Cold Pressed by J J Marsh

Cold Pressed by J.J. Marsh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another competent DI Stubbs tale set in a warm country. This time the calm and clever female detective investigates the deaths of women of a certain age onboard a luxury cruise liner criss-crossing the Greek archipelago. As a pure gesture of political goodwill, Beatrice Stubbs, a well-respected Scotland Yard detective, is called in by the Greek authorities to investigate the death of a British eighty-year-old woman, who's fallen off a cliff at a beauty spot in Santorini. Everyone thinks it's a case of death by natural causes, until Beatrice and her young Greek counterpart, DI Stephanakis, start investigating.

Cold Pressed reminded me of Agatha Cristies' novel, Death on the Nile. The novel has the same quality of the luxurious surroundings hiding a raw desire to murder. The author here also has the same eye to detail, some of which turn out to be false and some not so. JJ Marsh keeps the readers guessing right to the moment when the killer(s) is (are) revealed.

But as well as a story about nasty happenings on a luxury cruiser, Cold Pressed is, just as the other Di Stubbs novels, about the complicated personal lives of the two detectives. We learn of the self-doubts of the young, newly promoted, Detective Nikos Stephanakis, and are given very interesting revelations into Beatrice's mind, and her relationship with Matthew, her long-term partner.

I read this book in two days flat, so all I now need is the next Beatrice Stubbs book, please Ms Marsh!



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Book Review: Tread Softly by JJ Marsh

I read Tread Softly by JJ Marsh while on holiday in Provence, and although the book is set in Spain rather than France, the theme of wine and food suited my mood perfectly. This was my first introduction to Beatrice Stubbs, a police detective from the Metropolitan Police, who in Tread Softly is on a sabbatical in Northern Spain, with a plan to sample the regions fine wine and foods.

Beatrice's holiday in Spain is interrupted when an old acquaintance, the young and strikingly beautiful investigate reporter, Ana, asks for her help to track down a missing colleague. Before she can stop herself, Beatrice is knee-deep in intrigue and corruption, and getting into trouble not only with the police in Spain but also with her bosses back in London. 

Tread Softly is a brilliantly executed police drama. The start is quite violent, and I was a little afraid there’d be more scenes like that (The Englishman says I can't watch anyone break as much as a fingernail in police drams on the telly). But I needn’t have worried, because although there are more scenes like the first one, the violence is never gratuitous, or too gory. The character of Beatrice, an older woman with some stress-induced mental health issues, is very well drawn. The reader is often made to feel very worried about Beatrice, and at the same time in awe of her persistent, and intelligent, pursuit of justice.

The story is skilfully paced, with lovely, atmospheric descriptions of the Spanish town of Vitoria, as well as the food and wine Beatrice manages to consume in spite of the intensity of her investigations. After reading Tread Softly, I downloaded the other two detective novels by JJ Marsh, featuring Beatrice Stubbs. I can’t wait to devour them in the same quick manner as I did Tread Softly. 

Tread Softly by JJ Marsh 
is published by Triskele Books
www.triskelebooks.com

£6.99 Paperback

£2.68 Kindle version