From the creator of Broadchurch, which I loved, “Death at The White Hart” is similar in some ways. It is a compelling read, if not a bit predictable.

When a dead body is found in the middle of a road, tied to a chair with a set of antlers attached to his head, Detective Nicola Bridge is on the case. Having just moved to this small town hoping for a quieter environment, she was surprised to find herself on a homicide case with little staff and a close knit town who isn’t talking. Everyone is a bit shady and suspect and Nicola has her work cut out for her.

With plenty of intrigue and some interesting characters, this book is engaging but pretty far-fetched. I enjoyed Nicola’s character and I’m hoping for a sequel with her in it.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Viking for the eARC.

If you ever thought Broadchurch would make a good novel, this is the book for you. A small, rural community where everyone knows each other, a seasoned cop who hails from the area but has built a brilliant career in a large city, a cast of characters with secrets… it’s all here. This time, the experienced police officer is Nicola. She’s trying to rebuild her life with a crappy husband and a very likable older son. When moving back form Liverpool she expected to be bored and couldn’t imagine how she’d get to investigate a murdered pub owner wearing antlers in what looks like a macabre ritual. I really loved the chemistry between the two cops, Nicola and rookie Harry, who is trying to impress her. The suspects, through, are as unlikable as they come, which I guess is reasonable considering one of them is a murderer, but made it hard to root for anyone other than Nicola and her team (it always adds to the plot when you are hoping someone gets away with something). Chibnall is a solid writer, and it shows, but I like it when we readers can figure things out on our own and this is not that type of book. There were enough clues throughout the novel, but we were not privy to Nicola’s thought process that allows her to zero in on her culprit. So it was enjoyable and fun just not as groundbreaking as I expected from such a talented author.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/PENGUIN GROUP Viking Penguin | Pamela Dorman Books.

A staged dead body kicks off this twisty mystery. The middle of the night, a dead man tied to a chair in the middle of a deserted road, with stag’s antlers on his head. Detective Nicola Bridge must sift through those who hated him, whose who professed to love him and the ancient mysterious murders of this small village. Detective Bridge has returned to her village of Fleetcombe after years away in Liverpool. It’s supposed to be easier here with time to work on her marriage, but nothing is easy and people are complicated, including herself.
Fantastic mystery, very visual. I really grew to like Nicola and DC Harry Ward.


Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for this DRC.
#DeathattheWhiteHart #NetGalley

Death at the White Hart is the debut novel by Chris Chibnall, the writer and creator behind the well-known and enjoyed TV crime drama Broadchurch. For those who are familiar with Broadchurch, I imagine this will be a very enjoyable piece of writing. Jim Tiernan, the landlord of the local pub, The White Hart, is found murdered, his corpse strapped to a chair and left in the middle of a busy road, with a set of stag antlers attached to his head. It's a shocking crime for the small town, but it echos similar murders from the past of the town. There is a varied cast of characters and narrators, each slowly revealing more about how they know Jim and where they were on the night of his death. Our main protagonists are the investigators looking into the murder, Detective Nicola Bridge and her partner Harry Ward. Nicola has just relocated to her childhood home after many years in Liverpool with her husband and teenage son, and this murder is not what she was expecting in the small town.
The writing and plotting are well done but clearly written to be adapted for television or film purposes, with some chapters so short they almost felt like stage directions. Overall, I very much enjoyed this book from start to finish and witnessing how Nicola and Harry work their way through the cast of characters and piece the clues together to make the final reveal of who is guilty of the murder. The information they use is all available to the reader, but the way they skillfully put it all together and reveal to the reader who the murderer it was very well done, and in my opinion not at all easily guessed at. That said, the final reveal was logical and made sense in the overall context of the book, which for me is always a plus.
Thank you to Pamela Dorman Books and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

"...Deakins kept going. 'I know what my grandfather would say if he were alive: devil never disappears; he only rests.'"

Super excited to score an ARC of #deathatthewhitehart. It was a very good police procedural. I appreciated the sense of place as well as the challenges Detective Sergeant Nicola Bridge faces in her new role, with new colleagues, in a new place with her family almost broken in two. The opener is a doozy! Highly recommend!

P.S. Thanks to #netgalley for the ARC.

Nicola was in a bind. She'd been hired as the Detective Sergeant for the Wessex police department, which had morphed into all of Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall. She had been promised a full staff, but only got two detectives-one of them not field trained. Even the new police building was way behind being built and she and her small crew were shoe-horned into a vacant bank building. One of her detectives, Mel, refused to go out in the field but was very comfortable with archival and technological evidence. Harry, the other, hired as a "life experience" applicant, was untested and Nicola had no time to babysit him. That he was easy on the eyes certainly didn't help her tenuous marriage situation. But none of that mattered now-her new job was on the line, and she'd better get to it..

For whatever the reason Nicola Bridge decided to give up her big city career in Liverpool to take a detective job in Devon, she was sorely needed now. One night, a man driving on a country road overlooking the coastline, lost control of his car and hit something. Not a deer, but it had antlers on its head and was tied to a chair in the middle of the road. Called to the scene around 4am, she was met by the regular police who had secured the area. By his morbidity and wounds, it was easy to determine that the victim did not die there, but had been moved to the road. When Nicola asked if anything on the body could help ID the man in the chair, the police answered, formally no, but we already know who he is.

