I have just reviewed Date With Evil by Julia Chapman as an advanced reader copy thanks to @PanMcMillan and @NetGalley. I have a confession to make before I start this review – I love Bruncliffe and all its inhabitants, I was itching to get back to the town. Something would have had to go dreadfully wrong with Ms Chapman to get a bad review on this title. It didn’t - she’s only got better. Bruncliffe is the type of place I would love to live, if only they’d have me. Chapman has created a superb cast of characters with all the domestic gossip, rivalries, fallings-out and community spirit anyone who grew up in a small town will love and recognise. Since Samson O’Brien started the Dales Detective Agency in the downstairs office of Delilah Metcalfe’s Dales Dating Agency, the calibre of drama has gone up a notch. The pair have become embroiled in several cases that put them smack bang in the path of danger and in a ‘will-they, won’t-they’ relationship. It’s hard to know which crackles with energy more, the various explosions and fires or their chemistry. We left the town at the end of the last instalment with Samson’s name cleared and (nearly) everyone safe after the entire town was involved in a showdown with corrupt coppers, eastern European mafia and money launderers. However, now Samson is free to return to his job in the Met. Will he leave Deliah and Bruncliffe? And have they rid the town they love from the evil within? Or did the roots go much further? These questions and more are answered in this new book in the series! I very much enjoyed and will continue recommending this series to all who love a cosy crime or indeed as a palette cleanser for those who love more gritty crime. I can’t wait for more! #JuliaChapman #NetGalley #PanMacMillan #DDA

My thanks to Pan Macmillan Pan for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Date with Evil’ by Julia Chapman. This is Book 8 in the highly popular Dales Detective series of mysteries. I designated it as a semi-cosy as it has darker themes than I expect from the usual gentle cosy. As this was my first experience of this series I have no idea if they are all as dark. It opens with Delilah Metcalfe of Bruncliffe’s Dales Detective Agency struggling to meet the mounting demands for the agency’s services. Ida Capstick, the newly appointed member of the investigations team, is distracted by her brother George’s belief that their farm is haunted.

Then the mother of a local estate agent arrives at the offices insisting that her son is missing. Delilah, along with Samson O’Brien, begin to investigate what appears to be a straightforward case little realising that several of their cases are about to collide and enter more sinister territory. No further details to avoid spoilers. Usually I am confident about just jumping into an ongoing mystery series as authors will provide background for readers new to the series. However, in this case I found myself fairly lost given what was clearly extensive character backstories and plot lines that appear to have been carried over from previous books. However, as I kept reading I did get more into the swing of the current story and found it a compelling read. Still, I feel that this is a series that I would advise is best to read from the beginning, which is something that I hope to do in the upcoming months. In terms of ratings, I can imagine that those readers invested in the goings on in Bruncliffe and the Dales Detective Agency it’s a clear winner but it proved a bit of a struggle for me without experience of the earlier books.