Cragside: A DCI Ryan Mystery (The DCI Ryan Mysteries) Paperback – July 7, 2017

This story reminded me of an Agatha Christie type novel and I had fun reading this story. A little different from her past DCI Ryan stories, but still very entertaining.

I didn’t think I would like this story because I didn’t think the usual characters would be involved, and I would miss the. But Ryan and his team are in this story solving murders within murders. I did not suspect the real suspect! Lots of twists to this story!

I've given these books a lot of opportunity to reflect growth and improvement in narrative skills by the author, but it just hasn't happened. I'll cite just two negative aspects here.The first, as at least one other reviewer has observed, is the author's lazy use of "they" as a neutral singular pronoun in order to conceal the gender of the character to which it refers. It causes confusion on the part of the reader and is entirely unnecessary. Example: " . . . he had since learned to appreciate the benefits of having a business partner. Conscious that he was keeping them waiting . . . " All the author had to do was use a few more words, such as "Conscious that he was keeping that partner waiting . . . " This misuse of "they" occurs throughout the books, and I have yet to find one case in which a minor wording change would not take care of it.The second annoying issue, minor as it is, occurs so often that it creates unintended humor. Continuing characters in the stories are frequently startled by the arrival of another character. They spill their drinks, nearly fall of the boulders on which they are sitting, turn suddenly with surprise from tasks that are being given their full attention . . . it goes on and on. But it does nothing to advance the plot. The spilled drink doesn't destroy evidence or documents, no one actually falls off a rock or out of a chair, and it isn't a response attached to a specific character that sets us up for some important action further on. It just happens over and over.Annoyances aside, the stories are well-plotted on the whole. As long as the books are deeply discounted, I will probably go on reading them. But there are many more-skilled authors out there deserving of our attention and our money.

I started at the beginning and am reading my way through the series so obviously I am engaged with it. My reaction to the author is that she is good but not really good enough. These mysteries--some of which are quite gory--somehow miss the mark. Yet, yet, I keep reading.Here is a real annoyance in "Cragside". Ross doesn't want to say "he" or "she" when talking about the murderer early on because that would be a clue. So she uses the hateful "they" as a singular. Please no. Setting aside all political issues, it is endlessly confusing. I kept looking for the other person. I kept noticing it. There are other ways--no less awkward but less annoying--to do this.I also don't know what I think about the arrival of the new Superintendent. Mostly it hit me with dread in "Cragside". We shall see where it goes. But was this necessary?There is also the annoying problem that people are often just too damn stupid to open their mouths and say what's what.

Well, some empathy for at least one of the killers, since there were two different killers in this story. The first one was just a selfish creep. The second one was out to avenge a heinous craime that had occurred years ago, and I must say that I had some empahty for the reasoning there; even though I don't generally support acts of vengence. Ross chooses real places in the UK to stage her plots. Of course she takes some license for the sake of the story, but she also paints a picture that encourages a desire to see the places in person. I wonder if the UK Tourist Board is aware of the service she proides? Be warned--it sounds like book #7--and the last one available until another is published--introduces us to a new psychopathic character. I thought Ross might give up on that kind of character after she killed off two of them in the novel just before this one. I have a feeling this one might be even creepier.

I’m cross posting this review for all 7 books in the series as I read them back-to-back. Detective Chief Inspector Ryan is the star of this series, although there are several fantastic supporting characters as well.The first book introduces you to the main characters, their flaws and strengths, as well as the Northumbrian landscape. This author clearly knows the territory in which her books take place and does a beautiful job of describing each location, so much so, that I’ve put the region on my “must visit” list.Each book is a fast paced journey to find the criminal and bring him or her to justice. They’re sprinkled with the emotional details, trials and tribulations of the characters’ lives, which makes each of them real and believable. I had a very difficult time putting each and every one of these books down and now that I’ve finished the last one, I’m desperate for the next…Typically I receive books for free in exchange for an honest and unbiased review, however this is a verified purchase. See all our reviews at our Book Explosions page on Goodreads.

