The Quartet Murders

A Yorkshire Murder Mystery, Book 2

By: J. R. Ellis

Narrated by: Michael Page

Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

A priceless violin. And a dark secret someone is prepared to kill for.

DCI Oldroyd has seen his fair share of victims, but he has never witnessed a murder - until now. When world-famous violinist Hans Muller is shot and killed during a concert, the detective is faced with a case beyond logic. The culprit is nowhere to be found - and the victim’s priceless violin has disappeared too.

As Oldroyd investigates the mystery of the murderer’s identity and the motive for the killing, he enters the ruthless world of wealthy instrument collectors and stumbles upon a dark path where shocking secrets have been buried in the past. But the secrets will soon take centre stage.

Oldroyd must use all his cunning to recover the priceless instrument. But can he also solve the mystery of a murderer who vanished in front of his own eyes?

Revised edition: This edition of The Quartet Murders includes editorial revisions.

©2017, 2018 J. R. Ellis (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved

less than expected

First, the narrator was barely listenable. every thing was a growl. the story, itself, needed a good editor.

Slow, Plodding, Story

The best part of this book is the intro to each chapter describing the pedigree of various Stradivarius Violins. After that the lead characters just seem to go round and round getting nowhere. Great for listening in bed at night as it tends to put you right to sleep.

Enjoyed the story.

Did not enjoy a reviewer giving the plot away. I new how the book would end.shame

Love ALL of J.R. Ellis Yorkshire Murder Series Book 2 was intense!

First, I could easily just repeat the verbiage contained in the description or put it in my words, which I always do 👍. This series ’Yorkshire Murder Mystery Series’ Book 2 are so filled with intrigue, a mass of details and an author that amazingly has characters use details from i.e. WWII, Nazis, etc. that I actually felt this was a none fiction vs. fiction.

The beginning of Book 2 starts like this. It opens up with a string quartet and the violin player is playing on a ’Stradivarius’ (one of the violins and other string instruments built by members of the Italian family Stradivari) one of a few violins made in the mid-1600s.
PRICELESS...

Once the first part of the Interlude is over, the violinist puts his Stradivarius next to him on a table, whether a pause in the rendition or what, the next minute we see the violinist on his stomach with a bullet in his head..a spoiler? No..because I'm not going to give anything else away.

Was it a ploy to steal the worlds most expensive violin? Was it vengeance? That is what the reader will determine.

Throughout this series here in Book 2 ’The Quartet Murders’ readers will be introduced to a lot of characters, collectors, eyewitnesses, groups, Nazi haters and more. Not to leave out the competent CI Oldroyd & Police Detective Carter from London & his ’newly’ relationship with Steph who is also in the Yorkshire police dept. In Book 2 we learn more about CI Oldroyd’s family issues and loneliness he's feeling at Christmas.

All in all this book by J.R. Ellis was so involved with not just the obvious, but also interviews with certain people that definitely had their views on why things may have happened ’this way’. No, they didn't take away from the investigation they definitely added to it. The last 37 minutes were so intriguing re: EVERYTHING I said to myself ”Bravo! Now this was a book that was researched!”

And lastly to Michael Page, of which I’m getting on my soap box, the narrator. For you Americans, of which I’m Americanized from being here in the states for a while, even though I was born and raised in the 60’s in the UK 🇬🇧 HE IS THE BEST NARRATOR FOR ANY AREA OF 🇬🇧..hands down! This is a Yorkshire accent! I read so many NEGATIVE comments from Book 1 about his accent and then the reviewers would say “but I’m not from the U.K. so I don’t know” while they gave him a 1 on narration! If you don’t know what a Yorkshire accent is, how can you make those assumptions??!! It really bothered me because Michael Page is one of Britain’s and Audibles biggest narrator! He may be older but NO HES NOT INCOMPETENT OR AN “OLD MAN”! The comments were rude and unless you know accents in Britain don’t leave a comment..I’m off my soap box.

I just downloaded the 3rd book in the Yorkshire Murder Mystery Series & I cant wait to finish! 5 stars ⭐️ Recommended for all—no foul language or sex—ENJOY YORKSHIRE

Great Read!/

Enjoying this series! This was my second to listen to and plan to do them all. Excellent narration - completely realistic and understandable. I appreciate the author's philosophical bent as well.

A nice mystery

I have read the first and now this one of the series and I love the area and the new guy Carter learning about a different place to work and live.

Quartet mystery

Thoroughly enjoyable story with interesting many characters . The Adio version was well narrated too

Great storyline

A complex yet enjoyable murder mystery. I enjoyed the interaction and development of the characters.

Interesting and Entertaining

I enjoy these main characters. This plot had a lot going on and kept me intrigued. Michael Page is a fun narrator to listen to.

Overall good; 1 murder FAR too easy to solve

Overall, this second entry in the Yorkshire Murder Mystery series is good. The story is quite interesting, and intriguing facts re Stradivarius violins are spread throughout :-)

However, I found it stupidly easy to figure out “who dunnit”, we tte first murder. A HUGE clue is given quite early in the book, but it takes the detectives an absurd amount of time to even realize that it IS a clue.

The narration is all right; unfortunately, he can’t do female voices very well though, other than old ladies ;-) And, the occasional male character has a REALLY weird voice, which I don’t find very realistic. The narrator’s cadence is pretty good, though :-)