A modern police procedural with undertones of old-fashioned country house mystery, The Syndicate Six Murder takes place at a police training centre staffed by a variety of senior and junior police staff as well as a number of civilians. These two groups represent the "upstairs" and "downstairs" aspects of traditional whodunnits, whereas the investigative team led by DS Ralph Blade bring the novel into a modern setting.

Blade is put in charge of the murder investigation regardless of the fact that his past puts him in a somewhat invidious position with regard to the victim. Knowledge of their DS's history causes minor dissent and difficulties in Blade's team, who are tasked with - amongst other things - interviewing officers of far higher rank than themselves. As well as introducing us to Blade and his team and the relationships between them, there is also a family aspect to the story as Blade's marriage is put under strain.

Whilst I felt that there were aspects of the story that could have been explored more deeply - the dissent within the team, for instance, or the difficulties involved in interviewing your superiors, this did not detract from my overall positive impression of the book and I am keeping my fingers crossed that this heralds the start of a series. The story presented here is pared down and linear, undemanding in the most positive sense of the word. The book is short and to the point without superfluous detail (other than some perhaps slightly unnecessary discussion of the characters meals - cooked breakfasts, roast beef, soggy sandwiches, liver and onion and omelettes are all mentioned at various points). Nevertheless, I think with a little more character development and slightly more complex plots, Geoffrey Osborne is onto a winning formula and future instalments (should there be any) certainly have the potential to sit comfortably alongside the likes of Mark Billingham, Paul Finch and Peter James.

I hope to read more of Blade's exploits in the future and will keep a look out for future books by this author.

Enthusiastically recommended, particularly if you are looking for something you can polish off in an evening or two.

This was a classic who done it book? The mystery I very much enjoyed! The story was very well written. Loved it. The characters were good and each played a good role.

Overall this was a very good mystery read.

Two detectives who have a past together and not one that is favorable. Ashington and ?Blade dated the same girl, and she married the other, the one questions who son was he really. Ashington has been murdered not well like, for was a bully and blackmail. Another member on Blade team is murder. With a chest in a mansion is a body. The body count is rising for ?Blade and his team as does The Who what and why. Good mystery. Given ARC for my voluntary review and my honest opinion by Net .galley and Joffee Pub

This was just average. There were too many police detectives and the lead detective and his wife weren’t particularly appealing. The solution was unsurprising and many of the situations were improbable