‘A Handwriting Expert As A Sleuth’ Noelle reviews #Mystery Dead Letters by @sheila_lowe, for Rosie’s#Bookreview Team #RBRT

Today’s team review is from Noelle. She blogs here https://saylingaway.wordpress.com

Noelle has been reading Dead Letters by Sheila Lowe

Dead Letters is really two mysteries in one. It begins with Claudia Rose’s 18-year old niece Monica, who has been invited to join an archeological dig in Egypt, a lifelong dream. The excitement of the trip begins to fizz when she meets Colin Vine, a graduate student working on another dig. Colin, who has broken the hearts of several women on various digs, takes an interest in Monica.

Claudia Rose, a world away, is having a romantic dinner with her husband, when he gets a call from Claudia’s brother Pete. Pete has driven to Tucson, Arizona, for a reunion with some of his college buddies. Pete is being held at a detention center after his arrest for the murder of one of his college classmates following a confrontation in a bar called Dirtbags.  Claudia and her husband fly to Tucson to figure out what actually happened.

Claudia insisted on regular contact with Monica during her expedition to Egypt, but Monica’s recent messages are very brief and uninformative. Then Monica can no longer be reached. Finally Pete, out on bond, places a call to the head of Monica’s dig and discovers his daughter is missing.

Claudia flies to Egypt in search of Monica, then tracks her to Gibraltar and ultimately the UK, after discovering her new boyfriend and terrorists are involved in her abduction. 

So the author has created two separate story lines which amp up the tension in a step-wise fashion, forcing the reader to keep on reading!  The story at first is somewhat slow-paced, and it took me a while to warm up to the characters, particularly since I hadn’t read any of the previous Claudia Rose mysteries. But the action really picks up with the search for Monica, spanning so many miles and different places, and the characters become very real and immediate. The author has done her research and each place Claudia visits is well-described and colorful. I think I need to visit Gibraltar!

Claudia’s handwriting expertise is brought in a few times – at first it seemed that this was forced, to keep to the fact that she was, in fact, and expert in this field, and not just a detective. Later it became a more natural part of the story.

I enjoyed the read and will certainly sample some of the earlier books in the series.

A heart-pounding hunt begins when Claudia Rose’s young niece goes missing with an archaeologist whose shady past spills into the present. The frantic search takes Claudia to Egypt, Gibraltar, and the UK, where her skills as a forensic handwriting expert of international renown are needed to help foil a deadly terrorist plot—if only she can find Monica before she becomes a casualty.

AmazonUK | AmazonUS

‘A fun cosy crime’. @em_banks reviews Dead Letters by @sheila_lowe for Rosie’s #Bookreview Team #RBRT

Today’s team review is from Elanor.

Elanor has been reading Dead Letters by Sheila Lowe

This is the 8th book in a series about hand-writing analyst Claudia Rose, the various crimes she helps investigate and the escapades she gets caught up in on the way. I haven’t read any other books in the series, but Dead Letters works as a standalone novel. Lowe makes reference to characters and events from previous books, but I never felt that I missed out on important context.

Dead Letters is a romp that takes Claudia across the Middle East and Europe in pursuit of her niece, always one step behind her, unravelling details of the terrorist cell who have apparently taken her. It builds to a dramatic “will they get there in time” finish – no spoilers here! It’s a quick and engaging read with lots of short chapters.

Claudia is like a snarky, modern-day Miss Marple, frequently acting outside the law and stubbornly getting herself into awkward and dangerous situations as she goes after the truth. She gets several opportunities throughout the chase to use her specialist expertise in handwriting and move the investigation forward.

Lowe works in some interesting history about the countries and sites the novel visits, and particularly about Egypt and archaeology in the first part of the story, before the action ramps up. She takes you on a journey through several cultures, and if some of the characters’ accents and idioms are a little exaggerated at times, each location has a sense of place that feels well-observed.

I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a fun cosy crime with just the right amount of grit and danger! 4 stars.

A heart-pounding hunt begins when Claudia Rose’s young niece goes missing with an archaeologist whose shady past spills into the present. The frantic search takes Claudia to Egypt, Gibraltar, and the UK, where her skills as a forensic handwriting expert of international renown are needed to help foil a deadly terrorist plot—if only she can find Monica before she becomes a casualty.

AmazonUk | AmazonUS