Great whodunit and a great addition to the series. The plot kept me guessing throughout.
Many thanks to Amazon UK and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

A group of friends meet up for a fun weekend at a Goth Festival, but things turn dark when on friend kills his girlfriend and then flees.

It's a crime with three witnesses ... and one of them refuses to believe in what she actually saw.

It's a locked room mystery with a murky atmosphere surrounding all. The plot is complex and the pace is very slow. The characters are well developed. I always look for a bit of credibility when crimes are committed. I found a few things that had me stretching my imagination. The 'who' seems to have been revealed early .. the 'why' took a little longer. Although 6th in the series, this can easily be read as a stand alone.

Many thanks to the author / Amazon Publishing UK / Netgalley for the digital copy of this murder mystery. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

The Whitby Murders is the 6th book in the Yorkshire murder mystery series by J. R. Ellis. Released 20th Aug 2020 on Amazon's Thomas & Mercer imprint, it's 283 pages and available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book and the rest of the series are currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.
These books are well written engaging procedurals which are tightly plotted, set against the Yorkshire countryside: hills, moors, and fells. Although it's part of a series, it works quite well as a standalone. There are references to occurrences from previous books in the series, but they don't play a central role in the action and readers new to the series won't have any troubles keeping up. Although most of them are straight procedurals out of the local police department, this one sees Oldroyd and a colleague on loan to Whitby to help clear up a murder in which his own adult daughter is a primary witness. There are lots of interesting local historical tie ins and the author does a good job of conjuring local creepy atmosphere with the Bram Stoker Dracula tie-ins.

I enjoyed the writing and I really liked Oldroyd's relationship with his family and colleagues. He's an honest and compassionate officer and the development of the plot and denouement were satisfying and well written. Looking forward to more in this series which compares quite favourably with P.D. James' wonderful Adam Dalgleish books. This would be a fine selection for public library acquisition, and for fans of English procedurals.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I have been to Whitby on the north east coast of England numerous times, so it was a delight to bask in those memories through this book. I loved how the history of the town was detailed in the plot and was engrossed by the premise. The murder seemed totally unsolvable and the main suspect seemed legit as a real possibility. I liked the back and forth between the characters involved and the way the characters questioned their friendships after the murder. It wasn't a real gripper for me but many elements of it were vey well done. It is always enjoyable to have a murder set in a place that you are familiar with. It really adds to the authenticity.

The Whitney Murders by J. R. Ellis

There is a murder, with 3 witnesses, but one of them doesn’t believe what she saw.

This was a very interesting murders mystery. The author certainly kept you guessing as to how the murders were staged. Many interesting characters. I enjoyed this book.

Thanks to Net Galley for sending me an advanced reader’s copy for my review.

This story makes you question what the protagonist sees and thinks.

She saw it with her own eyes so why can’t she believe it? Because nothing is ever as it seems, especially on Halloween.

A great British crime procedural. It is well written and enjoyable.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a great storyline with excellent characters. I would highly recommend this book as it was a great read.

Very creative writing unbelievably atmospheric description of Whitby and whole Dracula legend.Good to catch up with Jim Oldroyd and his team again a great story line a group of friends meet up in Whitby for a gothic themed catch up which leads to murder well worth a read…

I had fun but also found the plot confusing and sometimes unbelievable.
The goth background was a lot of fun and I love how it starts.
It's an entertaining read, had a lot of potential but didn't deliver.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This was the sixth book in the Yorkshire Mystery Series, starring DCI Jim Oldroyd and his team.

The key part of the book is focused on the picturesque location of Whitby where Jim’s daughter and her friends enter a locked room scenario, where one of the friends is murdered, apparently killed by another of the the friends, and they go on the run. However Louise doesn’t believe what her eyes have seen, and contacts her father for help.

As usual with these books the sections focusing on the main characters and developments in their life’s are the favourite parts of the book for me, and therefore to get the most out of them you do need to read the books in order.

The book was well-written and had a good, and clever plot. I do feel l however the books would feel more pacy if they were separated into smaller chapters.

Overall I would recommend the book if you enjoy crime fiction but it wouldn’t be one of my favourite series and it is important to read the other books first.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publishers for providing a copy of this book for me, for an an open and honest review.

This book revolves around Whitby, England, which apparently was a major scene for the Dracula story by Bram Stoker. A group of friends goes for a goth weekend and terrible things happen. One of them stabs his girlfriend to death in an escape room. But Louise Oldroyd doesn’t think it is as simple as what they all saw. She asks her dad, a major crime-fighting detective for help. The book follows how he helps the local police investigate and reach a resolution.

It is well-written, just not exciting. Maybe it suffers from my having just read a bunch of fast-paced thrillers. It did keep my attention and, through a series of twists, reaches a conclusion that isn’t terribly obvious until it gets close.

This is in a series but can be read alone which I did. J.R.Ellis I have read their books before so I knew it would have to be a good one which it was but I have read better from this author.. Three witness one-time crime what really happened? The storyline is good but I got confused in places that didn't make sense to me! The characters were very well believable but something just didn't come across for me. It's possible to see the same thing but in different ways but the way it's laid out for me just got me confused..I went back and teachers I had already been but just have up. Just cause I did doesn't mean you won't understand in certain places.. I made it to the end but was disappointed because I never had this problem before with this author.. Whitby Murders,is a good read maybe for some but it just wasn't for me but you give the book a chance you may fall in love with the story!Received from Net Gallery

I suppose at times, this is just the way things go: I've had two DNFs in a row. This time, it's The Whitby Murders.

