Jim Kelly writes interesting and intelligent crime stories – I review a couple of his others here and here. His novel The Funeral Owl is one in a series featuring a newspaper reporter, Philip Dryden, who works as a reporter and then editor of a local newspaper in the Cambridgeshire fens. This is actually the final book, so far, in the series but I didn’t feel disadvantaged by not having read the others.
Dryden is sent a photograph of a rare owl. He takes this as an evil omen because it is known as a funeral owl. A number of things then happen. Illegal vodka is found in the area and two tramps appear to have died because they imbibed the lethal liquid. There are a series of metal thefts. A Chinese man is found dead in a nearby village by Dryden – he appears to have been crucified. A local girl goes missing. The police ask Dryden to assist with solving an old case – the brutal murder of a man. As the book progresses, Dryden finds that these different events may be connected and finds himself in several difficult, and dangerous, situations.
This is a beautifully written crime novel with plenty of atmosphere and descriptive writing. It’s not particularly fast paced but concentrates on people and their reactions to events as well as the secrets they are hiding – there are some intriguing characters in this story. Dryden is engaging and his role on a local newspaper gives him permission and motivation to ask questions and do some detective work.
I enjoyed this novel a lot and will probably seek out others in the series.
Anne Is Reading 