The Tale of the Depressed Man by Mason Bushell

Val Penny ♦ July 20, 2019 ♦ Leave a comment

I am always thrilled to find an author new to me whose work I enjoy. It is a real treat. Mason Bushell is an English author from Norwich who writes The Workhouse Mysteries. As those of you who read my blog will know, my favourite genre is crime thrillers and mystery novels so I recently treated myself to the first novel in the series, The Tale of the Depressed Man.

The main protagonist is Holly Ward who works as waitress and manageress of her mother’s restaurant The Workhouse. However, Holly’s grandfather is a police detective and his interest in solving mysteries and putting things right has clearly passed to Holly too. This book had a really interesting storyline that used the backdrop of a restaurant as the location for the story: this really works. 

The opening chapter of The Tale of The Depressed Man was very entertaining and a brilliant way to start the book. The story goes straight into a bank robbery that goes wrong and a high speed car chase where the getaway driver gets more than he bargained for. Shortly after this Holly notices a man sitting at the bar in the restaurant looking really miserable. She tries to cheer him up and find out the reason for his sadness and the next thing she knows, she and her friends and family are involved in the search for the loot from the bank robbery and then a hostage situation.

There are some really strong characters in The Tale of The Depressed Man. I particularly liked Holly and her grandfather. I was kept entertained from start to finish – with a race against time to save a hostage situation, this was a clean, easy to follow plot that I’m sure crime readers young and old will enjoy. The Tale of The Depressed Man is an excellent crossover novel: it would benefit from additional editing but that did not spoil my enjoyement of the book and I look forward to the next story in the series.

Val Penny