The Highgate Cemetery Murder

A Tate and Bell Mystery, Book 1

By: Irina Shapiro

Narrated by: Imogen Church

His heart pounding, the man scribbles the words in his notebook as fast as he can: “Woman dead in Highgate. Man in caped coat. Milky way and red streaks. I’m being followed.”

Hours later, the man’s cold body lies in the city mortuary, alongside the woman he couldn’t save. And his sister, unconventional nurse Gemma Tate, tracks down troubled police inspector Sebastian Bell to unravel the truth.

Sebastian has enough pressure to solve the murder of an aristocratic heiress without Gemma meddling in his case. But the cryptic sentences she brings him from her brother’s notebook could be a crucial lead. If only they knew what “milky way” meant. But as the trail of clues takes them away from the gilded drawing rooms of the nobility and into the dangerous slums of London, how far will their partnership be tested on the quest for justice, and will they both emerge unscathed?

©2024 Irina Shapiro (P)2024 Storm Publishing

Good Mystery and a budding love story

I liked the characters. They are flawed and relatable. The story is a bit far fetched but well written in spite if that. I look forward to book 2.

Well Done. Good mystery

This was a good listen... I look forward to hearing more of this author's work.

Kept my interest all the way through

Good, tight, and complete writing. I am anxious to get to the next book in the series.

Let the words speak for themselves!

I love the period and plots of this genre, but the narrator did the story no favors. She overdid it-over-emphasizing in an attempt to build tensions and convey emotion in her reading when the author's word choice carried the meaning more effectively and certainly less melodramatically. She also could have done better giving characters realistic voices- some sounded straight out of the cartoons! On the whole, the plot was a bit slow, included the necessary partner-saves-partner character development, and resolved to a predictable and sordid ending. Just mediocre overall. Perhaps the second in the series is better? I might spring to find out, maybe....

The intricate story

Great book, but I had to listen to at 1.5 speed. Does the narrator get paid by the minute? She, otherwise, is a good narrator.