In fairness, I’ve never read a previous book in this series, but I felt like I didn’t know the characters or their relationships well. The story itself was unnecessarily complex and a bit confusing. Solving the mystery seemed to happen suddenly - especially since much of the book was spent (it felt) with the detectives not having any clues. The ending was too “scooby doo” for me - walking through the crime and how the detective solved it.... Not particularly well written, in my opinion. I received an ARC of this book from #netgalley and I’m appreciative.

#NetGalley #TheWhitbyMurders
This is the sixth book in the Detective Chief Inspector Oldroyd Series and it doesn’t disappoint.
His daughter Louise is attending the goth weekend in the Yorkshire seaside town of Whitby when two of her friends are caught up in a murder.
Louise was a witness but cannot quite understand what she saw and calls on her dad to investigate.
A fast paced read that will keep you reading.

It's the Autumnal Goth Weekend in historic Seaside Town of Whitby ,which in itself is split into two halves both with their own atmospheric character the New Town & across the Swing Bridge ,The Old town from where you can climb the 199 steps which lead to St; Mary's Church & then further along the stunning ruins of Whitby Abbey. A group of friends have come to Whitby to have fun & dress up for Goth weekend ,but something goes tragically wrong & two of the group die ! One of the group Louise Oldroyd has a deep instinct that all is not as straight forward as it seems & contacts her father Jim Oldroyd who is a Police Officer. It had some interesting twists & turns & it helped even more because I have spent a Holiday & also many very enjoyable days out in this unique North Yorkshire Coastal Town so this helped my visualization of what & where things were happening . This is the first book by J.R. Ellis I have read & I am now going to try some of his other ones .#FB, #NetGalley,#Goodreads,#Amazon.co.uk, # Instagram , #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/aa60c7e77cc330186f26ea1f647542df8af8326a" width="80" height="80" alt="Professional Reader" title="Professional Reader"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/ef856e6ce35e6d2d729539aa1808a5fb4326a415" width="80" height="80" alt="Reviews Published" title="Reviews Published"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/c566f42be23a0e25d120e78a3454e2d427c4beee" width="80" height="80" alt="50 Book Reviews" title="50 Book Reviews"/>.

Wonderful thriller!
I enjoyed this book. I will definitely pick up more by this author. Thanks to publisher and NetGalley for this wonderful ARC.

This book appealed to me initially as Whitby is my home town. Obviously to anyone who has visited, the star of this book is our town itself (although I am biased)
I feel this book could work well as a stand alone novel yet fits in well with the others in the series.
The escape room setting was something New and I thought it was a great touch.
My one problem, we would never, ever say we were going out in “the old town”; it’s “in town” or “down town” regardless of where you live around Whitby not that any other readers would find an issue with this.

The Yorkshire Murder series reaches book number 6 with The Whitby Murders which is a solid police procedural novel that will appeal to previous readers of the series and those who enjoy easy reads.

Yes the plot is convoluted and some of the characters one dimensional but overall it was an ok read

It’s Goth Weekend in Whitby, a picturesque seaside village which just happens to be the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Louisa Oldroyd and her friends enjoy the festivities by taking part in a Dracula-themed escape room. The foursome makes their way through the puzzles of the escape room and suddenly, inexplicably, Dom stabs Andrea and flees. The other members rush to help her, but the girl bleeds out and dies despite their attempts to staunch the bleeding.

In a neighboring village, Detective Chief Inspector Jim Oldroyd has a demanding job and a complicated relationship with his ex-wife. When his daughter calls from Whitby to tell him she’s just witnessed a murder, his fatherly instincts override his police training, and he rushes to her side. Satisfied Louisa is only shaken and not injured, he takes a closer look at the facts where he finds reason to suspect the solution to the murder isn’t as cut and dried as it seems to be.

Oldroyd and his coworkers join the local police in the investigation and uncover disturbing and contradictory information. The story follows Oldroyd, his daughter, and the remaining members of the group of friends as the investigation proceeds through many a twist and turn.

