Another J R Ellis book! My mum likes these which keeps me reading them, but I feel like Ellis is just churning them out and they're just not as good as they used to be. I feel also like he is trying to write about some 'issues' re austerity Britain and he's just not doing it very well. It comes across like he's trying too hard which annoys me. I may give up at the next one, but I probably said that about the last one, too.
So, Oldroyd is at a conference in York and one evening he decides to go on one of the famous ghost walks around the city. I really liked the description here because I know York well (I went to York St John University) and the ghost walks are famous. (I should go on one one of these days!). Oldroyd is enjoying himself when up one of the snickleways there is a body. He obviously gets involved in the case because he can't resist. The dead man turns out to be a local slum landlord who has no end of enemies - an ex wife, plenty of angry tennants, and even the people involved in running the ghost walk. Oldroyd keeps investigating which no other officers ever seems to mind because of course he is just so brilliant.
Part of the book is told from the point of view of a family who lives in one of his terrible properties, and it was this that I felt was a bit heavy handed. I get it, but in the context of a novel it just didn't feel right. I also felt like being angry at your landlord was a pretty rubbish motive for murder. In fact, although it's a month since I read this, I'm not sure anyone had that strong of a motive.
Oh god, and the sub plot with Andy and Stephanie annoyed me too, but the least said about that the better. I wish one of them would just leave, the other would be way better without them.
I'm only giving this three out of five.
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