Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

I had previously read all the Sidney Grice novels but was unfamiliar with Betty Church. The Grice novels are compelling and often humorous but quite dark in parts and not the cosy mysteries I had originally anticipated. I had forgotten just how well the author writes and how meticulously the plots are constructed. I like Betty a great deal, the cast of characters is fascinating and I loved being back in that time and place again.

In 1914 Betty Church’s best friend Etterly Utter goes missing. The last place she was seen was near the King’s Oak, somewhere which will forever be associated with her disappearance. It is a mystery that will remain for many years, lending a supernatural air to the old hollow oak. But when a skeleton with a necklace belonging to Etterly is discovered near Sackwater, Betty, now Inspector Church, is soon back on a case which she had attempted, and failed, to solve nearly 26 years ago.
I have to admit I was initially disappointed in this entry in the Betty Church series because it was set in 1914. I found Betty irritating at this age and didn’t really manage to properly engage with her everyday life, although well written and with a sense of solid historical accuracies. I had grown used to the ragbag group of Sackwater police officers and wanted more of the same.
So I regrouped by buying the audiobook, because Emma Gregory’s superb narration really brings Betty’s world to life for me.
This time it was a solid sit down to the finish through a really well-crafted murder mystery; and a lesson to me as a reviewer to clear my head of preconceptions and absorb what’s in front of me, not to judge the story by what I think I should expect.
Once Etterly disappeared the narrative really took off and I began, once again, to appreciate M.RC. Kasasian’s storytelling acumen.
Betty as a child is a very different prospect to Betty as a police inspector. That she has a long way to go makes for an interesting encounter with the local police sergeant when he questions her over Etterly’s disappearance. It is both hilarious and excruciating as the young naïve Betty allows the sergeant to steer her innocent answers into incriminating territory. But this is one of the talents of Kasasian as a storyteller. He somehow manages to run outrageous, sometimes slapstick humour, alongside the sinister and unpleasant.
Those characters who could be a figure of fun, the eccentric First World War shattered Superintendent Vesty, for example, are a way to really bringing home how ordinary people’s involvement in world events carved physically and emotionally into an entire generation and that the same looked about to happen all over again.
This is cozy crime Agatha Christie style with something deeply disturbing rippling along beneath the outward respectability, gentility and buffoonery.
Once in 1940, the plot hots up even further as the skeleton is found, providing numerous twists and turns, as well as the opportunity for Betty to show her ingenuity and that the very dotty police constable ‘Dodo’ Chivers may not be as daft as she appears.
The Ghost Tree plunges Betty into a very dark world which challenges her need to make a bad world right. Given that this is only the beginning of the Second World War, which has already begun to make itself felt on the quiet and unassuming Sackwater, future Betty Church novels promise to be very interesting.

I need to start this review saying I'm a huge fan of the authors Gower Street Detective Series. Almost to the point of resenting the beginning of this series as it meant no new London adventures with the characters I'd grown to love. This book is the third in a series, I've read the first which I enjoyed but not enough to seek out the second but after finishing this chapter of the series I intend to seek it out as I want to continue with the series and make sure I haven't missed anything important going forward.

This book is set in two timelines, the first where you are back in Betty's past when she was a child and her memories of her best friend suddenly disappearing and the second set present day 1940 when a young girls skeleton is discovered. As the story unravels you follow Betty as she joins the dots in this detective story as you are as eager as she is to find out what happened. The story itself had enough twists and turns to keep my attention and there are clues throughout with all the strands of the story tied up at the end with a thoroughly satisfying conclusion.

The great joy of reading books like this is it really does give you a feel of real life then. How people really were, how they spoke, how they acted. Some of it is heart-breaking but what Mr Kasasian really does excel at is having sadness and humour intertwined so it can be an emotional reading some aspects as we know historically what is coming next.

To truly enjoy this book I believe reading at least the first in the series would be beneficial although not essential to enjoying it. You get a background of Bettys arrival in Sackwater and the relationships she has with the other police officers and the people in the village all still getting used to a female police inspector. I would also recommend the Gower Street Detective Series as it then opens up a full history and it makes the cameos in the book ever so more special.

Although The Ghost Tree makes reference to events in the previous book, I believe it can still be enjoyed as a standalone or read out of sequence, as I did.

