The Seaside Murders

 The Seaside Murders

Reviewed By  Janet Mawdesley       May 13, 2025

 

Author  Helena Dixon

Distributor:      Amazon
ISBN:                 9781836188575 Kindle Edition
Publisher:         Bookouture
Release Date:   30 April 2025  

   Website:   https://www.amazon.com/Seaside-Murders-completely-unputdownable-Detective-ebook/dp/B0DW4JNLP6

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Having read many of Helena Dixon’s Miss Underhay Murder series I was interested to discover book two in the new series The Secret Detective Agency, The Seaside Murders.

Slow to begin, with the timeline set in 1941, once the characters are introduced and the plot begins to be constructed, it is extremely easy to become immersed into the clandestine world of one of the many secretive divisions of the British Government during World War II.

Jane Treen is a young woman of character who works undercover to solve anomalies that do occur during times of war. When summoned to Brigadier Remmington-Blythe’s office, she is given the task of discovering why a man’s naked body appears to have been washed up on the beach, near to her family home of Ashbourne Village.

She reluctantly accepts the assignment. When she discovers she will be working with Arthur Cilento and his manservant Benson, she is relieved to be working with them again. She has undertaken clandestine work with them before, successfully.

But there is more involved in the situation just a than a dead man, an Italian prisoner of war, there is also the appalling issue of black-market racketeering in the area that is progressively getting worse.

Neither Jane or Arthur is particularly happy about the ‘special mission’ but it is only a matter of days after their arrival at Ashbourne House, when they realise that they are up against a well organised group of ‘smugglers’ and that indeed murder has been committed.

Are the two events connected and if so how, create an interesting storyline in the Helena Dixon style of Mystery Murders.

It will be interesting to see how this new series evolves in book three as Jane and Arthur develop their reputations for solving dangerously challenging issues within the constraints of secrecy and war.

Fiction, General