BLOODY HAM

Mystery & Thrillers

By Brian Kavanagh

Publisher : BeWrite Books

ABOUT Brian Kavanagh

Brian Kavanagh
Brian Kavanagh has many years’ experience in the Australian Film
 Industry in areas of production, direction, editing and writing. His
 editing credits include The Chant Of Jimmie Blacksmith, Odd
 Angry Shot, The Devil's Playground, Long Weekend, Sex Is A
 Four-Le More...

Description

Book Three in Belinda Lawrence Amatuer Sleuth mystery series.

Lights! Camera! Murder!

A rollicking puzzle and a turmoil of personal relationships, some happy, some doomed, some downright evil.

On returning home to Bath from Australia after meeting with an old boyfriend, Brad, Belinda Lawrence agrees to join Hazel Whitby and her film editor boyfriend, Tim on location for a film to be made at the historic Jacobean mansion, Ham House in Surrey.

Excitement and tension begin on the first day of filming the Restoration drama when one of the leading players collapses and dies.

Mystery and tension increase as suspicion falls on:

Gio, the film's director who is desperate for a hit film to save his sagging career.

The producer the wealthy and enigmatic Frenchman, Nicolas Le Sueur.

His new wife, Clarissa Caine who is playing the part of Bess the wicked Duchess of Lauderdale.

Bernie Bostan, a starlet’s jealous husband, already under suspicion of a previous murder in Hollywood.

Sir Noel, the theatrical knight with a secret life.

Award winning Hollywood star, Monica Page, is brought in to replace the dead actor. Belinda is employed as a stand-in for Monica and when another member of the crew is found stabbed to death, suspicion fall on Belinda and she is forced to prove her innocence!

The third adventure for Belinda and Hazel continuing the pace and humour that readers have come to acknowledge.


**** ½ An Interesting Setting with Entertaining Characters. Recommended.
Review by Douglas Quinn, Author of Blue Heron Marsh, etal www.douglasquinn.com
For those who like an old-fashioned British mystery, rife with night scenes on the Thames, a Jacobean mansion, quirky, entertaining characters and a cutting wit, Bloody Ham is for you.
Kavanagh uses his insider knowledge of the film industry to bring Hollywood to London, with all the big screen politics, film star egos, sexual affairs and (literally) back-stabbing during the creation of an English period piece.
Into this mix comes Belinda Lawrence and her cantankerous friend, Hazel Whitby. Hazel is leasing period silverware to the production company and Belinda gets enlisted as a stand-in for the female lead. Two murders occur on set and Belinda, Hazel and their men friends work, sometimes together, sometimes at odds with one another, to solve the mystery. As an interesting side story, Belinda brings her own personal love interests into the mix. Will she go with the freewheeling Australian, Brad, or her long time, proper, British gentleman, Mark?
 
I liked the fact that, while one of the murders was solved, the other death (Was it a murder?) was left unresolved. Did someone else get away with something sinister? That is left up to the reader to determine.
I would have given this five stars if I wasn’t nonplused by one of the character’s blabbing to Belinda about her witnessing one of the murders. In my mind, I couldn’t justify the reason except as a device to set up the ending. I wish the author would have come up with a more clever way of leading Belinda to the solution of the mystery.
 
Bloody Ham is the third book in the Belinda Lawrence series. It is an interesting setting with entertaining characters and I recommend it to all those who like a good solid mystery story. To find out more about the author and his work, visit www.beekayvic.tripod.com.