While on a narrowboat holiday on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, DS Stephanie Johnson, and DS Andy Carter witness an altercation at the pub between a woman named Annie Shipton and a newcomer named Laura Ward.

Earlier, Annie had written something unpleasant about Laura on Annie’s blog, criticizing the woman’s noisy lifestyle at the canal.

The next morning DS Steph discovers Annie’s body slumped in her narrowboat, floating down the canal. She was stabbed in the neck, apparently stabbed from behind. If she was the only one on the boat, how was killed from behind?

Meanwhile, DCI Jim Oldroyd and his partner have finally moved to their new place in the village of New Bridge, just outside of Harrogate.

When the investigating officer Javed Iqbal suggests that DCI Jim Oldroyd come over and unofficially lead the investigation, DCI Jim agrees but offers to help as a consultant. DS Steph and DS Andy have had to delay their holiday to assist in the investigation.

A few days later, another body is discovered floating in the canal by a dog walker. The victim had been struck in the head. Are their deaths related?

Now it’s up to DCI Jim Oldroyd and his team to try and find the person responsible.

Thank you to J. R. Ellis, NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the arc of this book

Thanks to J. R. Ellis, Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for letting me have an ARC Kindle copy to review.

Two detectives (DS Andy Carter & DS Stephanie Johnson) set off on holiday on a narrowboat on the Leeds to Liverpool Canal and arrive in Saltaire, Yorkshire, On the first evening, whilst in the local pub, an argument takes place between some of the customers. The next morning Annie Shipton is found dead, stabbed in the neck and her boat is discovered by Steph, floating along the cut. Of course the holiday is abandoned whilst Andy & Steph help DI Javad Iqbal and the local Police to investigate the crime and solve the murder, they also rope in their boss DI Jim Oldroyd as the four of them had previously worked together as a team.

Annie who appears to be an old hippie, used to belong to a folk group called Rowan back in the day, so folk songs make regular appearances in the book, Annie was the type of person who regularly upset people, so the police had a long list of suspects to eliminate, including her ex husband, members of the folk group and the local community. It is not long before the body of another local man is also discovered and a connection has to be made between the two murders by the police and the crimes solved swiftly.

This is the first J. R. Ellis book that I have read, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and reading about canal life. Even though I found the chapters very long (about an hour), I will hopefully be reading more of this author's work in the future.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Thomas & Mercer, for letting me read and review an advanced copy of this book, ‘The Canal Murders’, by J. R. Ellis.

What better way to spend a holiday than taking a leisurely trip on a narrow boat down one of the canals in Yorkshire. That is just what Andy & Steph, two police officers, were doing, when a Steph discovers a drifting boat with a dead body hunched over the tiller. When the local DI, Javad Iqbal, turns out to be one of their old partners, their vacation is put on hold. Their boss, DCI Oldroyd, is also brought in to reunite the team for the investigation.

I liked how the story provided information about the canal system, life on narrow boats, and the characters who were once part of an old folk singing group. Even though this was another typical British mystery, as the team of detectives methodically tried to solve the case, the characters were all interesting and the storyline was well developed.

This was the tenth book in the series, and it makes me want to read others in the series.

Review: This was not really my thing at the get go. The interchages between the two DCI police couple was stilted in a sense that every response seemed scripted. This failed to build individual characterization. Exlamation points after one word responses and "What a wonderful day!" etc. seemed a bit pushed in terms of real world instances.

The overly descriptive English writing style is also in evidence. Every single minute detail of their surroundings is strung out as a vehicle to carry the backstory which is uninteresting and somewhat smug in delivery.

Start a murder mystery with intensity as that will grip the reader. The world building can unfold along with the main story line, not subsume it.

“THE CANAL MURDERS: A YORKSHIRE MURDER MYSTERY”

by J.R. Ellis

Reviewed by Anirood Singh for NetGalley

Scheduled to be published in 2024 by Thomas & Mercer, Seattle.

ISBN-13: 9781662515897; eISBN: 9781662515880; 200 pages

Elders’ serene lives on narrowboats are shattered by a gruesome murder; a second killing shoves them into panic mode.