It’s got all the makings of a good, British mystery and delivers a pleasant read. Here are a few things I want to point out:

Things I Like
Sufficiently complex plot—Enough is going on to keep my interest (and that’s not easy these days.) We have Goth Weekend (see next bullet), an escape room, a murder, an apparent suicide, shady dealings by one and all, and a bit of romance.

Lots of local color—The Whitby Goth Weekend is a new one for me—can’t believe I’ve not heard of this before. I loved the descriptions of the festival, the village, and the other bits of history the author points out along the way. Made me want to read Dracula again—and, more importantly, discovering the Whitby Goth Weekend exists compels me to don my blackest dress for the next one—after the plague is over.

Inobtrusive backstory—The author doesn’t do huge info-dumps. The backstory unfolds in an organic manner most of the time as the mystery progresses. I can’t explain how much I appreciate this!

Things That Need Work
British mysteries often take a leisurely pace, but I felt The Whitby Murders needed some jazzing up. The book would benefit from a good revision to remove repetition. The author is writing in multiple points of view and sometimes goes over the same ground from different perspectives. In my opinion, this slows down the action. It’s a good mystery just the same. And the author clearly differentiates between characters as the POV changes, so I didn’t feel lost or untethered (any more than usual, anyway).

Character development is good—but not great. The characters have a lot going on and the author does a fine job of building each one—BUT with so many characters I needed some specific traits upon which to hang my hat. Efforts were made in this direction, but I can’t say the character development is any more than adequate.

Missed opportunities to write action scenes--Too often, the action is described after the fact in dialogue or narration instead of in a scene in which the event is lived by the characters. This falls into the dreaded realm of Telling-And-Not-Showing. This manifests in a couple of other ways, too, which results in anti-climactic paragraphs and unrealized potential.

I give The Whitby Murders 4 blood spatters out of 5—which is my amusing Gothic way of saying it’s a decent story, well-worth a read. I would recommend it to a friend who enjoys cozy mysteries or British police drama.

This book originally appealed to me as Whitby is one of my favourite places to visit! Whilst reading I was picturing all the places we go too which made me enjoy this book even more!!

The story picks up from the get go! Although for me it was a bit far fetched at times! I liked the setting of the escape room and that we’re being made to believe what we saw in the escape room was one thing but then actually it wasn’t, I thought this was a good base idea.

I didn’t realise that Oldroyd actually appeared in other books around Yorkshire so I now need to read them!!

It’s rare that a thriller keeps me guessing with what’s going to happen next but this one really did surprise me.

A group of friends have travelled to Whitby for the famous Goth festival but things do not quite turn out as planned. A visit to an escape room goes horribly wrong when one of their party is murdered and Louise asks her father DCI Oldroyd for advice. Louise seems to have inherited her father’s instincts as she is sure that all is not as it seems. An enjoyable murder mystery.

This is the first book that I have read by the author but it certainly won't be the last! A fantastic storyline and very well-written. Intriguing characters and I really didn't know who was behind the murders until the very end. The description of the setting was also very well done as Whitby has a huge part of my heart and it made me want to return there! A twisty plot with plenty of entertaining scenes. Will be recommending this to everyone!

Thank you to the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this.

During the Goth festival in Whitby a group of friends visit a Dracula themed escape room that ends in one of the friends stabbing his girlfriend. A crime of passion. With three witnesses. But Louise Oldroyd isn't convinced it's that simple and neither is her father DCI Jim Oldroyd. As the investigation progresses, the more complex the web of deceit appears but Oldroyd is determined to get to the truth...

I was drawn to this book by the plot and the fact that it is set in Whitby, somewhere I'm slightly familiar with. I've not read any of the previous books in this series but I didn't feel that I needed to, it was still easy to follow.

I was immediately hooked by the intricate case and that it was not as simple as it would first appear. I had my suspicions of 'who' but no the 'why' so it was still a very enjoyable read, especially the last 30% when everything started to come together.

I did occasionally feel like there was a lot of detail and extras happening that I was struggling to connect or drew away from the plot. But it ended up being a solution that made sense and didn't feel like it was out of the blue, you start to see the clues that were there throughout the book. I would highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in return for a review.

