I love starting out the New Year with a nice, grisly murder, don't you? Especially when it's set in the lovely Devonshire region of England, supplemented with a parallel storyline in which an Elizabethan woman is murdered for much the same reasons as the contemporary woman - poor, friendless souls!Liverpool native Kate Ellis - now working on the 17th novel in the Wesley Peterson series - started out these novels with such verve and supreme storytelling talent I can't imagine how much better her later novels must be. In The Merchant's House a two-year old boy goes missing while playing outside his parents' remote vacation cottage in the English countryside, his distraught mother completely unaware, as she assumed he would be safe in their fenced garden while she got some work done inside the house. By the time she went outside to relax and spend time with her son, he had vanished without a trace, the garden gate still locked, nothing else amiss.Shortly after this crime, an unidentified woman is found brutally murdered along a walking trail, her face cut off in a possible attempt to disguise her identity. She's found with no identification, no purse and only the most minimal personal effects. All they have to go on is the fact she's blonde, of medium build and height, and doesn't match the description of any missing person reports. Who is she and who would kill her with such violence? And why had no one reported her absence?Detective Sgt. Wesley Peterson, recently transferred from London to the small port town of Tradmouth in Devon, is assigned the case of the missing woman. At the same time he's getting settled into his new job, beginning to dig into the evidence and expand the case, he and his wife are experiencing the heartbreak of infertility, his wife's nerves stretched nearly to breaking. With a wife at home living on edge, and a complicated case before him, Wesley's transition from London life to living in a smaller town is not an easy one. One thing in their favor, the fact theirs is an inter-racial marriage - Wesley being black and Pamela white - seems to cause no ripples. Otherwise, Wesley's life is stressful and challenging. Luckily, his personality is even-keeled. Had he a temper things could have been far worse. Instead, he keeps his head, able to separate work life from home.Educated as an archaeologist, Wesley Peterson chose a more lucrative career as a police officer, though much of his heart remained mired in history and digging for artifacts. Fortunately, his good friend Neil, an archaeologist himself, was working on a dig nearby at the time Wesley is settling in to Devon. Given permission to dig on the site of a former merchant's house, between the time the old building is knocked down and the new one erected, Neil has only weeks to work with. He's both amazed and dismayed when he discovers first the skeleton of a young woman and then that of a baby. Because the police must investigate what proved to be 400-year old remains, until it could be determined the presumed murder wasn't a recent one, Neil must hold off digging. In the meanwhile, Ellis gives us snippets of the diary of the merchant himself, explaining what went on in the house, ultimately revealing the truth behind the deaths of the two victims.Ellis weaves the story of the Elizabethan family into the two coinciding contemporary murders with enviable seamlessness. Each is complex and messy, as you'd expect them to be, but at the same time fascinating. Can the truth be figured out within the course of reading the book? Well, I connected enough dots to figure out part of it but I'll admit I didn't solve the case all on my own. There were too many unknown details, rendering the complexity satisfying.I enjoyed this book so much I plan to read the others in the series. I love the complexity of the characters, the multi-layered plots drawing in elements of history/archaeology and Ellis's smooth, flowing writing style. Really, there's nothing here not to love. It's an intelligent mixture of contemporary and historical mystery.A highly-recommended 5-star read.
What do You think about The Merchant's House (1999)?
A decent if not particularly memorable police proceduralThe first in a series.Very likeable characters, good interactions between them, several threads to the story. There is the case of a woman found bashed to death, a missing toddler and an archaeological mystery.I liked that the characters had lives outside of work with interests in hobbies. A few minor quibbles. There are a couple of instances where the detectives seemed to take information given to them and not check it properly. Also found that seemingly unrelated threads all dovetailed neatly into a resolution. Just a little too neat perhaps.These could be flaws of a first novel. That aside the book was enjoyable enough.
—Sunnie
I found this a very enjoyable mystery. Kate Ellis' book featuring a black police detective newly transferred from London to a small town, is a pleasant and easy read, it's perfect for the long commute to and from work. It has all of the characters that you would expect; a close friend from the past, who also happens to be working in this new town, providing the detective with an escape from work and personal stress; the moody wife; the easy-going and attractive new co-worker (perhaps a change of partners in a future book); the buddy boss and the racist co-worker. Kate Ellis intertwines her present day mystery, with an unsolved mystery from the past, with a present day mystery, and ties it all up neatly in the end. Although the characters are fairly fundamental, and you will have solved the mystery before the final denouement, sometimes this type of novel is just what I need for relaxation and pure entertainment. I have no hesitation in adding the next book in the series to my reading list!
—Icewineanne
The Merchant’s House by Kate Ellis is the first book of the Wesley Peterson murder mystery series set in contemporary England with a parallel story in Elizabethan time. Sergeant Wesley Peterson and his wife Pam have just moved from London to Tradmouth, a small port town in Devon (fictitious; loosely based on Dartmouth). His intelligence and tact make him a welcome addition to the Tradmouth force. A nice surprise on his first day at work is to discover his archaeologist friend Neil working a dig in town. Wesley works closely with detective Rachel on the apparent mugging murder of a young woman. Their first challenge is to identify the victim. Meanwhile police in a nearby town are trying to find a missing toddler kidnapped from his home.Neil uncovers centuries-old skeletons at his dig, which was the home of John Banized, Merchant of Tradmouth in 1623. The police must get involved briefly, since one body is of a woman who was strangled. After children vandalize the site, more evidence is uncovered that suggests the woman’s identity.Wesley’s wife Pam is seriously depressed by their so-far unsuccessful efforts to have children, and their relationship suffers. Pam obsessively researches fertility problems on the Internet, and goes to a nearby specialty clinic for tests.As Wesley and Rachel question people who might have known the murder victim, they can tell several are not revealing all they know. Through extensive effort they ultimately link the kidnapping and murder cases.Each chapter begins with an entry from the merchant’s journal, which eventually reveals who is buried in the cellar and why. The author cleverly ties seemingly unrelated plot threads like random building material thefts, the fertility clinic and the merchant’s house dig into the complete resolution of all mysteries. Next book in the series is The Armada Boy.
—Susan
