Marianne Wheelaghan

This is the second of the 'Scottish lady Detective' series set in fascinating locations.

The Shoeshine Killer

Amazon.com

My review - 

Louisa is currently standing in for her boss at a conference on Fiji. She arrives just as a political coup has taken place and can’t get to her hotel. She and a fellow passenger are picked up by two men and offered rooms for the night. One of the two kind souls is found murdered the next day and the other, after being seen speaking to one of the shoeshine boys in the town, is also later found to have been murdered. Louise and a local policewoman become drawn in to trying to solve the case, which puts Louise herself in great danger. All isn’t entirely happy on the love-life front, either. Things get complicated.

This is a story in which the threads of the murder mystery become entangled with Louisa’s personal life. Her OCD makes life very hard for her when she has to share a hotel room. This story is set on a different island from the first book, Food of Ghosts and I somehow felt a greater sense of place in the first. There was much dashing about here, to different hotels, and even for a day, back to Kiribati where she was living. I like the character of Louisa. She’s earnest and hard-working and, situated where she is, she doesn’t have the might of modern forensics at her command. It’s almost as if Marianne Wheelehan has taken a modern girl and given her an Agatha Christie set-up to work with. The relationships she creates are always multi-dimensional too. A great series and very different.

Marianne Wheelaghan

Marianne's latest novel is very different from The Blue Suitcase. 

Food of Ghosts

Amazon.com  Food of Ghosts

My review -

Louisa, a Detective Sergeant, goes to the Gilbert Island of Tarawa as a European Commission trainer.  She was born on the island and lived there till she was eight, when she moved with her family to Edinburgh.    While there, she is face with a murder and a huge amount of frustration.  The police have no radios, there is no SOCO service and the mortuary freezer’s broken, still awaiting a part.  Her frustration is compounded by the archaic views of her male colleagues and the cultural differences between people in her Scottish home and those on the island.  She is faced with bullying, monstrous injustice and some very nasty expatriates.

This is one of the quirkiest detective stories I’ve ever read.  The situations Louise finds herself in are funny, infuriating and completely gripping.  There’s the magic of the island with its family centred culture and the mystery of the increasing body count.  The character of Louisa, with her deep sense of justice, her mild OCD and her extended island family to complicate matters, is surely one we must see again.  Marianne Wheelaghan is a great story teller and she’s created a potential series here.  This is a hugely enjoyable book, complex and engaging, and I hope there will be more of the same to come.

Marianne Wheelaghan

This story, based on the life of the author's mother, is one that will stay with you.

The Blue Suitcase

Amazon.com The Blue Suitcase

My review -

This is the story of Antonia, a girl growing to womanhood in Silesia, then part of Germany, in the 1930s and 40s. We see the rise to power of Hitler and his insidious beliefs from the viewpoint of her family members. It divides the family as some feel the Nazi movement is bringing Germany back her pride and self-belief while others start to notice what is happening to the weak, the non-Aryan, the mentally ill. Some refuse to believe what is happening. Some believe it and are mortally afraid to speak up, knowing what happens to those who go against the regime. Through the diary of Antonia, and family letters, we watch a gradual slide become all out terror and follow the lives of people who are forced to live in brutal conditions to survive as they try to stave off the Russian attacks.

The writing is spare and factual and all the more hard-hitting for that. Marianne Wheelaghan based this story on the life of her own mother and the narrative, initially child-like as Antonia starts her story aged 12, rings very true. It ends as she is in her late 20s and of course, much more thoughtful and bearing a great weight of experience and suffering. I found that reading the young girl's viewpoint with the hindsight of one who knew the outcome of the war made for a gripping read. Some books stay with you. This one certainly will.