The title of J.R. Ellis’s novel, “The Canal Murders: A Yorkshire Murder Mystery”, is informative, revealing the story’s location and genre. The tale has a mix of crime fiction subgenre components, “cozy”, detective whodunit, and police procedural. This review is based on an Adobe Digital Edition download in seven chapters, a ‘preface’, Prologue, lyrics of five folk songs, and Author Biography. Being a professionally edited tenth book in the series shows the author is eminently qualified to write on the subject.

The story is set in Saltaire, a small, insular rural settlement on and alongside the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. The Prologue introduces Stephanie Johnson and friend Andy Carter, both detective sergeants, on the start of a boating holiday. This optimistic opening, set up by good exposition, is shortly shattered by the discovery of a bloody corpse.

The structure of “The Canal Murders” is, by genre convention, investigation, interviews, analyses, re-interviews, and more investigations – grunt work. The plot revolves around four detectives dutifully trying to find the perpetrator of a mysterious, brutal murder of a local resident. Ellis concentrates on his good guys plodding along, in a tale of multiple themes, all in the mix of the community in Saltaire. The author adopted a modified traditional approach, successfully used since Edgar Allan Poe in 1841: a closed social setting and a small, specific group –

“a range of people mostly middle-aged and beyond. In their style of hair and clothing, many looked as if they had been part of an alternative cultural scene for many years – men with greying ponytails, and women dressed in dungarees embroidered with flowers…” (p 13)

who would be investigated and interviewed to solve the jigsaw-like puzzle – Whodunit?

The genre demands that the story be largely dialogue driven and “The Canal Murders” complies. This approach is facilitated by the story reflecting on the quaint lifestyle of the community from which eleven almost indistinguishable “persons of interest” emerge, along with the four sleuths carefully weaving among them, questioning, listening, and noting. Thus the novel characteristically continues, the reader guided by Jim, Steph, Andy, and Jav, through slow-moving scenes, for 181 pages.


“The Canal Murders” got off to a promising start, but I soon found myself wondering whether I should continue reading, due to what I personally saw as certain ‘fatal’ shortcomings:

Lack of a date or timeline makes it difficult to place the story in its proper context.

While complying with the required emphasis on character and plot may make familiar, routine, repetitive scenes appear bland, the narrative could have been enhanced by the addition of conspiracy, dread, intrigue, suspense, tension, conflicts, and drama, as well as character development and revelations.

It is not clear who the protagonist is – DCI Oldroyd does not seem to qualify as he relies on his team rather than going it alone as a typically flawed but empathetic detective. Readers may have enjoyed seeing, for example, DS Johnson, leading the charge, leaving hints and clues for them to undertake sleuthing based on tidbits from her informal discussions with Andy. An omniscient point of view has made the story read more like a police report – descriptive, impersonal, dry, and non-visual.. The exposition, dialogue, thoughts, and actions of the characters are depicted in the “disinterested” third person, creating data overload. Reading requires an effort, absent conflict, drama, intrigue, conspiracy, suspense, and tension Under such circumstance, it is difficult to keep track of the plot, “see” the location, and understand the characters. A reader could develop rapport with an empathetic, identifiable protagonist as first person narrator-confidant, allowing them to help unravel the mystery. This would be through a joint process of information gathering through investigations and interviews, review and analyses, corroboration and verification, elimination, and the ability to fit together the multitude of clues to solve the puzzle. High tension could serve to connect protagonist and reader. In a mystery, a first-person narrator could deliberately or by fault conceal some clues until the end, making for an engrossing tale.

At an average of 26 pages, chapters are comparatively long for the genre and readers may lose interest with the slow pace.

Given a dozen, suspects, non-disclosure of hints and clues to assist the amateur sleuth reader to unravel the mystery alongside the protagonist, and seemingly with no end in sight, DCI Oldroyd’s “Eureka!” moment when he identifies the murderer, with respect, appears contrived.