The Ghost Tree features the author’s trademark humour and fondness for wordplay and puns, and once again demonstrates his enthusiasm for giving characters quirky names. For example, the Harrison clan who appear in the book have first names that include Darklis, Harkles, Shadrach and Morphus. Try putting those through a spell checker!

As well as having a very personal reason for wanting to solve the mystery of Etterly Utter’s disappearance, Betty needs all her wits about her because the rest of the police officers at Sackwater Central are a pretty hopeless bunch. Betty’s fellow Inspector (known disparagingly as Old Scrapie) continues to have it in for her and WPC Dodo Chivers is still making ditsy comments and pathetic jokes. For example, when a character demands “Give me a ruler,” Betty reflects that at one time Dodo would have said George III, but that she [Dido] has grown up a lot since then. Unfortunately Betty is proved wrong. Worst of all, Dodo can’t even make a decent cup of tea! The only sensible member of the team is Sergeant Briggs who demonstrates unexpected empathy and sensitivity.

For fans of ‘The Gower Street Detective’ series, Betty’s godmother, March Middleton, makes a brief appearance in order to offer useful advice. And there’s an even briefer appearance by March’s guardian and mentor, Sidney Grice, displaying his usual extremely literal response to questions.

You can’t help liking Betty. She’s independent-minded, courageous and resourceful, especially since she’s had to overcome, not only discrimination in her chosen career, but the loss of her arm in an accident. As it happens, her prosthetic limb comes in very useful at times. Another returning character is Toby Gretson, editor of the local newspaper, with whom Betty has a bit of an on again, off again thing.

At nearly five hundred pages, there were some sections, such as the seemingly interminable description of a rounders game in the opening chapters, I felt could have been trimmed to improve the pace of the book. And readers will no doubt be divided between those who find the author’s rendering of a Suffolk accent amusing or irritating. I’m afraid, I found myself increasingly gravitating toward the latter when presented with sentences such as “You can’t admit you goo wrong over those old bone.‘

If you can get past some of the stylistic idiosyncrasies I’ve mentioned, there’s an intriguing mystery to be discovered that plunges the reader into the seamier side of life. Wartime events, such as the evacuation of Dunkirk, also provide a backdrop to the plot along with the day-to-day realities of rationing and blackouts. When the mystery is finally resolved, there emerges a heart-warming message about the strength of unconditional love and the possibility of forgiveness.

The engaging nature of Betty herself and the author’s tongue-in-cheek humour make The Ghost Tree an entertaining addition to the series

The third book featuring Inspector Betty Church sees her past return to haunt her. Her childhood best friend, Etterly Utter, disappeared twenty-six years ago and was never seen or heard from again. When the skeleton of a young girl is unearthed in the present, Betty has to face the possibility that Etterly never left at all.

The story starts off in the past (1914) with the young Betty (with a fairly happy childhood considering her parents - what is their problem with her?) which is then cut short when her best friend disappears. The story then moves to the present (1940) with the discovery of a skeleton and Betty decides that she needs to know what happened to Etterly once and for all. At the bottom of this there is a good story, but it is again buried in too much slapstick and it begins to get tiresome after a while. It was an okay read but could have been better.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Head of Zeus, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

This was a bit different than the earlier Betty Church books, all of which I loved. It follows up the story of Betty’s missing childhood friend. What really happened to her? Did a tree really eat her up?
The answer is quite shocking but feels very plausible. Yet another good Kasasian read. I’m looking forward to the next instalment when maybe the mystery of Betty’s lost arm will also be resolved.

In 1914 16 years old Etterly Utter (many a play on this name will occur) disappeared inside The King’s Oak an old tree. Betty her best friend never forgot her. In 1940 Betty is now Inspector Church and two skeletons are found in the area Etterly disappeared. Etterly’s parents still refuse to believe she will not come home. Starting an investigation Betty remembers a local boy found in the tree with head injuries called Godfrey was the tree going to bring light to these mysteries all these years later.
Inspector Church has her hands full with dragging her Constables into the present day and much humour comes with the local Suffolk dialect.
These characters have a very unique and old fashioned way of communicating with each other.
There was a lot of character and screen setting in the early part of the story but the pace really picks up when Inspector Church takes centre stage.
I was given an Arc of this book by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I have long been a fan of the subtle humour of M R C Kasasian's books, with which he combines intriguing mysteries and great character description. I have previously enjoyed the books via audible but was eager to read this one early. It is good to finally find out more about Betty's early life and the disappearance of her friend. This has been alluded to in each of the previous books, almost to tease us! I found the first part of the book to be a little confusing as the timeline swapped around to tell the story leading up to the disappearance and immediately after.
Recommended for anyone wanting a read that is not too serious but still manages to keep the reader going until the final scenes.

