Cover Image: Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire

Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire

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Member Reviews

This is a lot sillier than the Gower Street Mysteries with very quirky characters some of whom were a little bit irritating. All became clear in the end and the twists really took me by surprise.
I bought the audio version of this book as I didn't have the NetGalley copy read and reviewed on time. I enjoyed the narration and will be following the rest of the series in audio format.

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It is 1939.

Betty is set to investigate a series of murders, all with one thing in common - fang marks!
A Vampire maybe?

Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire is a very fun crime mystery. Fun little mysteries are one of my favorite things. It is not quite like the Clue movie but the vibe gets close!

Betty Church is a police woman, she is very brave and fearless. And she has become inspector at Sackwater which is her hometown.

Quirky eccentric characters, decently long book and the vibes were very nice. I liked Betty and her team, it was a fun time!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

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A breath of fresh air. This cozy crime novel does not take itself too seriously, but it has a cast of very appealing characters, and made me laugh. I look forward to reading more from this author.

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This is a very enjoyable comedy crime caper set in a seaside town in Suffolk at the start of WWII. A cosy mystery with tons of heart and heaps of VERY daft characters. A fun read.

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Betty Church has been a successful member of the British police force when she lost part of her left arm. Rather than retire, she chose to remain a member, accept a promotion to Inspector and be stationed outside London, actually to her hometown, Sackwater in Suffolk.

I could not stand Betty's parents because of how they treated her. How they "replaced" her with Dodo whos was an annoying character.
Howherever I will be picking up the author's other works as I did enjoy this book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Head of Zeus and M.R.C. Kasasian for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

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I enjoyed reading this book it had a unique feel. instead of your usual dark vampire book It's more of a crime caper/ mystery with some comedy moments & mishaps, great for mystery fans.

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This is the first book in the series
This book was not for me. I really struggled to finish it.
It was also too long in my opinion

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I requested this as I was in the mood for a cozy mystery, and the cover and title intrigued me. From the start however, I was very confused. The main character, Betty Church, appears to be the god daughter of the main character of a previous series of the same author. The lack of exposition on some aspects of her history makes me think that perhaps she has already played a part in that series, despite this listed as the first in a series. There are many cases mentioned, trauma’s she has gone through – including a very physical trauma – but only on passing. After multiple recent reads that have turned out not to be the first in a series this annoyed me from the start, and made it difficult for me to get into it.

Betty is one of the first female officers in London, and the very first when she gets sent to Sackwater. Most if not all the other male officers at the station treat her as such, and while she is used to this – and it is probably very true to the times – it became old very quickly. She adopts a passive-aggressive stance towards pretty much every other character in the book, and while this again becomes repetitive really quickly, in her defense she is faced with an absurd set of other cast members. Especially considering the only other female officer assigned to Sackwater is ridiculous to say the least – honestly, who says ‘Oopsy-woopsy’ in real life? Even in the 1930’s. Add to that some idiotic twins that are too stupid to live – all assigned there because of their ‘connections’. Maybe situations like that really happened, but for me it was too unrealistic – even for a cozy mystery.

The writing style was difficult to follow at times, as every character with a different accent had their lines written out phonetically. The dialogue swerved wildly between being witty and cringy, depending on who Betty was talking to at the time. The mystery was all over the place, and there were many side-tracks that eventually came together but for the longest time it just seemed like a jumble of story lines. This all against a backdrop of Britain at the start of World War II, with mandatory curfew and blackouts, as well as the treat of bombings and invasion. There are some short passages where Betty deals with a local couple who are originally German and the treatment they receive because of the current climate, but this is only a footnote in the larger story. This is a shame, as this was one of the parts I actually enjoyed reading about!

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I had heard good things about this author's Gower Street series but hadn't read any of them, so I was happy when this first book in a new series with ties to Gower Street popped up on Netgalley. It's funnier than I expected and has a cast of oddball characters that will clearly lead to more fun times ahead in future installments of Betty Church. Bravo! Thanks to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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I absolutely adored MRC Kasasian's Gower Street series (start with the Mangle Street Murders https://amzn.to/2I5mi2z), so I was delighted to get the chance to read the first Betty Church story.

