Kate Ellis is a writer of crime novels which usually have a link to an historical event in the same area and which mirrors what is happening in the present. I have read a lot of her books which are set in Devon and which feature Wesley Peterson, a detective with an interest in archaeology (see my review of one of these books here). They are books which pass the time nicely but I would not usually reread them as I would my favourite stories, although it’s fair to say that my mother-in-law loves them and has a collection of them.
Watching the Ghosts is one of a shorter series by the same author featuring Joe Plantagenet who is detective in North Yorkshire – these books are set in a thinly disguised York. Again, the books in this series have a link with an historical event but the author also includes a supernatural element – Joe has a friendship with the local exorcist. The references to ghosts and other supernatural phenomena are slight and the book leaves the reader free to doubt this – they are certainly not horror stories.
In this book the plot centres on a former mental hospital not far outside the City Walls which is being converted into a group of upmarket apartments. One of the tenants is troubled by nightmares which seem to be linked to the building. Meanwhile, a serial burglar nicknamed ‘The Builder’ is targeting women living alone, a child has been kidnapped and a woman is murdered in a manner closely resembling the methods of a serial killer who was formerly an inmate of the mental hospital – but the killer is recorded as having died just under thirty years ago. The solution to the series of events is firmly based in the present despite the intrusion of events which may or may not be supernatural.
There’s a lot of plot in what is quite a short book and it doesn’t do to examine it in great detail for believability, but this book is readable and enjoyable.
Anne Is Reading 