I really enjoyed The Ghost Tree. and wholeheartedly recommend it. I love the descriptions of people and events. There is a great feeling of place and time, so much so that it works as historical fiction as well as a crime/mystery story. The characters are all developing nicely over the series – I have to admit that I am glad the twins have moved on. Dodo is most interesting after the talking to she got at the end of the previous book – very clever. The other police are all nicely distinctive and feel real because they are not stereotypes or completely predictable. Even the weird parents are more likeable the more we come across them. A gentle romance is well handled.
And I was so delighted at the cameo appearance of March Middleton and … I really should have seen it coming and I didn’t!
What is extraordinary about Kasasian ‘s writing is the ability to change from silly and very funny comedy to poignant, sad and even dark scenes which are not forced or contrived or manipulative. The writing has great feeling and conviction and touched my heart. I love a book that both makes me laugh and cry. There is a genuine feeling that this unusual story is written by an unusual, thoughtful and caring man.
Perhaps best of all is that it is a great mystery story and I didn’t see where it was going even though all the clues were there. The ending is good – completing this story satisfactorily but leaving us wondering about Betty’s future health and relationships. I am so looking forward to the next one! Thank you Martin. Keep up the good work!
Thank you #Netgalley for a lovely early copy.

Betty Church is back and I found this story as enjoyable as usual.
I struggled a bit in the first part that I found slow but I throughly enjoyed the second part that is excellent.
A well thought cast of characters, a vivid and realistic historical background, a solid mystery and a lot of humour.
This series is a favorite and I recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Thanks to #Netgalley, the publisher #Head of Zeus and the author M R C Kasasian for providing me with an advance copy of The Ghost Tree in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This is the third novel in a series set in 1940 featuring Inspector Betty Church and I have read them all. I loved this book as all of the characters are so well written. This book is a historical mystery which explores the disappearance of Etterly Utter . I highly recommend this book and all of the books in the series.

In M. R. C. Kasasian’s new novel, The Ghost Tree, we return to the world of Inspector Betty Church: Sackwater, Suffolk, in 1940. A dog has found a human jawbone, and it’s not long before more of the skeleton is uncovered. The evidence suggests that it’s Betty’s childhood friend, Etterly Utter, who disappeared when they were teenagers. The find leads Betty to take stock of her memories of the time, and re-examine the case as an adult detective.

I’ve been a big fan of Kasasian since I read the first Betty Church novel, The Suffolk Vampire, two years ago and went on to read everything else he’d written, so naturally I was very excited for The Ghost Tree, and it didn’t disappoint! As ever, he combines satisfying detective work, humour, and pathos evoked by the failings, feelings and dark side of humanity.

I loved the variety of techniques Betty and others use to unravel the mystery. I’m always fascinated when characters use bones to figure out information about the people they belonged to, so I loved the part where Betty’s dentist father makes deductions about the jawbone (and actually does something helpful, for once!). Betty and her team (well, mostly Betty, if we’re being fair…) make use of diary entries in the blank spaces of a Bible, historical changes in land use, questionable charge book entries, and ration book records. There’s also the good old-fashioned method of talking to people, of course - Betty finds out that a lot of things weren’t what they seemed at the time. Early on, in an extended flashback to Betty’s memory of Etterly’s disappearance, we’re even treated to a cameo from Sidney Grice and March Middleton (the stars of Kasasian’s Gower Street Detective novels), and it’s a joy to see Grice employ his customarily eccentric, yet ingenious, methods again.

