Title: Murder in Shades of Blue and Green
Series: DS Charlie Rees: Book One
Author: Ripley Hayes
Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 237 Pages
Category: Mystery
Rating: 4 Stars
At a Glance: DS Charlie Rees is most assuredly not the poster child for hardboiled detectives, which makes him all the more endearing for his vulnerabilities. Where Charlie and the new man in his life go from here is an open-ended question I look forward to seeing answered as the series proceeds.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: DS Charlie Rees wants a fresh start.
He wants to make his name as a serious, professional, detective.
Two students disappear. This could be Charlie’s chance. If he can find them.
But the university doesn’t want to admit they’re missing, and his personal life is a disaster.
The fresh start is turning into a hot mess.
Review: Detective Sergeant Charlie Rees’s holiday wasn’t what anyone might deem relaxing. In fact, he’s returned to Wales an object of some media scandal and has since been reassigned to a lesser outpost in lieu of being fired outright for his indiscretions. Whether that’s a blessing or a curse plays out in Murder in Shades of Blue and Green.
Murder in Shades of Yellow is the short story that leads into this new spinoff series (Charlie is introduced in the Daniel Owen mysteries), though it’s not strictly necessary to have read it in order to follow his journey. What matters is that DS Rees is in over his head and doing his best to not only acclimatize to a lawless chaos town but also to cope with a police station that’s in an utter shambles. Add to that a series of assaults on young women—the coverup of which sent shockwaves through the local chain of command—and the disappearance of two US students from the internationally renowned Llanfair College of Art, not to mention a hit-and-run arsonist. To say that Charlie has been tossed from the frying pan straight into the fire is an apt metaphor.
Ripley Hayes scatters clues for readers to follow while Charlie and his colleagues feel their way through the mess they’ve been left while also working to solve these crimes. A hacker is spamming computers with the salacious particulars of Charlie’s holiday hookup-gone-wrong (never mind that he solved a murder) and, as if he weren’t already on edge, he’s also unquestionably attracted to someone he knows he shouldn’t be. DS Charlie Rees is most assuredly not the poster child for hardboiled detectives, which makes him all the more endearing for his vulnerabilities.
For those who are interested, there is a sweet, slow romance developing in this book. How things proceed and where Charlie and the new man in his life go from here is an open-ended question I look forward to seeing answered as the series proceeds.
You can buy Murder in Shades of Blue and Green here: