A Reader's Guide to Books and Reviews

Title: Wychwood (Wychwood #1)
Author: George Mann
Format: Epub
Rating: 4/5
Status: Finished
Reading Date: November 4, 2018
Book Summary: Elspeth May, a young female journalist who never seems to be in the right place at the right time, suddenly gets her big break only to find that no one will ever believe her story.

When a local woman is found murdered in her own home, slashed viciously across the throat, the police begin a manhunt of the surrounding villages, unsure exactly of who or what they are looking for. Elspeth, accidentally first on the scene, finds her interest piqued, and sets out to investigate the details surrounding the crime. In doing so she finds herself constantly battling against Peter Shaw, a police sergeant working on the case and under suspicion due to a terrible incident that occurred during a previous investigation. More murders follow, each of them adopting a similar pattern.

What links the victims? And why are some of the local people trying to cover things up?"
Book Review: This book had me at Arthurian mythology and I knew I had to read it.

And I must say I wasn't entirely disappointed by this read.

After a bad break-up, Elspeth May has decided that she needs time to recover and returns home. Upon her arrival, there is a murder in front of her house. Curious Elspeth decides to go find out exactly what has happened and when she does, she finds that there is something vaguely familiar about the pose the murdered woman is laid out as. There at the scene she sees DS Peter Shaw, a childhood friend, and through him, she gets access upon the case. The two start an investigation into the killer whom is becoming known as The Carrion King.

I must say this was a really interesting story. I was truly intrigued by the premise of someone using the Arthurian mythology as a bases for his killings. Although I do admit it was easy to figure out whom the killer was, I still enjoyed this book immensely. I loved the characters. They felt real and their personalities never clashed.

The big thing I did have against this book was that how easy it was for Peter to give Elspeth access to such a big case as this. I get it that she has somewhat solved what the killer was doing with each of the murders but I cannot see anyone in the line of homicide simply willing to allow their childhood friend to help solve it. Yeah, yeah she is an journalist also investigating but that still doesn't give her a right to enter into police business.

Another thing was the slowness of this novel. I understand there needs to be a build-up to the climatic ending but even the ending seemed weak. I had to put the book down a few times during the day and walk away because it was a bit boring to continue.

I am hoping that the next sequel will be a bit more better than this one.