I struggled to read this book due to the poor characterisation, I really disliked Ingrid, but the plotting is quite original. There are a few twists and turns but overall, the book was not for me. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

Reviewed online for Crime Review:

t’s odd how you develop a soft spot for a series where you could spend a coffee break picking holes in the book. But I seem to be in for the long haul on Margaret Duffy’s series featuring writer Ingrid Langley and her loose cannon husband Patrick Gillard.

These are thrillers that put the q into quaint. They’re not particularly cosy, but they don’t fit neatly into action and adventure boxes. Duffy tends towards tell, not show, with the net result that the gory stuff happens off-stage. What she doesn’t shy away from, though, is the psychological aftermath of it all.

Patrick is a former soldier with an artificial leg. It doesn’t stop him mixing it with the villains, though. And as the long-running series has progressed, his psychological state has become more precarious and his behaviour more erratic.

Ingrid has acted as Patrick’s sidekick/minder and they’ve been involved with a veritable alphabet soup of crime-fighting agencies. Any hope, though, that Patrick’s new job as the NCA liaison officer with Avon and Somerset police’s regional organised crime unit is going to be a cushy desk posting is soon dashed when Ingrid stumbles across a top Met Police undercover cop who’s been left for dead in a Somerset field.

Suspicion points to London gangster Matt Dorney, one of the country’s most-wanted criminals. And when two more bodies are found in the same Somerset field, Patrick and Ingrid are pulled right back into a major undercover job.

The story, as always, is told from Ingrid’s point of view, and you’ll have to get past her rather arch tone, although I admit to thinking it adds a genuine voice to the narrative. As a character, she’s a rather bizarre mix of successful career woman (although I’ve never gained much of an impression of her writing over the series), absent mother (of course they have a live-in nanny for their brood), no-nonsense all-action star and an occasional purveyor of faintly sexist comments about the male/female divide. What’s certain, though, is that she pulls her husband out of the mire frequently.

The supporting cast contains a handful of recurring characters who balance the kamikaze pair, including long-suffering Bath cop DCI James Carrick and Patrick’s redoubtable mother Elspeth, who has to deal with both her unstable son and her rather unworldly vicar husband.

If I’ve counted right, Murders.com is 20th in a series that’s been running since the late 1980s. If you haven’t read any of the books – and I suspect a lot of crime fiction fans won’t have done – the latest instalment probably won’t make a stack of sense. The plots teeter towards implausibility at times, but I read the series because I’m absolutely fascinated by the two unorthodox lead characters.

Murders.com ends on an OMG kind of cliff-hanger – Duffy is the queen of these – which has you hoping that the author doesn’t fall under a bus or lose her publishing deal.

Murders.com
One of those books I think that from reading some of the reviews, you either love it or hate it.
I quite enjoyed it, and interesting read, a decent story to it, and a good length that it didn't over drag.
A crime novel that is interesting and different.

Author and part-time advisor for the National Crime Agency Ingrid Langley stumbles across a badly beaten up man whilst riding her horse in the countryside. The victim turns out to be Commander David Rolt, head of the Metropolitan Police’s specialist undercover unit F9, and he has some suspicion about who may have ordered his attack – namely renowned London mobster, Matt Dorney. Due to staff shortages, it falls to Ingrid’s husband Patrick to investigate the attack, despite him having recently retired and become the NCA liaison with the Avon and Somerset Police. The stakes become higher when two men are found hanging in the forest near where Rolt was attacked and despite thinking they had left that life behind them, Patrick and Ingrid find themselves drawn into an undercover investigation that puts their lives in danger.


This was a fast-paced crime novel with plenty of suspense and action and a few good twists and turns throughout. The author’s writing style is readable and easy to follow and the plot is imaginative and quite original. It is evident that the two protagonists have a lot of history and yet their past is explained relatively well, meaning that the story can be enjoyed on its own without having to read the previous books. There were also a fair few different characters and organisations to get your head round but the author describes them succinctly and doesn’t leave the reader bogged down in past details.


Unfortunately, I really didn’t like Ingrid as a character – I found her a dry, unemotional narrator and quite smug. Despite having three young children and two adopted older ones, Ingrid seemed to show very little concern for her family (excluding her husband) or even any interest in them – in fact, she barely interacted with them throughout the whole story. She was more focused on the case she was advising her husband on, even admitting at one point that she loved him more than her kids, which really put me off her and stopped me from engaging with her or the story. The ending of the novel was also extremely abrupt and left the book feeling unfinished, yet there was not really enough suspense to make me want to read the following instalment and find out what happens next.


Apparently, this is the eleventh book in the series and whilst the author is a talented writer, this story didn’t really gel with me. It was a decent crime novel but the characters were flawed and not especially likeable, which negatively impacted the experience for me.


Daenerys


Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

I've got to admit that this is far from my favourite book and , whilst it is written in a thoroughly professional manner, there were certain aspects of the book that militated against more favourable review..