Betty Church is one of the first female police detectives, and let's be fair if it wasn't near-war time she might not have got a look in. As if those weren't difficult enough odds, Betty only has one arm. It's Girl Power 1930s!

Betty is a brilliant protagonist and as per Mr Kasasian's previous series, (set in Victorian London) the research of the time and location is exemplary. It's Team Betty the whole time when she comes up against common-place (of its time) discrimination and prejudice. It's heartbreaking at times how people are treated and disregarded.

The book is a riot from start to finish. I hope to see and read more of Betty Church's escapades.



VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Thank you so much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary electronic copy in return for an honest review.

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Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire is the first in a series by M R C Kasasian based on characters from the Gower Street series. Having not read any of the author's previous work, I had no idea of what to expect but it seemed to be a cozy comedy mystery, if such a genre exists.

The premis of the story was sound and some of the humour did make me smile but overall I found that the humour and mystery aspects felt imbalanced. The humour felt almost ludicrous at points and some of the characters were written in such a way that they felt like cringeworthy parodies of the usual cozy mystery characters. There seemed to be far too many minor characters and sub plots which just made the story drag. I would have happily seen it shortened by 150 pages or so if it meant keeping the focus on the main storyline. At times I found myself resisting the temptation to skim read chapters as they just felt like padding with no real plot points.

Perhaps if I had read and enjoyed Kasasian's previous series, I might have engaged with the characters and humour in this more easily. Im sure those who enjoyed the Gower Street books will enjoy this series too but, sadly, I don't think this is a series for me.

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I'm afraid this first title in a new MRC Kasasian mystery series is not for me. It's a lighthearted, quirky tale of a brave and emancipated female police inspector at the outset of WWII. It should be the kind of book I enjoy as a relaxing and enjoyable read, but in this instance I just found it rather tedious with characters that were thin stereotypes and tedious in their predictability. The plot was chaotic in the extreme and just didn't engage my interest. It was hard to remember who had been murdered far less who was likely to want them dead. The vampire plot device was rather irksome too and I don't think I'll be trying any other titles in the series. I've seen the book compared to MC Beatin's Agatha Raisin but for me the similarity was rather thin.

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Betty Church has been a successful member of the British police force when she lost part of her left arm. Rather than retire, she chose to remain a member, accept a promotion to Inspector and be stationed outside London, actually to her hometown, Sackwater in Suffolk. There were not many mysteries to be solved in Sackwater until a missing bench at the train station brought a murder in view. And then more murders kept happening. Only after WPC Dodo Chivers and Inspector Church team up and start testing all theories do suspects start to appear. And the final confrontation is quite the event. Plenty of characters help make this a very entertaining mystery to resolve. Hopefully there will be more Betty Church mysteries to read.

Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read this title.

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A spin off from his successful Gower Street Detective Series. Betty Church was a winner for me based on the Suffolk connection and the gentle historical murder mystery.
Betty is promoted to Inspector and sent packing to Suffolk from London to get out of the way and be buried in the local backwater. At a time when women were not embraced in the work place and dismissed for what they could bring to policing.
From this story it seems her biggest task is keeping the incompetent force functioning at a time when coastal defensive requirements makes Suffolk more strategic than it once seemed.
The story is riddled with humour not all of which works but it is consistently cringe worthy so you get accustomed to it. A least twice I nearly broke out into laughter. This kind of writing is quite clever and demanding and it is difficult where murder is played out.
I liked the serious piece with abuse and the nasty gangland violence as this addressed a real issue. For the rest it is a clever mystery and Betty works well with her limited resources but the crimes and the criminality is shocking dressed up in a humorist hue.
The incompetence of the crimes and the denouncement while it tidied everything up neatly left me wondering if I was entertained more than I was engaged intellectually.
If you want a distraction this could work if you want a detective thriller this is not the book to choose.

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Inspector Betty Church is one of the first female police officers, who returns to work in her small hometown after losing an arm while working in London. Now she's investigating a series of murders, while dealing with a crazy cast of characters--sexist coworkers, unappreciative parents, and an ex-boyfriend's family who seems more like family than her own.
The book is delightful and quirky (in a Jasper Fforde kind of way--which is to say, good).