Unlike the last one on my DNF list, this one didn't have a huge number of characters flung at the reader in the first few chapters, so it wasn't that. No, it was the writing, which I didn't like. At all; Why?

First, it's just meh.It's easy enough to read, don't get me wrong, but there's just no pizazz to it. It's a very dry recitation of what's going on and what the characters are saying and feeling. It feels to me to be a bit amateurishly written, and the head hopping within the same chapter, in my opinion, should have been edited to at least contain each head in its own chapter. There is also a great deal of repetition of things. The ream investigating the crime lays out some information they've found. Then they have to lay it out for everyone. Then they go over it again. That sort of thing made me skim here and there, and I stopped at 60% on my Fire.

Second, in dialogue, people are often doing something while they speak ("Blah blah blah," she said, smiling at him.) or there are far too many descriptors after the dialogue that are entirely unnecessary if the character's mood can be discerned from what they're actually doing. Example: a woman and a man, who are a couple, are having some kind of argument. ("Suit yourself then!" Dominic shouted aggressively, and hung at the back of he group, apparently in a sulk..) Do we really need to know that he shouted "aggressively? Aren't most people aggressive when they shout? This was the last in a round of dialogue involving two people.. There are only four exchanges, and we have "shrieked", "said", "replied", and the aforementioned aggressive shouting.

Three, there are a huge number of filter words in this. The latter example above is a good one. "Apparently" in a sulk? "So and so looked bewildered" - how? Raised eyebrows? Furrowed brow? "No, Dad, no!" Louise was getting increasingly agitated and her voice was getting louder." We got the louder part - she is, after all, shouting. And if she's getting agitated, how do we know this? There is a bit of back and forth with her father, and at a time when dialogue tags could be helpful, along with some kind of descriptor. But there is nothing that indicates she's getting wound up. Is she pacing? Fidgeting in her seat? Don't know!

Four, there is a large amount of telling versus showing. This also involves filter words, but applies as well to the author telling how someone feels versus showing us, or just giving us an infodump about a character. For example, the "apparently in a sulk" business. Who is making this determination? How could they tell he was "apparently in a sulk"? What exactly was he doing when he was hanging at the back of the group? When we get an infodump, we really do not need to know virtually everything about them right at that moment in a narration. Show us what they're doing to assign them the characteristics you want them to have. That will let the reader draw a fuller picture of the characters, and even if those conclusions are not what you planned, they will at least not be cardboard cutouts.

Five, there are certain things that have to be taken with a giant grain of salt. Senior DI able to just walk out of his office after getting his daughters call, and head to the town she's staying, and taking a DS with him? Red herrings presented (good) but being cleared up in a page or two (bad)? The police continue to investigate a murder with not just eyewitnesses but video as well that backs them up, because of a gut feeling the daughter has? That all seems unlikely, as does the DCI father seemingly on the verge of tears whenever he thinks about his daughter close to the murder. He's a veteran police officer. Why is he on the verge of tears about this all the time? We also get a great deal of narration about his personal life that adds nothing to the overall story.

Again, sorry for the DNF on this.

Two stars out of five (rounded down from 2.5 stars).

Thanks to Amazon Publishing UK and NetGalley for the reading copy.

The Whitney Murders is a very well written and entertaining murder mystery. Good character dynamics and a nice setting. Mystery fans will love this book.

Thanks to Netgalley for the Whitby Murders by J.R. Ellis. I admit that I may have done this book a disservice by not having read the previous books in the series since this book six. That said, I only found this mystery okay, not great. It was obvious from the beginning who the murderer was but not why. I found it hard to keep the characters apart because there was really not much character development except for the main detective. I might give this series another chance and begin at the beginning because I always hate it when someone unkindly reviews a book in a series I love and then they say they haven’t read any of the other ten or twenty books in the series. So, maybe it’s just me.

I could not get on board with this story at all, unfortunately. The characters were all wooden and I didn't care about them at all. The women were all weepy and started sobbing every other sentence. The murderer is easy to figure out and the motive is laughable and unbelievable.

I appreciate the advanced copy. I wanted to like this much, much more than I did, and that makes me sad.

I enjoyed this book immensely. British police procedural novel at its finest. Well crafted mystery, grand characters, and I will be looking forward to more.

I keep putting this book down and I’m only picking it up because I promised to review it. I have not finished it and the worst part is that I don’t care.

This is a book in a series that I have not read. I loved the description- the goth weekend, Halloween, and an escape room. It felt a bit too mocking of the goth weekend, which immediately turned me off. The book isn’t fast-paced at all, which typically isn’t an issue for me but I can’t say I like spending time with the characters.

I picked up the first of the Yorkshire Mystery series on a recommendation from Amazon, and I’ve been enjoying the series since. I don’t think that The Whitby Murders is the strongest volume in the series, but it’s still worth a read. So, If you’re new to the series, I might start with the earlier books, in order to be more familiar with the characters, and also because they’re a little bit better than this one. That’s not to say that this is terrible, though. I did enjoy the characters and setting -- Dracula and Goth Weekend are right up my alley, and I love “locked room” type mysteries. I just enjoyed the earlier books in the series more.

Thanks to Netgalley and Amazon Publishing UK for the opportunity to read and review The Whitby Murders.

Didn’t enjoy this book, much as I wanted to. Didn’t feel for the characters, struggled with the pace, found the revelations too stagey, and didn’t enjoy the plot. What I did like was the way it’s connected to reality - Whitby, Munch, etc.