Was looking forward to this book immensely as a fan of JR Ellis and living close by to Whitby a seaside town in the northeast UK a spot famous for Dracula. It is extremely atmospheric and creepy and the mystery is twisty and difficult to solve. I totally recommend this lovely British mystery with delightful characters.

Though promising I was deeply disappointed in this story. The characters and plot appear to me not credible ( the daughter being involved in the murder investigation). The characters reveal themselves so immature, even the inspector! I wonder how old the author is? I shall not publish this review.

The Whitby Murders - J. R. Ellis

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review thanks to Amazon Publishing and Netgalley.

A murder with three witnesses. But one of them doesn’t believe what she saw…

Halloween, Whitby. DCI Jim Oldroyd’s daughter Louise is in town with friends for a goth festival. But their visit to an escape room ends in bloody murder when one of the group stabs his girlfriend and flees the scene. It’s a crime with three witnesses—but Louise refuses to take what she saw at face value.

The Whitby Murders has an intricate plot with a lot of misdirection. After reading, the Nidderdale Murders (Book 5 in the series) I thought that I would be able to determine the murderer this time, I was wrong!

This is a fast-paced mystery, with a very easy to follow plot. If you are new to the series, there is not much character development as this is done over the series but I don’t think that this detracts from the plot.

Rating 4/5

This is the sixth book in the Yorkshire murder series. Although I have read three others in the series, it isn't necessary to follow what's happening. Louise Oldroyd is in Whitby with four friends for the Whitby Goth weekend. They were wearing costumes as they went to a locked room place. They make it out of the first room into the second, and hear Andrea shout "How dare you!" to her boyfriend Dom. He produces a knife, lunges at her, and runs out the emergency exit. Louise's friend Ben runs to help Andrea as Louise follows Dom and can't see where he disappeared to. They call 911, but Andrea is dead before the police come.

Louise calls her father, DCI Jim Oldroyd, saying that something doesn't seem to be the way it looks.
Oldroyd comes to Whitby with DCS Steph Walker. They go to work with the local Chief, Alice Granger, who trained with Oldroyd and is happy to have their help. Andy, another of Oldroyd's DCS's and Steph's significant other is sent to London to investigate all the players. They find that a sarcophogus in the room next to the locked room is a trick one, and it has Dom's blood in it. The more they investigate, the stranger things seem. Dom sends texts saying he is sorry, and then asking them to meet him. However, when they arrive he runs away. Then Dom appears to commit suicide. When Dom is pulled up from the water, his phone is not on him. Oldroyd must find the truth and protect his daughter before someone else dies.

The book becomes very exciting as we finally find out who killed both Andrea and Dom!

The book had a great opening and then....it was too long, much of the dialogue was tedious and the basic mechanics of the murder kind of obvious to anyone who has read many mysteries.

Great twisted story where DCI Oldroyd has a personal connection which brings him to Whitby to help solve a strange death.
Excellent series of books.

I read this series out of order. So this is book 6. I think it’s worth me going back to the start of the series to get more of a back story. Still worth a read. Think that this for me was a really good read but start at the beginning!

Thanks to #NetGalley the publisher Amazon Publishing UK and the author J R Ellis for providing me with a digital ARC #TheWhitbyMurders in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and not influenced in any way. This is the first book by J R Ellis that I have read and I look forward to reading more by this author. This book is the 6th in a series and we follow DCI Oldroyd to Whitby where his daughter and her friends are in an Escape Room and see one of their group murdered. This book comes highly recommended.

The Whitby Murders by J. R. Ellis. Yorkshire Murder Mystery #6. Amazon Publishing UK, 2021.

Friday evening plans for Louise and her London friends, in Whitby for Goth Weekend, include dressing in Dracula-related costumes and solving escape room puzzles. When one runs off after stabbing his girlfriend in front of the others, she asks her DCI father to help.

This book is my first experience with the DCI Oldfield and the Yorkshire Murder series, perhaps why I found character development insufficient to really get to know and engage with any of them. At times I found the writing awkward.

Overall, I enjoyed the story. The Whitby location and Goth Weekend setting is perfect and well described. The plot’s red herrings fooled me along the way to an ending that I did not see coming.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of The Whitby Murders for free via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. #TheWhitbyMurders #NetGalley