The Brewery Murders is the 9th book in the Yorkshire murder mystery series by J. R. Ellis. Released 28th Sept 2023 on Amazon's Thomas & Mercer imprint, it's 267 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. 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. Although most of them are
straight procedurals out of the local police department, this one sees
Oldroyd and his team in nearby Markham trying to sort out murder and mayhem between competing breweries with a long ago lost ale recipe cold case in the mix. There are some themes of homophobia, sexism, and misogyny included, but not to a degree or handled in a way to offend or shock sensitive readers.
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. This would be a fine selection for public library acquisition, and for fans of English procedurals. With 10 books now extant in the ongoing series, it would also be a great choice for a long binge or buddy reading project.
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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