The Dead Shall be Raised and The Murder of a Quack by George Bellairs

The Dead Shall be Raised and The Murder of a Quack by George Bellairs ISBN-13: 9781464207341 Paperback: 364 pages Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press Released: Oct. 3, 2017

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
Two classic cases featuring Detective Inspector Littlejohn.

In the winter of 1940, the Home Guard unearth a skeleton on the moor above the busy town of Hatterworth. Twenty-three years earlier, the body of a young engineer was found in the same spot, and the prime suspect was never found—but the second body is now identified as his. It's now clear that the true murderer is still at large.

* * *

Nathaniel Wall, the local quack doctor, is found hanging in his consulting room in the Norfolk village of Stalden—but this was not a suicide. Against the backdrop of a close-knit country village, an intriguing story of ambition, blackmail, fraud, false alibis and botanical trickery unravels.


My Review:
The Dead Shall be Raised and The Murder of a Quack are two mysteries that were originally published in the early 1940s. The first was set in 1940 at Christmas time and set in England. The second was set in 1942 in England.

The characters were described with a humorous touch, and the villagers and village life was described with more detail than most mysteries from this time period. The focus almost seemed more on the interesting characters than on creating a difficult mystery. The mysteries were clue-based and were interesting, but they weren't difficult for a reader to solve. In both cases, one person seemed a strong suspect from the start with a second character as a possibility. Inspector Littlejohn and the local police followed up on obvious leads and questioned people until he uncovered what happened.

There was no sex. There was some bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this enjoyable mystery.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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