This is the 6th book I've read by LJ Ross. After our first trip to Northern England, I chanced upon the title Holy Island and had to read it for more on this beautiful and haunting area. Love all the main characters in the books especially Ryan and Anna. Enjoy all the history interspersed with the exciting storylines. Having visited the area, I can picture especially the area around Bamburg Castle. LJ Ross is an excellent and entertaining author. I have to wait to read the next book as I have 3 other books, (real crime, biography and meditation) to read. But I just want to start book 7 in the series-you get hooked right away.

If you read this book’s predecessor, High Force, then you will know that DCI Ryan and his team are long overdue a little bit of a break when it comes to the cases they are caught up in. If you haven’t read it then do not worry, I am not going to let you in on any spoilers, but suffice to say that the tension was high, the threat severe and the action so hearth thumpingly fast that you will be caught somewhere between an absolute desire to read the next instalment immediately and the real need for a moment to catch your breath.Well, for those of us who read High Force some time ago, we’ve had plenty of time to recover and by golly were we ready for Cragside. Was it worth the wait, the anticipation? By heck yes. Of course it was.Cragside is a very clear change in pace from the last book. It is far from being a cosy mystery, don’t worry about that, but compared to the menace and threat we seen before, the tranquility of the setting, a remote and beautiful old estate in the Northumbrian countryside, and even the characters which Ryan and the team come across, couldn’t be more different. Switching from serial killers to landscape gardeners and from gangland kingpins to estate managers, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d wandered into a Miss Marple mystery rather than a DCI Ryan case. Even the suspicious death which occurs whilst Ryan and Anna are attending the Cragside Estate’s staff party seems nothing more than an unfortunate accident. But if everything was that simple this wouldn’t be much of a mystery now would it? Fear not. From the very opening chapter, you know that there is something slightly off kilter about this story and as the action moves on, more and more secrets start to come to the fore and the intrigue grows ever stronger.But enough about that. If you want to know more about the novel then you’re going to have to read it. And trust me. You really want to. This book gives more than just a mystery to solve, it provides more insight into the character’s lives and how they have coped since the tragic ending of High Force. We meet up with them as Anna and Ryan are on the cusp of taking their wedding vows, and as Phillips and Denise are trying hard to find their rhythm again. Denise in particular has a huge mountain to climb and I love the way in which LJ Ross has depicted the tender relationship between her and Phillips. It really is a beautiful thing and enough to soften even the hardest heart. I think that any fans of the series will be more than happy at how things evolve throughout the story. There is even the makings of a new ‘special friendship’ as Lowerson takes new team member Yates under his wing.What I really do love about these books is the way in which the author uses setting almost as a character and to dictate both pace and tone. The grand old house in which this book is set adds a different dimension to the investigation, its peculiarities adding both tension and drama to the story in the most natural of ways. Don’t be fooled by my earlier comment about Miss Marple. There is tension and threat aplenty in this book, enough to keep you on the edge of your seat, and misdirection galore with so many of the characters who could easily be guilty. But guilty of what? That is what you have to work out. The eagle eyed may perhaps guess what but I am certain that you will not necessarily understand who until Ryan slaps you in the face with the evidence.Now I have my own reasons for loving this book, and reading it really did make me smile. While on one hand it looks as though Ryan’s life is finally coming together – his friends are safe and well and he is about to marry the love of his life – LJ Ross has quite skilfully thrown a little curve ball. Straight-at-his-head. It is a twist which I feel may well threaten Ryan’s new life, maybe more. The final chapter will certainly make you sit up straight and curse the fact that you now have to wait another few months to see what happens. Quite what this twist is and why the book made me chuckle at times… Well – go and buy the book, read it, then come back and we can hypothesize about what the ending meant together. Go on. You know you want to.