Like the others in the series, this book is stuffed with laughs, from passing snorts to full-on chuckles. Betty’s colleagues are just as hapless, and her parents just as ridiculous, as ever, and Sidney Grice brings his usual unintentional deadpan humour. I particularly enjoyed a drawn-out misunderstanding about ‘dirty magazines’, Etterly’s preoccupation with food in her diary entries, and a character becoming increasingly weighed down by useless archaeological finds as a team digs to find more bones - you have to ‘be there’ by reading it, really!

Kasasian sets off this humour and adds gravity to the book with a number of serious events and observations. Etterly’s disappearance and the discovery of the skeleton naturally weigh on Betty’s mind, and she is determined to find out what happened to her friend. The book addresses heavy topics such as missed chances, wasted lives, forgiveness, the unfair treatment of travellers, the unnecessary cruelty of Approved Schools, and the protection of sex workers. The Second World War is always there in the background (Betty was injured by a bomb in the previous book), with characters helping to rescue men from Dunkirk and having to deal with loss among other things.

Kasasian is on top form with The Ghost Tree, seamlessly blending light and dark in a satisfying detective story where nothing is quite what it seems.

This is the third in MRC Kasasian's historical crime series featuring Inspector Betty Church of the Suffolk constabulary set in the small town of Sackwater. There are two timelines, the first when Betty was a 14 year old schoolgirl, whose best friend, the pretty 15 year old Etterly Utter disappears, with rumours and superstitions surrounding the famous King's Oak, locally known as the Ghost Tree, seen as instrumental in her going missing, amidst other theories. The young Betty has been haunted throughout the years by the loss of Etterly. In 194o, during WW2, 26 years later, Betty is now a police inspector at the local police station when a young boy, Humphrey Smith, uncovers a lower jawbone, where later other bones and a silver chain that Betty knows belonged to Etterly are recovered. Is it possible that these are the remains of the long lost Etterly Utter?

Etterly Utter's parents, who have kept her bedroom just as it was when their daughter disappeared, do not for one second believe that the bones are hers, they are convinced Etterly is still alive and will one day return home. After Etterly's disappearance during a competitive rounders match between the boys and girls, Betty had noticed but kept silent about seeing a shadowy man. Later, another child, Godfrey, part of Betty's group, dies in an apparent accident involving a skittish horse belonging to a gypsy family running a local farm. In a narrative that goes back and forth in time, and includes the appearance of the grumpy and rude Sidney Grice and March Middleton, Betty in 1940 is determined to solve the mystery of what happened to Etterly.

I enjoyed this installment of the Betty Church historical mysteries, although I have to be honest and say that I much preferred the 1940 time period more. It would have been rare and unusual to have seen a woman promoted to the rank of Inspector in the police force of the time, and it is clear that there are many have problems accepting Betty, including some in the police force itself. There are pacing problems with the 1914 timeline in the story, there are times when the narrative flows like the turgid thickness of the heaviest syrup, slowing the reader down considerably. Otherwise this is an entertaining historical crime read that I enjoyed reading, a particular highlight being the police team relationships. Many thanks to Head of Zeus for an ARC.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Head of Zeus for an advance copy of The Ghost Tree, the third novel set in 1940to feature Inspector Betty Church of the Suffolk Constabulary.

In 1914 Betty’s best friend 15 year old Etterly Utter vanished without a trace from the ghost tree, a hollowed out tree in the local park. In 1940 Betty is back in Sackwater as a police Inspector when bones are found in a local field. A necklace that Betty identifies as Etterly’s is with the bones and Betty vows to find out what happened to her.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Ghost Tree which is an engrossing read with a couple of good twists. It is told from Betty’s point of view in the first person so the reader can live the story with her. And what a story it turns out to be. It starts in 1914 with the disappearance of Etterly as a 13 year old Betty recounts the heartache of her friend’s disappearance and the efforts she put in to find her. This quarter of the novel also includes a cameo from Sidney Grice and March Middleton. The rest of the novel is set in 1940 and revolves around Betty’s investigation into what happened to Etterly.

The novel doesn’t shy away from the seamier side of life and, yet, there is something innocent about it. Perhaps it is the incompetence and naïveté of her subordinates or the optimism of the war spirit but it’s there. Betty’s team are still full of stupid jokes and foibles but while I found some of it boring and repetitive in previous novels the author has found the right balance in this novel and it held my attention throughout.

