Betty Church & The Suffolk Vampire - M.R.C. Kasasian

Publisher's Blurb

Brilliant new series from the author of The Mangle Street Murders, perfect for readers of Agatha Christie, Jasper Fforde and M.C. Beaton.
September 1939.

A new day dawns in Sackwater, not that this sleepy backwater is taking much notice...

Inspector Betty Church – one of the few female officers on the force – has arrived from London to fill a vacancy at Sackwater police station. But Betty isn't new here. This is the place she grew up. The place she thought she'd left behind for good.
 
Time ticks slowly in Sackwater, and crime is of a decidedly lighter shade. Having solved the case of the missing buttons, Betty's called to the train station to investigate a missing bench. But though there's no bench, there is a body. A smartly dressed man, murdered in broad daylight, with two distinctive puncture wounds in his throat.
 
While the locals gossip about the Suffolk Vampire, Betty Church readies herself to hunt a dangerous killer.

Review - 4 Stars

This is the first title I've read by this author and is the first novel in a spin off series from their  Gower Street Detective Series.

Betty Church is invalided out to the sleepy village of Sackwater where she grew up following an incident in which she lost her hand whilst on a case with the Metropolitan police.

The village is populated with a collection of eccentric and comical characters which includes the various members of the Suffolk constabulary.

The book reminds me of the style used in the Lestrade novels by M.J.Trow which I read many years ago and compares very favourably.

If you like quirky characters and puns then this is the ideal book to keep you entertained. The whodunit keeps you guessing right to the very end and it is written in a flowing style that allows you to lose yourself in the story

All in all this was a very entertaining humorous murder mystery