to the series won't have any troubles keeping up. 

DCI Oldroyd is an experienced and practical investigator in charge of a team of intelligent and hardworking detectives. The unexpected shotgun murder of a local retired judge has the team looking for motives from the past and present. I enjoyed the writing and I really liked Oldroyd's relationship with his family and colleagues. He's an honest and compassionate officer and the development of the plot and denouement were satisfying and well written. Looking forward to more in this series which compares quite favourably with P.D. James' wonderful Adam Dalgleish books.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.