Bloody Ham (English)

"good solid mystery story"

Posted 3 months ago - For those who like an old-fashioned British mystery, rife with night scenes on the Thames, a Jacobean mansion, quirky, entertaining characters and a cutting wit, Bloody Ham is for you. Kavanagh uses his insider knowledge of the film industry to bring Hollywood to London, with all the big screen politics, film star egos, sexual affairs and (literally) back-stabbing during the creation of an English period piece. Into this mix comes Belinda Lawrence and her cantankerous friend, Hazel Whitby. Hazel is leasing period silverware to the production company and Belinda gets enlisted as a stand-in for the female lead. Two murders occur on set and Belinda, Hazel and their men friends work, sometimes together, sometimes at odds with one another, to solve the mystery. As an interesting side story, Belinda brings her own personal love interests into the mix. Will she go with the freewheeling Australian, Brad, or her long time, proper, British gentleman, Mark? I liked the fact that, while one of the murders was solved, the other death (Was it a murder?) was left unresolved. Did someone else get away with something sinister? That is left up to the reader to determine. I would have given this five stars if I wasn’t nonplused by one of the character’s blabbing to Belinda about her witnessing one of the murders. In my mind, I couldn’t justify the reason except as a device to set up the ending. I wish the author would have come up with a more clever way of leading Belinda to the solution of the mystery. Bloody Ham is the third book in the Belinda Lawrence series. It is an interesting setting with entertaining characters and I recommend it to all those who like a good solid mystery story. Review by Douglas Quinn, Author of Blue Heron Marsh, etal (www.douglasquinn.com).

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