December 2019, Jeremy Decoursey, 296 pages, Paperback, Review copy
Book summary
Summer holidays are for relaxing, spending time with friends and
listening to great music. All things that Alice desperately wanted to
do. Instead she was sent to London to work with her Uncle Humphrey, a
world famous private detective. Things start to get interesting when
they’re employed to investigate the mysterious murder of millionaire,
Victor Tymm. Together they start to gather clues before they run out of
time, and the killer can strike again.
Nayu's thoughts
Due to a slight hiccup my end I will have to share my review of the book at a later date, apologies for that. Jeremy has kindly written a guest blog post about his favourite detective books - I like Agatha Christie! None of the others though, which is fine as everyone has different tastes in books. See if you like his picks!
Please excuse the format - Blogger and I are having a few issues.
Author Jeremy DeCoursey’s Top 5
Detective Books
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| Meet Jeremy! |
If you were to have a look through my bookshelves (digital or
physical), you would find many genres of books. I stray towards science fiction
and fantasy, however, I do have a lot of detective novels scattered across the
shelves.
Below are a selection of detective and mystery novels and series which
have inspired me to write I Have a Hunch.
Sherlock Holmes series
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Top of the list, of
course! Although, I must confess I didn’t read the books until the time of the
BBC adaptation of Sherlock. My favourite novel is the Red Headed League. As the
story unfolds you realise that it’s a bigger mystery than you’d ever expect…
I was always aware of the stories, with a Sherlock Holmes film
seemingly on TV every Sunday afternoon while I was growing up. There have been
so many film and TV incarnations of the world-famous detective that I’m often
hard-pressed to pick my favourite. I enjoyed Michael Caine’s comedic portrayal
of in Without A Clue. But, because it was Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock that,
made me pay attention to the books I must choose him. I feel privileged to have
worked on the series with him, and to have my name attached to one of the many
adaptations of Sherlock Holmes.
The Rivers of London series
Ben Aaronovitch
Magic, police, and
mystery, set in London. This series feels like the Harry Potter sequels I hoped
for. I was blown away when I read the first book in the series. Aaronovitch is
able to conjure a realistic form of magic that blends with the real-world in a
truly believable way. Each book expands the world which Aaronovitch has written
and that is something which is very inspiring. With the next book just around
the corner I can’t wait!
I was recommended the novels by the actor, Kobna
Holbrook-Smith, who narrated the audiobooks, and now I often buy the books for
my friends. I heard that the series is going to be adapted for TV; I would absolutely love to
work on that!
Cormoran Strike series
Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling)
At their heart, the Harry Potter
series is written like a mystery series. Especially Chamber of Secrets where
Harry, Ron, and Hermione have to piece together the clues to figure out why the
Chamber was being opened. Part of why I love J. K. Rowling’s writing is that she plants clues throughout the
novel, and series, so that big reveals don’t come completely unexpected. I have recently reread
the entire series and am currently midway through The Deathly Hallows.
Revisiting these books means you can
see exactly where she’s placing the clues along the way.
As soon as I heard that the Cormoran
Strike novels were written by J. K. Rowling, under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, I had
to read them. Once again she has created a world that you can immerse well. There
might not be any magic here, but the story keeps you guessing at each point of
the plot. One of my favourite parts about the entire series is how there are
real-world, recent events which help drive the story.
And Then There Were None
Agatha Christie
The first book of Christie’s I read was the Poirot classic Murder on the
Orient Express, which seems to have the most TV adaptations. I enjoyed the
book, but I felt I didn’t connect to the lead detective Poirot. This was not
because it was poorly written or an uninteresting mystery, but because I think
I was expecting too much! It was almost overhyped as a classic murder mystery.
I partly blame the shows I’ve watched which parody the story, it kind of ruins it.
However, that didn’t stop me reading more of Christie’s work. The next one I picked up was And Then There
Were None. I was blown away. The idea of ten strangers on an island all
slowly getting picked off one by one, in the same way described by a poem is so
so simple yet extremely clever. From the first death you know that the
countdown is on until all the remains is the murderer and the last victim. To
try and figure it out as the characters do, and to be mislead again
and again is what makes Christie such
a great writer.
Lemony Snickett’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
This might be a strange choice for a
selection of detective novels as it doesn’t necessarily have a detective in the lead. However,
it does have a core mystery running throughout the entire series – who are the VFD and how did Baudelaire children’s parents die?
Growing up as a Harry Potter fan, I
saw the Series of Unfortunate Events series as a weird copy. (I think this was
because on the covers, Klaus wore glasses so they must be similar, right?). So,
having seen the film, with Jim Carrey’s brilliant performance of Count Olaf, I decided to
read the books. I was probably in my early twenties when I read them. The first
few books are very self-contained. But then, in The Ersatz Elevator (the sixth book), the mystery really gets going and the stories start
linking together. Because of the cleverly woven narrative, I have put it on
this list. I love the way these books are written and they definitely inspired
me to write I Have a Hunch.
What are your favourite detective novels? Tweet me at @DeCoursey!
Bio
Jeremy DeCoursey grew up in
Weston-super- Mare. He graduated with a Triple Distinction BTEC in Film
Production, before moving to London to work in the film industry. As a Location
Manager, he has worked on BBC's Sherlock, Star Wars: Rogue One, Paddington, and
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, to name a few!
Besides reading and writing,
Jeremy enjoys watching films, seeing musicals and travelling to far-flung
places. He lives in London and has a kitten named Artemis.
I Have a Hunch is Jeremy’s first novel for teenagers. It’s
about a teenage girl called Alice who is tasked with solving a murder mystery
with her Uncle Humphrey, a world-famous detective in London. I Have a Hunch
is available now in paperback and e-book.
