Date with Evil: A delightfully witty and charming mystery set in the Yorkshire Dales perfect for fans of Agatha Raisin and The Thursday Murder Club (The Dales Detective Series Book 8)

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Delilah and Samson are both likeable protagonists and I enjoyed the inclusion of Nina and Delilah’s nephew Nathan in the detective agency. Il n'y a rien que j'admire plus qu'un écrivain qui sache maintenir l'intérêt de son auditoire sans se sentir obligé de prendre en otage des éléments de l'intrigue ! Having said all that, it was a gripping tale and I didn't want to stop till the denouement, which sadly fell slightly flat as the master criminal just seemed to fade out. With missing washing, produce thefts and inheritance investigations among others they have little time to spare when Mrs Lister visits and insists that her estate agent son, Stuart, is not backpacking abroad and is missing. Biography: Julia Chapman is the pseudonym of Julia Stagg, who has had five novels, the Fogas Chronicles set in the French Pyrenees, published by Hodder.

Overall I think this is totally worth it, it has all the cozy vibes one could want, characters that are fun and with depth, a dog that is the most lovable thing, a slight romantic touch and a lot of mystery. Delilah ends up putting a lot into helping Samson and they both solve the mysteries the town brings them. The mother of Stuart, the young estate agent, is convinced: her son is not on vacation as everyone thinks, but has disappeared! The obvious exception is the perpetrator, who is, in melodramatic fashion, particularly evil and sociopathic.

All of the elements of a standard cosy crime novel are present in this latest instalment of the Dales Detective. There were a few minor disappointments: fiction in general seems to miss out on proofreading and the text has several typos. This one is slightly darker than the previous seven books, but ties up neatly with the baddie *finally* getting caught. In the eighth novel in the Dales Detective series, Date with Evil, Samson and Delilah are about to discover that all of their new cases may be connected to a network of evil that seems to be surrounding Bruncliffe. In terms of ratings, I can imagine that those readers invested in the goings on in Bruncliffe and the Dales Detective Agency it’s a clear winner but it proved a bit of a struggle for me without experience of the earlier books.

The whole series has a televisual quality and I can’t wait for the French dramatised version of the stories to hit the Saturday night BBC4 schedules. Born with a wanderlust that keeps her moving, Julia has followed her restless feet to Japan, Australia, the USA and France. Qu'est-ce que je l'ai attendu ce dénouement, que les problèmes qui gangrènent Bruncliffe arrivent enfin à leur terme ! The author does a fabulous job in drawing all the characters and the settings and if Bruncliffe was a real place I would definitely want to visit. Julia's writing is so descriptive I can visualise myself there in that brutal landscape and hear the accent of the people speaking in this book.

Mais comment imaginer un seul instant que ce roman est annoncé comme le dernier de la série des détectives du Yorkshire ? The endearing inhabitants of Bruncliffe are back, banding together with good old Yorkshire grit, this time to foil an organised crime gang who, improbably, are running a drugs/people trafficking ring out of a bunch of old farm sheds. No doubt frightening and worrying if this were real life - but not super enticing in terms of fictional plot. The reader knows who it is as the novel is told from various points of view, but they don’t know the lengths he will go to or why.

Although one of the main story lines that has run throughout the series has been resolved, you are left with the definite feeling that there is much more to come and it is eagerly awaited by this reader! My goodness I was racing through the pages to find out what happened/who did what/ who would survive. Bien que Samson et Delilah n'y croient pas vraiment, ils acceptent d'enquêter et, de fil en aiguille, vont découvrir que tout n'est pas très net dans cette histoire. PAF, on laisse tous les attachants personnages de Bruncliffe avec une suite que nous aurons imaginé.Wonderfully engaging, Julia Chapman’s latest Dales mystery is perfect for fans of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club series . As usual, the use of strings of 'someone doing or having done something' phrases impeded the flow: a little variation in sentence structure would make the stories read even better. Anyone who likes cosy mysteries, a rural English setting, a dash of romance, and vivid engaging writing by an author who clearly loves all of those things, will love this series.