LJ Ross's books have an undeniable feel good energy about them and fans of her work will find plenty of the usual here: familiar situations gleened from detective fiction standards, her quirky use of proceedural details from American TV cop shows in a British setting, and of course the lashings of romance folded through, which changes the balance of these books from pure crime. Location is important too, the local details, the feel of it all - cosy, beautiful and bracing.Still, a polite 'buyer beware' is needed for new readers. If you have read a lot of crime fiction, these books are unlikely to satisfy. The procedural details are often inaccurate (that is 'wrong', not just telescoped to fit a fictional story), and the crimes and characters often feel like a context for the handsome detective Ryan to move from one lovely lcoation to another with the gorgeous Anna. This pleases many, it will turn off many too.The other feature of these works that any reviewer should warn about is that the writing appears to be unedited and is sometimes very slapdash. This obviously doesn't worry the legions of fans, but it will put off a great many readers for whom writing quality is important.One of the problems is the overuse of adjectives and strange clumps of abundant and unnecessary detail, which self published authors, who knock out a lot of books a year, sometimes employ to lenghten the story to "book length". This stuff is everywhere in Cragside. It isn't a long book, but it could be a third shorter than it is without losing the narrative chain. Worse, the author sometimes misuses words, confusing "glisten" and "gleam" more than once for example. If she can't, or can't be bothered, to use words accurately, for many readers it will call into question the entire book. There are many fine writers who use simple, accessible language and pay their readers the respect of using their words with basic precision. LJ Ross sadly doesn't always do this.There's also a massive clunk factor. "It was a well know fact that killers often returned to the scenes of their crimes, especially if they were looking for something they'd lost." Or "Ryan had been trained to observe body language." Right before Ryan observes some very obvious body language that anyone could read. Here is our hero discussing evidence with a colleague: "...indvidually it may be flimsy, but, collectively, we might be able to put something together that'll hold up." All this feels like by the numbers writing without any knowledge, intelligence or feeling behind it, essentially just banal filler.It looks like the LJ Ross train is unstoppable now and she's done incredibly well to establish such a successful fiction franchise built on her adoring fans. She could probably reach even more people if she employed some professional editors to help shape her work and clean up her poor use of English as well as some police consultants to give the investigative side some more depth.I suspect readers will know pretty quickly if Cragiside is for them. If you don't notice the clunk, get stuck into the LJ magic.

If you have not yet read any of the previous books by L.J. Ross and you enjoy an Agatha Christie style murder mystery then you will enjoy this novel. If, however, you have read other books in the DCI Ryan series, then you may find this book a surprise.Like the previous novels in the series, this story is set in Northumberland. The familiar cast of police characters are present, but a number of them are recovering from horrific ordeals covered in the previous book, High Force. It is not essential to have read the previous novels to enjoy this one, but it helps as the story focuses, in part, on the continuing development of personal relationships of a number of the members of the police team.In terms of the central plot, virtually all the action takes place in and around Cragside, a Victorian mansion set within a large and secluded estate. As with the other books in the series, the location provides the atmospheric setting for the crime, and it works well on the whole. Coupled with this are humour and romance ... and a hint of something possibly a little more sinister for future stories following the introduction of a number of new characters, one of whom has links with DCI Ryan’s past.So why have I not rated it five stars? I felt the pace of the story was slower than in previous novels (which may have been intentional but also may have been due to setting the story among a small, close-knit community, limiting the number of characters the author has to work with). In addition, a sense of threat and menace, so apparent in previous stories, struck me as somewhat lacking in this one.Overall however, this is still an engrossing murder mystery story and a little different from those that have preceded it in the series.

Although I've thoroughly enjoyed the previous five books in the DCI Ryan series, this one didn't quite have the same tension and drama as the others. This I think was probably due to the fact that the evil Hacker who had pursued Ryan and his team for so long had finally been dispatched. That's not saying that the plot in Cragside wasn't good, it just didn't have that 'wow' factor.Denise is finally back in the fold after her traumatic experience in the previous book, but she is still on very shaky ground with her health. Thank goodness for Frank who is a rock to everyone it seems.There are three murders that all seem to be linked, but the last is due to an entirely different scenario and linked to a tragedy that happened 40 odd years previously. Also on the horizon is a new boss for Ryan whom he has had previous dealings with and which didn't have a happy ending. It seems as though she intends to do all she can to destroy him. More of that in the next book.I've never been to Northumberland, but the descriptions of the county make it very real indeed. It sounds beautiful.Despite my small misgivings about this book, I look forward very much to reading Dark Skies.

I'm not sure why I continue to read this series. The culprit is plucked from thin air. Right at the start of the book somebody is murdered and there seems virtually no evidence to pin it on the guilty party. The guilty party is presented as a piece of work yet we know that they didn't want to hurt the second victim. To conceal the identity of the guilty party the author uses "they" as I have just done, which implies a conspiracy that doesn't exist. I didn't recognise the descriptions of the scenery despite visiting Cragside when I was reading the book.