Calamity in Camberwell by Alice Castle

Val Penny ♦ November 6, 2018 ♦ Leave a comment

Calamity in Camberwell is the third in Alice Castle’s best selling London Murder Mystery series. I have read the first two novels in the series and really enjoyed them, so I was waiting for this book to come out so that I could take it on holiday.

The author has created a delightful heroine in Beth Haldane, a single mum with intelligence and curiousity that always seem to land her in trouble that DI Harry York has to help her out of. They form an unlikely but deliciously exciting team.

In Calamity in Camberwell, Beth worries that she is losing a kindred spirit when her friend Jen, the only other single mum in the playground, suddenly remarries and moves to Camberwell. Her new husband, Jeff, is an unknown quantity to Beth, but Beth’s friends try to convince her to start dating again. However, Beth is reluctant, as she feels something is off about Jen’s new marriage. She becomes increasingly worried when Jen does not return her calls. Beth fears are compounded when and Jen and her husband, Jeff,  disappear. Unsure of what to do, she turns to DI York for help.

Calamity In Camberwell has a different feel to it than the first two books, because it Beth doesn’t stumble across a body: instead it focuses a bit more on Beth, her life and her friendships.

I very much enjoyed Calamity in Camberwell and, although I read a lot of crime novels, I did not anticipte the twist at the end.

The Author

Alice Castle lives in South London with her two children, two stepchildren, two cats and her husband. She was a feature writer on the Daily Express for many years and has written for most other national newspapers. She has a degree in Modern History from St Andrews University, is the British Royalty expert for Flemish TV, and lived in Brussels for eight years. Her first novel, Hot Chocolate, sold out in two weeks and her second, Death in Dulwich, was published in September 2017 as the first in the London Murder Mystery series.

Val Penny