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It took me until 25% to actually get into this book. For those of you who have seen Hot Fuzz, it's that type of humor and with that type of level of gore at times as well! The problem for me was that I liked it when I had it in my hands but didn't want to pick it up again when I put it down, until 25% and then I really got into it and just accepted the humor for what it was. At first, I wasn't sure what was going on, but either way, in the end, I really enjoyed this! 

Some nice use of misdirection, some annoying characters that were blessedly meant to be annoying and a whole gang of ridiculous constables that had me chuckling at times. I can't imagine how Inspector Church didn't smack them all about.

If you enjoy a mystery novel that doesn't mind takin' a laugh and not being too serious, I would recommend this. It is the first in the series so no stepping into the middle and being confused for me.

I read this as a free reader copy from Netgalley and was not paid or swayed in any other way on my rating and opinion of this book.

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Betty Church is the strong, charismatic woman we all want to be. She takes charge of every situation and faces it head on! A hilarious cast sprinkled with murder and mystery had me laughing like crazy. You won't regret picking up this book.

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I do love a mystery every now and then and this one was quite a fun one. There were a few things that I did not love about this book, but overall it was an enjoyable read.

Betty Church, a savvy no-nonsense woman in her late thirties, was a great main character. I wish her actual character shone through a bit more, but I did like her a lot. However, why did all the side characters need to be so no-sensical? Pretty much every single one of them! I think that detracted a little bit for me.

I did love the humour in this book. I am a big fan of sarcasm and there was plenty of that in there. The tone of writing was right up my street.

I also thought the setting and time period were pretty good, with first the threat of war and then the actual war (WWII) going on. It was interesting to read what measures government was taking to protect the country from the characters’ point of view.

The mystery itself and its resolution was just ok for me. Much of it I already guessed unfortunately. However, that did not take away from the fact that as a whole I enjoyed this novel quite a bit.

Will I read the next Betty Church mystery when it comes out? Yes, I probably will.

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Inspector Betty Church is a flawed, strong character who weathers what should have been a career ending injury then is transferred back to the hometown she fled as fast as she could, and finds herself saddled with an incompetent Superintendent, a petty spiteful fellow inspector, and enough misogyny to fill the English Channel. Through it all, she manages to mostly hold her temper while dealing with several petty disturbances and a killer that the locals believe must be a vampire.

I was hooked on this book from page one and then the author introduced a character, Constable Dodo Chivers, who is probably the most obnoxious, childish, annoying adult I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading about. I don’t have a clue what the author was thinking about with this character and found myself skipping over any page she showed up on. The existence of this character in an otherwise well-written book was disappointing because it took me out of the story every single time she showed up.

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Thank you to Head of Zeus for an ebook edition via NetGalley of this quirky mystery. It is currently available in the U.K. in ebook and hardback editions and will be released as a paperback on 7th February 2019.

It’s 1939 and Britain is on the brink of war. After the partial loss of her arm in the line of duty, Betty Church is promoted to the rank of inspector and transferred to Sackwater, Suffolk. As Betty was born and raised there she has ties with the community. Crime there is minimal until events take a darker turn with a series of murders rumoured to be committed by a vampire.

This was my first time reading a book by M.R.C. Kasasian, though certainly aware of his Gower Street series. It was clear from the beginning that Betty Church was linked to that earlier series. Not really a problem in terms of reading except given the number of references to events in Betty’s and other characters’ lives it felt as though this was an ongoing series rather than Book 1 in a new one.

I liked that Betty was mature and experienced as well as dealing with the recent loss of half an arm. However, the new constable Dodo Chivers, also assigned there, drove me to distraction with her ditziness and baby talk. Indeed, the general ridiculousness of seemingly everyone in Sackwater proved an ongoing irritation.

Clearly this was meant as broad comedy yet with serious themes such as war and antisemitism it led to some quite patchy pacing. For what I thought was a cosy mystery the violence and explicit language was also quite high.

It felt overlong at nearly 500 pages and padded with too many characters and subplots. It wasn’t all bad or I wouldn’t have continued reading. Actually once the main plot got underway the narrative in general became more focused. Yet by the end its general level of silliness just didn’t work for me.

As a few reviewers have noted that this is not reflective of his other works, I probably will still read the Gower Street books that are lurking on my Kindle.

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