The victim, Jim Tiernan, ran the local pub, the White Hart, and had brought it back from moribund to a growing concern. One of the two pubs in the village, the White Hart was the more traditional, while the Fox served upscale food and catered to tourists. There was a bitter rivalry between them for the scant euros to be made. Did Tiernan's troubles revolve around cash flow problems, his womanizing ways, or something more sinister? And why did this murder invoke the killings of 1925, when three townsfolk were found dead in the road, bound in chairs, with antlers tied around their heads.

Chibnall, author of the novel and British TV series, Broadchurch, nails the gloomy, desperate atmosphere of the West Country and its local characters. Finding out who the killer is takes second place to the way the village personalities interact and attempt to evade justice. Will Nicola and her detectives find the answers to this quandary...brew a cuppa and find out.

A dead body is found in the middle of the road in a Dorset coastal community. The victim has been tied to a chair, with stag antlers attached to his head. Detective Nicola Bridge has just transferred here, her hometown, from Liverpool. Thinking this will be a quiet location, she finds herself immediately coping with a homicide, few support staff, and many suspects.

From the creator of Broadchurch, this has some of the same, small village quirkiness as the TV show. Well plotted, it is an engrossing, suspenseful read; entertaining, with a bit of humor. There are colorful characters, red herrings, twists, and turns. I like Nicola, a capable individual dealing with personal issues while doing her best at her job. I also like Harry, her younger, less experienced partner who proves to be adept.

I hope this will become a book series by Chibnall and perhaps optioned for TV as well.

This book reminded me a lot of the TV show "Midsomer Murders" -- the novel is a police procedural about the search for the killer of a publican who is found murdered and tied to a chair with antlers on his head. The primary detective Nicola recently moved back to the small town where she grew up, where she is partnered with a younger detective. There are some personal issues in Nicola's past which come to light during the investigation. Lots of interesting characters and suspects, and the actual killer was a big surprise.

Death at the White Hart is a captivating, twist-filled mystery set in the picturesque yet sinister village of Fleetcombe. When Jim Tiernan, the beloved pub owner, is found dead in a gruesome and symbolic manner, Detective Nicola Bridge must return to her hometown, where the familiar faces she once knew are now shrouded in suspicion. With her partner, DC Harry Ward, Nicola digs into the town’s darkest secrets, uncovering lies, betrayals, and long-buried truths. Chris Chibnall delivers a chilling blend of suspense and psychological tension, making this a must-read for fans of atmospheric crime novels where the line between idyllic and dangerous is razor-thin.

Death at the White Hart is a new book by the award-winning creator of Broadchurch! I immediately began reading this well-crafted and mesmerizing detective story. The publican of the White Hart is found dead in a gruesome manner in this small seaside village in England. Detective Nicola Bridge returns to her hometown and is tasked happily with this complex case, despite experiencing marital difficulties. Her DC is ten years younger and he is more skilled than Nicola initially believes. This is a fast moving book with many characters and moving parts. The characters feel real enough to jump off the page, and Chibnall knows how to tell a story. If it is adapted to TV I will be there watching. Follow the thrilling twists and turns. With thanks to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Viking Penguin for this ARC. My opinions are my own.

After the phenomenal Broadchurch, this author had some high expectations to meet with new work. Those expectations were exceeded for this reader!

You're gripped from the first chapter, as an utterly gruesome and very weird murder unfolds in an idyllic English village. The detective in charge of the investigation is flawed but brilliant, her protegee by turns charming and reluctant, and the village full of quirky folks, including a tough but vulnerable child who is key to the whole mystery. I was reminded of Martha Grimes' Emily Louise Perk, one of my all-time favorite child characters.

The action moves at a fast pace, with chapters and sections just the right length to keep the reader engaged. Chibnall has mastered the craft of suspense, building tension with every sentence, leading up to the startling conclusion.

Fans of Anne Cleeves and Val McDermid will thoroughly enjoy this one.

While the story was interesting I found the language stilted at best. I didn’t enjoy the way the author had the protagonist speak as if breaking the wall in a play. I found it uneven.

A shocking murder scene has been discovered in a small village. The victim, a local business owner, was well known and liked in the close-knit community. Having grown up in the area, the detective assigned to the case has come back and is dealing with her own personal domestic problems. With the help of her very green DC, they are determined to find who is responsible. This proves to be a challenge when they discover many of the village residents have secrets they would do just about anything for to keep hidden.

Way to go Chris Chibnall! If you loved Broadchurch, like so many of us did, this is one not to be missed. Death at the White Hart is suspenseful and fast paced with short chapters that will have you losing all track of time. With likable characters and a satisfying, believable ending, I can only hope this is the first in a new series. I will definitely be keeping my eyes and ears open for the next one. Fingers crossed!

Many thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Viking Penguin for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was everything I wanted from detective fiction! An interesting setting, realistic characters, sympathetic main characters with interesting emotional and intellectual lives and a mystery that rolls out in a satisfying and believable way. I will be looking for other titles by this author, especially with these characters.

Death at the White Hart is a thrilling murder mystery written by Chris Chibnall, the mastermind behind Broadchurch. It follows the story of a female detective (whose voice I heard in my head as Olivia Coleman) and a newbie detective who must solve a murder of a pub owner in a small English village. The small-town secrets and the impact of a murder on a close-knit community are the hallmarks of perfect British cozy murder fiction. Fans of this type of story will enjoy the quick paced short chapters that made me hope for a book two some day with these same characters.

Thank you to Penguin Group-Viking Penguin for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.