THE KNAPDALE MURDERS by Daniel Sellers

4* Good red herrings in a tale with multiple characters, any number of which could've killed the awful Ellen. 

Ellen seems to be a very twisted Hyacinth Bucket-type character; keeping tabs on everyone and their - in her eyes, misdemeanours - making threats; interfering in their business; reporting them; spreading rumours and more. We don't fully learn what motivates her, as she's killed in the first few pages. She seems to have been a half-decent sleuth, with a very unchristian heart, sadly. Did she deserve her ending? For most of the tale I thought she did, but when the killer was revealed, perhaps Ellen had been trying to do a form of...not quite good, maybe, but the right thing? I mean, she'd have still had an ego boost out of it had she succeeded in unmasking the killer, but some people got the closure they needed after far too many years. 

The characters in this were decent as was most of the police work. I'm not sure that some of the police should've been on the case given their connections with Ellen, but they did offer decent insight and knowledge. Pretty much every character potentially had been wronged by Ellen, who seemed to have some kind of personality disorder but also a massive superiority complex and arrogance to match. She never had a kind word for anyone, never seemed to enjoy small-village life, just liked to watch, snoop, make notes and keep a revenge diary. 

The killer was twisted and their motivation about past actions wasn't revealed, although it's clear why they went after Ellen. I suspect there was a 'by proxy' element to their mindset, on top of what felt like enjoyment, too. They were worse than Ellen, for sure, but I'm not sure how they got away with things for so long, especially when people had spoken up. 

In the end, I was about 80% sold on the killer, but how their nearest and dearest hadn't had the moral courage to do the right thing, was a tad unbelievable. Unless, they were about to when said killer did something unforgiveable...? 

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Boldwood Books for my reading pleasure. 

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