Murder Unexpected by Anita Waller
The Blurb
Kat and Mouse are back. Church Deacon Kat and her friend Beth, known as Mouse, have started a private investigation business in the sleepy village of Eyam. Kat, whose estranged criminal husband, Leon, is on the run, has a lot on her plate running the new business whilst heavily pregnant. When a widow asks the sleuths for help, Kat and Mouse find themselves searching for the birth mother of the widow’s husband. But when it becomes clear that the widow isn’t telling the whole truth, Kat and Mouse are drawn into a deadly chase where nothing is what it seems. Meanwhile, Kat’s husband has come back to Eyam and has Kat in his sights. Can Kat and Mouse solve the case and escape the dangerous Leon? This time they might just be out of their depth…
About Anita Waller
Anita Waller was born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire in 1946. She married Dave in 1967 and they have three adult children. She has written and taught creative writing for most of her life, and at the age of sixty-nine sent a manuscript to Bloodhound Books which was immediately accepted. In total she has written seven psychological thrillers and one supernatural novel, and uses the areas of South Yorkshire and Derbyshire as her preferred locations in her books. Sheffield features prominently. And now Anita is working on her first series, the Kat and Mouse trilogy, set in the beautiful Derbyshire village of Eyam. The first in the series, Murder Undeniable, launched 10 December 2018, and the second in the series, Murder Unexpected, launches 11 February 2019. The trilogy has now been promoted to a quartet following the success of the first book; she is currently working on book three, Murder Unearthed. Book four doesn't have a title, a plot, a first sentence... but she remains convinced it will have! She is now seventy-three years of age, happily writing most days and would dearly love to plan a novel, but has accepted that isn't the way of her mind. Every novel starts with a sentence and she waits to see where that sentence will take her, and her characters. In her life away from the computer in the corner of her kitchen, she is a Sheffield Wednesday supporter with blue blood in her veins! The club was particularly helpful during the writing of 34 Days, as a couple of matches feature in the novel, along with Ross Wallace. Information was needed, and they provided it. Her genre is murder - necessary murder.
My Review
The second book of the Kat and Mouse trilogy was not disappointing. Already familiar with these wonderful characters, I felt like I had come home to the village of Eyam. There is still a murderer on the loose left over from book one, ‘Murder Undeniable.’ Add to the mix, Kat, Mouse and Doris’s detective agency Connections, is doing well but take on a case that is not what it seems. I love the amicable relationship between DI Tessa Marsden and the private investigators. Not having to contend with the cliched clash and conflicts of interest was quite refreshing. I’m looking forward to the last part of the trilogy, ‘Murder unearthed,’ but live in hope that Anita Wallace will make this into a series.
