The Armada Boy (Wesley Peterson Mysteries): Amazon.de: Kate Ellis: Bücher

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Fifty years after D Day, a group of American veterans has returned to the small Devonshire town of Bereton where, in 1944, they prepared for Normandy, amazed the local children with gifts of candy and comics, and courted the local maidens. When one of the old soldiers, Norman Openheim, is found stabbed to death in the ruins of the same chapel where the GIs and the village girls once held their wartime trysts, Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson finds his investigative attention torn between the past and the present. There is no shortage of suspects. Dorinda, Openheim's widow, is acting anything but bereaved in the company of tall, handsome Todd Weringer; a trio of post-adolescent urban urchins (Dog, Rat, and Snot) has been harassing the local merchants at knifepoint; and Norman's romance of 50 years ago produced a son with a criminal record and, just maybe, a lifetime of resentment built up against the father he never knew. More intriguing to Peterson and archaeologist Neil Watson are the parallels that exist between this murder and the murder of a sailor from the Spanish Armada in 1588. Hatred, jealousy, and revenge have cast 400-year-old shadows, and Peterson must untangle a skein of accusations, resentments, and family alliances that stretch back through the centuries.

Kate Ellis's The Merchant's House, with its blend of history and detection, moved beyond the familiar territory of the British cozy. Unfortunately, The Armada Boy falls well short: dull characters and no sense of plot cripple it from the start. One can't help but feel cheated when the solution to the murder is, literally, handed to the detectives (in the form of an ancient letter), breaking all the rules of mystery fiction. But Ellis's prose style is engagingly straightforward and sometimes lively, with an occasional dose of gentle humor. Her dialogue, though, leaves much to be desired. For the most part, her Devonshire locals sound like an unholy hybrid of BBC announcer and London beggar. Even more jarring are her Americans, who might have been plucked straight from an Agatha Christie novel: they "guess," they "reckon," and they greet novelties with: "Say, that's a mighty fine idea!" Perhaps in her next outing, Ellis's contemporary characters will receive the same attention to detail as their historical counterparts. --Kelly Flynn -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

From Kirkus Reviews

Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson, amateur archaeologist, finds that his interest in the past isn't simply academic. A recently murdered American named Norman Oppenheim turns up at a dig in the seaside town of Bereton. Oppenheim belongs to a group of WWII veterans visiting for a reunion. In 1944, Bereton was evacuated so American troops could rehearse D-Day landings. Local feeling ran high against the forced evacuation and subsequent destruction, aggravated by the fact that the local girls dated handsome GIs. Though a letter from his local former sweetheart is found in Oppenheim's hotel room, his wife doesn't seem to mind. But then Peterson's colleague discovers a rape charge filed on the eve of D-Day. Has someone been nursing vengeance for 50 years? Or maybe 500 years? In an even deeper plumbing of the past, archeologists discover graves of murdered sailors from the wrecked Spanish Armada, one young Spaniard buried, most unusually, inside the church. Meantime, a trio of juvenile delinquents skulk around present-day Bereton led by a skinhead named Rat brandishing a knife, perhaps the one used to stab Oppenheim. Rat grew up in Bereton and says he wants to see his eccentric grandmother, but his aunt won't let him. What to do? The cops, with little help from the passive Peterson (The Merchant's House, not reviewed), untangle all the Bereton crimes, recent and historic; Peterson's wife has a baby; and the Americans go home.Ellis's writing isn't up to her ambitious triple plot, but she writes with a nice sympathy for ordinary people caught up in the forces of history. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

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Good read combining past and present to form a good mystery 20. Juni 2000

Von Harriet Klausner

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

World War II veteran Norman Openheim accompanied by his wife Dorinda, returns to England for a reunion celebration. However, with his hearing aid broken and smoking his first cigarette in a decade, Norman never heard his killer approach him. County Archeology employee Neil Watson finds the corpse as he wanders the ruins of St. Dennis Chapel.

Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson begins the inquiries and almost immediately is overwhelmed by leads and suspects. Could his spouse, who was having an affair be the killer? Could it be the pregnant girlfriend the victim left behind in 1944? Or is just related to an anti-American resentment left over form five decades ago? As Wesley investigates, he also begins to uncover another murder mystery from four centuries ago.

The second Ellis police procedural is a fabulous tale of revenge that will thrust relative newcomer Kate Ellis into the sub-genre's limelight. The story line is entertaining as the two mysteries keep reader attention at all times. Wesley remains a complex protagonist who will charm the audience. THE ARMADA BOY and its predecessor THE MERCHANT'S HOUSE are an excellent mingling of a historical tale with a modern day police procedural.

Harriet Klausner

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Firing a warning shot across the pond 8. September 2000

Von Paul Kellaway - Ver�ffentlicht auf Amazon.com

In Kate Ellis, British literature has a champion to contend with the commercial american heavyweights churning out their tuppenny paperbacks. In the Armada Boy, Ellis successfully produces three narratives of different periods of time, all around the same West Country area. She interweaves these timeframes in a refreshing fashion that rather than slowing and disrupting the flow and pace of the story make the novel flow seemlessly and intelligably between ages. The author maintains the characters from the previous novel but manages to find the right blend of introduction and continuity meaning no readers are alienated in terms of character development. The novel's star characters would appear to be the Americans who I assure you, after spending several hours in the presence of some American Vets. on Christmas Eve are spookily realistic. The interaction amongst the detectives is impressive, with real depth and life which adds to the novel rather than drawing away from the pace of the book.

Bottom line: A great read as either a stand alone novel or part of a sucessful series.

DIDN'T PUT IT DOWN! 20. August 2000

Von BEVERLEY CHERRINGTON - Ver�ffentlicht auf Amazon.com

This novel grabbed my attention from the first scene and held it to the last. It is a truly great read.

For me, the real joys of 'The Armada Boy' are the fascinating blend of modern and historical crime; the rich diversity of characters (my personal favourite being Detective Constable Rachel Tracey - a real star in the wings who deserves a novel of her own); and the way in which three completely separate periods of history are woven together so effortlessly. Oh yes, and as with all great crime novels, I would never have guessed 'whodunnit'!!

I hardly put this novel down from the moment I picked it up.I couldn't wait to see what the next page would bring. I inherited my love of crime fiction from my late Grandmother who was a real connoisseur of the genre and as I read this novel I thought often of her. How she would have loved it!

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An excellent second novel 4. August 2000

Von Sally Jones - Ver�ffentlicht auf Amazon.com

I have just finished reading this novel and could not put it down, it is superb! I feel that I must disagree with the above review by Kelly Flynn - if anything this book is more engaging tham "The Merchants House"

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The Armada Boy (Wesley Peterson Mysteries) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

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