Betty Church is a wonderful creation. She is smarter and more efficient than her bumbling colleagues and is wasted in the backwaters of Sackwater but with only one arm she is lucky to have the job, never mind look for brighter lights. I like her impatience with the team and her sardonic take on life in general.

The Ghost Tree is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Head of Zeus and the author, M.R.C Kasasian, for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of The Ghost Tree in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
I loved reading this book. I was hooked from the start.
The storyline was well thought out and written. The imagery was highly descriptive and captivating. I could certainly imagine being alongside the kids on a warm summer afternoon playing rounders before Etterly disappears. A captivating read.

This is the third in the series of books featuring Inspector Betty Church, the only competent police officer in Sackwater, Suffolk. I've read all the previous books and Kasasian's other series about Sidney Grice (who, along with his sidekick March Middleton, occasionally also pop up in the Betty Church books) so I knew what to expect here: a quirky crime story with eccentric characters and plenty of humour.

The story begins in 1914 when teenage Betty Church is playing rounders with a group of the local children in Sackwater. Her friend, Etterly Utter is last seen by the 'ghost tree', possibly in the company of a shadowy man, before she vanishes. Twenty six years later, Betty (now a Police Inspector) is called upon to investigate some human remains and the disappearance of Etterly again becomes her focus.

Many of the characters I loved from the previous novels are here, including daft Dodo, sleazy Banthony and love interest Toby. Also present are Church's horrible but funny parents and the rest of the useless Sackwater Police crew. The humour is still very much present, although it's bittersweet in the context of World War Two events closing in on Sackwater; the Dunkirk landings and RAF raids play small roles in the backdrop of the novel. My only real criticism is that the book is quite slow-paced - I wouldn't usually mind, but I did find the 1914 section quite long and was looking forward to getting back to the 1940s setting and the characters who I think are the strength of the book.

This is another satisfying installment in the series that would only have been improved by a trim of the flashback section. If you've followed the series to now, you won't be disappointed. If you're new to the series, enjoy! You have a cosy treat ahead!

Set in 1914, the story opens with the disappearance of 16 year old Etterly during a game of rounders between teams of boys & girls in the Suffolk village of Sackwater.
The story is narrated by Etterly's best friend, Betty Church and this is the first twist in this tale.
I suppose this book can be called a prequel as it's the 3rd in the Betty Church series. In the first two, set in 1939 and 1940, Betty is a policewoman - a police inspector no less - who has risen through the ranks in London and returns to Sackwater to take charge of the local police station.
In this story, teenage Betty dreams of becoming a police officer and she certainly has a flair for poking her nose into other people's business! In fact, I found Betty to be a bit annoying. She seemed to find fault with almost everyone in the village, especially her parents - her father is the local dentist and Betty's certain her mother wishes her daughter had been a son instead!
Meanwhile, villagers and police search for the missing girl and Betty herself is quizzed by a local police officer who she dislikes because he one reprimanded her for skimming stones. Shortly afterwards, one of the village boys disappears overnight and is later found by Betty emerging from the hollow trunk of a tree reputed to be haunted - The Ghost Tree. Shortly afterwards he dies of a serious head injury.
People believe different stories about Etterly's disappearance but some, including Betty, believe The Ghost Tree was involved. Eventually, village life returns to normal for everyone except Betty who's convinced she hears her friend's voice coming from the hollow trunk of the tree. She even manages to persuade her amateur detective aunt to help her investigate.
The story moves forward to 1940 and the discovery of a skeleton, buried in the woods at Sackwater. Despite the body having decomposed, there's a clue in that with the corpse is a necklace on the corpse Etterly had on the day she went missing.
Having been troubled ever since Etterly's disappearance a quarter of a century before, Betty resolves to solve the mystery of what happened to her childhood friend.
I found the plot of this book unfolded too slowly - for example, the description of a game of rounders goes on for far too long - and I almost gave up. I didn't like the use of local dialect, especially the almost constant repetition of the words "goo" and "dirnt". That said, the author is a writer of considerable experience with half a dozen mystery novels to his name.
What kept my interest was the image of a sleepy English village and its many colourful inhabitants at the outbreak of the First World War and the supernatural story of missing children and a haunted tree.
I'd recommend this book to fans of Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce mysteries.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Head of Zeus for an advance copy of this book in return for an unbiased review.