Book Review: The Murders at Fleat House by Lucinda Riley

 

Book: The Murders at Fleat House 

Author: Lucinda Riley 

Pages: 473

Read on: Kindle 

Read in: ~5 hours 

Plot Summary: The sudden death of a pupil in Fleat House at St Stephen’s – a small private boarding school in deepest Norfolk – is a shocking event that the headmaster is very keen to call a tragic accident.

But the local police cannot rule out foul play and the case prompts the return of high-flying Detective Inspector Jazmine ‘Jazz’ Hunter to the force. Jazz has her own private reasons for stepping away from her police career in London, and reluctantly agrees to front the investigation as a favour to her old boss.

Reunited with her loyal sergeant Alastair Miles, she enters the closed world of the school, and as Jazz begins to probe the circumstances surrounding Charlie Cavendish’s tragic death, events are soon to take another troubling turn.

Charlie is exposed as an arrogant bully, and those around him had both motive and opportunity to switch the drugs he took daily to control his epilepsy.

As staff at the school close ranks, the disappearance of young pupil Rory Millar and the death of an elderly classics master provide Jazz with important leads, but are destined to complicate the investigation further. As snow covers the landscape and another suspect goes missing, Jazz must also confront her personal demons.

Then, a particularly grim discovery at the school makes this the most challenging murder investigation of her career. Because Fleat House hides secrets darker than even Jazz could ever have imagined.

Things I Liked: 

1. The premise was so interesting! Murders happening at a boarding school! Disappearing suspects and multiple people with motive! What is not to love, eh? 

2. This is a very nicely written and atmospheric book. You get sucked into the world of St. Stephen's and rural Norfolk- of both the present and the past. There are some lovely inter-connected events and stories that really make this book very engaging and give us readers enough red herrings to keep us guessing. 

3. The boy who died in the school under mysterious circumstances was a known bully. He was not well liked and there were more than enough people who wanted him dead. So, the author gives us many, many reasonable suspects at the very outset. Then, the book goes back in time to explore connections between various people associated with the school, whose lives were, unknown to them, inter-connected. So, from all these motives, we can now form some solid theories, which is something any true-blue crime thriller reader really enjoys doing. 

4. The big reveal is not very guess-able, which is always a good thing. Plus, all the loose ends are nicely tied up in the end- also a good thing. 

Things I Didn't Like: 

1. Whilst Jazz is a nice enough character, I didn't particularly enjoy the detailed chapters on her personal life, her ex and her struggles with ageing parents. Don't get me wrong, I am all for character building, but I felt this was not needed in a crime thriller book, whose pages could've been put to better use in showing us the events of the past that connected to those of the present. 

Rating: 4/5 

A very unputdownable crime thriller. Perfect for the rainy days we've been having these days!