- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; New edition edition (6 Aug 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0002740745
- ISBN-13: 978-0002740746
- Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 44,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Murder at the Altar: Ellie Quicke Series, Book 1
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
From ‘Publishers Weekly’, 23/10/00: Returning to adult crime after many years, Heley introduces loveable widow Ellie Quicke in the first of what one can only hope will be a long series… Heley's keen observations and insights into her characters create a rich atmosphere of the social life in an English town… Combining sparkling wit and humor, quirky acts of fate and a dramatic ending, Heley provides all one needs for a satisfying read, except perhaps a cozy chair, a cup of tea and some chocolate biscuits.
Product Description
The first in a series of Ellie Quicke Mysteries, based in a church setting, and featuring a recently widowed woman who finds herself to be something of a sleuth.
Ellie is struggling to re-establish her place in life after the recent death of her husband. For years she has been there at his beck and call, and now she's alone she begins to wonder what life will hold for her.
As she begins to come to terms with her circumstances a brutal murder takes place in the church opposite. Is this something to do with the arguing couple next door? Or are the police as mistaken in their enquiries as she suspects? Ellie's mind is fogged by sleeping pills, but she is sure she saw something important that night. In the meantime, her relatives are vying their share of her husband's will and more than one potential suitor is already on the scene.
Ellie begins to weigh up the strange goings-on in the neighbourhood. The boy next door seems to know more than he is saying. The murder victim's mother is missing. And something is happening to Ellie. Someone more astute and capable is emerging from beneath her unassuming sweetness. Perhaps there is more to her than people imagine after all. But soon her own life is under threat.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Veronica Heley is the author of numerous novels, here, unusually she has turned her pen to adult crime. The engaging central character is Ellie Quicke, a lady struggling to re-establish her life after her husband`s death. Meanwhile a brutal murder takes place in the church opposite. The police suspect a neighbour.Ellie is not sure that she saw anything that night and she is anyway enveloped in her own troubles. A key theme is the way Ellie learns to become more astute and capable. A great strength of the book is the way the author draws out the personality and inner life of the main character. The various strands of the plot are well handled, the tension and suspense maintained to the end. Heley writes simply but with descriptive talent and a measure of humour. An enjoyable read.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Whilst Ellie Quicke is a very homely character and her emergence from the grief of her husband's recent death is well described, as are her domineering daughter and dreadful aunt by marriage, other parts of the plot are less convincing.
I found the story too thinly written and felt I needed to know more that I was being told. The 'errand boy' was particularly irritating. Detail was sketchy at times, and I wanted to get to the end of the mystery before Ellie took me there.
I'm really not sure that I will read the second book in the series but then she can only get better.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Ellie Quicke is struggling with the after effects of her husband's untimely death. Several people think this is a chance for them to step in and control her life including her daughter Diana and her Aunt Drusilla. But Ellie is her own woman and won't be browbeaten. A young man has been murdered and his body left in the church. Curiosity about who the murderer is stirs her out of her torpor and she determines to find out especially when her neighbour Kate seems to be involved. Things get dangerous when Kate's car is blwon up. Was the inetended victim Kate or Ellie?
The characters are well drawn and believable and the plot interesting. There are serious issues involved - not least how Ellie is to deal with her domineering relatives so that she does not become eveyone's doormat.
The first in the series.
The characters are well drawn and believable and the plot interesting. There are serious issues involved - not least how Ellie is to deal with her domineering relatives so that she does not become eveyone's doormat.
The first in the series.
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