The language in exposition generally is easy to follow and apt for the community, with limited and natural use of accents and slang. However, there is much repetition, redundancies, body and facial expressions, and prefacing of dialogue throughout. This style hampers reader enjoyment.

The purpose of the newspaper article before the Prologue is unclear. If does not seem to link directly to the story and/or the characters. Likewise, the necessity of the five songs at the end of the novel.

The aim in the genre is to resolve mysteries: This should be done steadily and progressively, leading to a satisfying conclusion and resolution: the arrest of the culprit.
For the enjoyment of murder mystery novels, the story could have been structured so that the reader keeps pace with the investigator. Here, Oldroyd admitted that the investigation was going nowhere, until he had a revelation close to the end of the story.
While his hasty explanation was plausible, it was surprising and unsatisfactory, as convention was not followed – uncover of clues leading to identifying the perpetrator.

For reasons depicted in this review that detracted from my enjoyment of “The Canal Murders”, I award it 3 out of 5 stars.

Given the increase in true and fictional crime over the last two decades, with a large volume of multimedia products to cater for such ‘macabre’ tastes, this novel faces stiff competition for readership. However, it may still appeal to murder mystery aficionados.

DCI Oldroyd is brought in to help investigate a puzzling muder of a canal boater, being a lover of crimes that seem somewhat impossible this is perfect for him
Being set on the canal the story gives a kind of relaxing feel but is still packed with twists and turns you won't expect
An all round enjoyable read

Good police protocol, light hearted plot with good characters.
Enjoyed, as I have other books by the author Do recommend.
Given arc by Net Galley and Thomas & Mercer.

Their vacation trip by longboat on the historic Leeds and Liverpool canal has hardly begun when DS Andy Carter and DS Stephanie Johnson discover a drifting canal boat with the dead body of a woman slumped over the tiller. It is Annie Shipton, a retired member of locally famous 1980s folk musicians. She and the other group members have been living on canal boats in the marina for years. DCI Jim Oldroyd is drafted to help with the murder investigation as the local police are short handed. It’s a complicated case for two reasons. The first is the way Annie was killed. She was stabbed in the neck but there is no evidence that anyone else was with her on the boat nor was a murder weapon found. The second reason is the number of suspects. Almost everyone from the neighboring canal boats or working at the marina has a reason to want Annie dead. As the detectives work to unravel motives, there is another vicious killing. Carter, Johnson and Oldroyd know that they are running out of time to find the murderer before there is another victim.
J.R. Ellis is a master of the police procedural. This twisty, complicated case seems impossible to solve but DCI Oldroyd finds clues in everyday life: family pictures, schoolchildrens’ games and overheard conversations. This jigsaw puzzle of a mystery is balanced with strong, memorable characters, an atmospheric location and fascinating canal history. In the past, the way to move a canal boat through a tunnel was to have a “legger” lie on a plank atop the boat and walk his his feel on the tunnel roof to propel the boat. Lyrics to the folk songs performed by the group are interspersed through the chapters. If J.R. Ellis should ever want to change careers (please no) he should look into writing music. 5 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer and J.R. Ellis for this ARC.

Excellent! This one was a lot of fun to read. I enjoyed the pacing, characters, and plot. If you're looking for a good airplane or vacation read—this one is worth it.

Some ghosts from the past stick around, and it can be murder! Solid procedural with a strong cast of characters and enough red herrings to keep you turning one more page.

The setting of this police procedural really makes it appealing and different to the standard offering. The author creates a wonderful sense of presence as the mystery progresses, brining the canal boat community and lifestyle to the fore. Reminiscent of Joy Ellis, this author creates strong characters and provides fascinating details about the crime solving process.

DS Andy and DS Steph are on a canal boat holiday when they come across a murder. They decide to postpone their holiday and help out the force in the area. Annie, a folksinger who lives on a canal boat, has been stabbed. She apparently didn't get along with many people, so there are no shortage of suspects. Could the murder be related to drugs? Domestic violence? Something bad from the past? Then things get even more complicated when there is another murder. I enjoyed both the twisty mystery and learning about the canals in this British police procedural. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.