Firstly the narrative seemed to me to be hit and miss in some places and the plot, at times, did not make sense. I also found the tone uneven. There was, of necessity, a lot of exposition, but it did make reading it hard work. There was also one plot device that seemed so unlikely - a London " crime lord" who could go unrecognised as there was not one photo of him anywhere ( this in the digital age) that the whole thing lost credibility.

Sorry to be so negative but I suppose it's best to be honest.

I have never read any of Margaret Duffy’s books but it was clear from the outset that this is one in a series and I suspect rather a lot of books preceded it. It has taken me a relatively long time to read this book but I persevered and it was not until I had read 40% of it that it started to make some sense to me and I was able to untangle the list of characters.

For the first few chapters I could not come to terms with the amount of names, people, titles and organisations that were presented – it just seemed over-populated and frankly left me cold. I didn’t like the characters, I found the protagonist pompous and unbelievable and nothing rang true to me; not her family; her home set-up and certainly not her skills; and last but not least I was aghast at how many times they were off visiting a pub for lunch, or dinner. So apologies Ms Duffy, I am sure you have many followers, but the style didn’t suit me.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

I absolutely loved Murders.com - Margaret Duffy has once again created a page turning thriller that will leave readers begging for more. Patrick and Ingrid Gillard may be safer now that they are working for the National Crime Agency as opposed to MI-5, but that doesn't mean their lives are without danger. When the head of a special division of the police is found by Ingrid badly injured, it marks the beginning of an investigation into a criminal organization led by a violent thug whose father recently died in prison. Only a single blurry photo of the man exists, and no one knows where his headquarters are. As more bodies are discovered, the Met becomes anxious for results. With only limited support, Patrick and Ingrid are forced once more to go undercover and find a way to break the gang.

I absolutely love the chemistry that exists between Ingrid and Patrick. They are very much in love, and at the same time work well together. Think Hart to Hart but with added danger. Although Patrick is the more dangerous of the two, Ingrid is an equal partner whose insights are invaluable. At the same time, they balance work with their family responsibilities. It is an interesting mix. Their relationship is part of what makes this series great. I truly enjoyed Murders.com but I'm a touch vexed at the ominous comment at the end because I have to wait until Duffy’s next novel to find out what she means.

5 / 5

I received a copy of Murders.com from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom

I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley and Severn House Publishing. Thank you.

There are a lot of other books in this series, I don't know exactly how many, but a lot. I think this is a series where the author started off a long time ago with an interesting premise and has added in more and more impediments until now the whole thing is unwieldy and doesn't work. Ingrid Langley works part time for the National Crime Agency (evidently one of the most powerful and influential policing entities in Britain) and also writes novels. Honestly? She works part time for such a powerful policing agency? Because that's just not credible. Oh, add on Patrick Gillard, Ingrid's husband who also works for NCA but is embedded within Avon and Somerset Police's Regional Organized Crime Unit, their three young children, the two older children they adopted when Patrick's brother was killed and Patrick's parents who live in the annex. One would think Ingrid would be kept quite busy, but, no, since she declares herself a horrible Mum so has a full time nanny and complete freedom to play super-sleuth whenever she chooses. And she even gets to shoot people.

Enter undercover policemen from all different agencies of the police who are not working together and yet their cases all completely overlap. Patrick devises a plan to go undercover in one of the toughest gangs to ferret out who attacked a highly placed important police agent and manages to accomplish this impossibility in less than 24 hours to become the crime bosses right hand man. Ingrid gets to wear push-up bras and cleavage revealing blouses while acting the part of his "girlfriend" and nobody ever figures out who or what they are. Two gangs, rivals, both with vicious (but dumb) leaders evidently riddled with undercover policemen. It fairly boggled the mind and, by the way, gave criminals a very bad name.

So let's just say this one wasn't a good choice for me and let the rest of it go because, yes, there were still other things that really bothered me. Maybe if a reader began with the first book in the series and worked their way up through all the tangled webs of policing organizations they would learn to regard the characters as something other than caricatures of law enforcement personnel. Otherwise, not recommended.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Severn House Publishers for an advance copy of Murders.com, the 11th novel in the Gillard and Langley series.

Ingrid Langley is out horse riding when she stumbles across a badly beaten man with no identification. He turns out to be Commander David Rolt of the secretive Metropolitan police F9 undercover unit. Due to circumstances Ingrid and her husband, Patrick Gillard, recently appointed as the NCA liaison with the Avon and Somerset Police , end up investigating the attack which becomes the starting point for a much wider investigation.

I am new to this series which has not crossed my radar before so I have no reference points. I don't think it is necessary to have read the prior novels as this is a self contained novel and while reference is made to past events they are easily understandable and require no previous knowledge.

I'm in two minds about the novel. It has a fairly interesting plot with a few good twists and turns which are quite unexpected but the characterisation is poor and it is difficult to identify with any of them. This is made even more obvious by Ingrid's first person narrative - it is difficult not to get involved with a first person narrative and yet this is the case. What little emotion there is seems trite and the novel is more a recitation of the action, rather than a heartfelt telling. Ingrid can also be gratingly smug at times. I think it would have worked much better as a third person narrative given the tone and emphasis.

Murders.com is an easy read with a good plot.