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In a grand old mansion in the middle of the Sussex countryside, seven people have seen more than they should... The new chilling thriller from Lesley Thomson.
James Ritchie was looking forward to a boys' day out with his son, Wilbur – even if he was a little late picking him up from the home of his ex-wife, Anna. Annoyed by his late arrival, and competing for their son's attention, Anna leaves the two of them to their day with the promise of a roast dinner when Wilbur returns.
But Anna will never see her family again. That afternoon, James and Wilbur are found dead, the victims of a double stabbing on the beach.
DI Toni Kemp, of Sussex police, must unravel a case which has shocked the county to its core. What she discovers will lead her to Blacklock House, a grand country mansion, long ago converted into flats. Here in the middle of nowhere, where a peacock struts the lawn, and a fountain plays intermittently, seven long-term residents have seen more than they should.
But this is a community who are good at keeping secrets...
I'm delighted to be hosting the blog tour for The Companion today. Many thanks to Lesley Thomson, Head of Zeus and Sophie Ransom from Ransom PR for sending me a copy of the novel and inviting me to take part in the tour.
I haven't yet read Death of a Mermaid, the book that introduced DI Toni Kemp and her childhood friend, Freddie Power but while I am sure those who have will enjoy returning to Sussex for another murder mystery, I am happy to confirm that The Companion can very easily be enjoyed as a standalone too.
Any crime novel that features a grand country house will inevitably be compared to Agatha Christie and it's clear that Lesley Thomson pays homage to her books in The Companion. However, although it quickly becomes apparent that a killer is probably living in Blacklock House, this isn't a classic locked-room mystery. Indeed, the first murders take place outside the house and at first there is no obvious connection to the venerable mansion. The deaths are brutal but the writing isn't and so we only discover how James Ritchie and his young son, Wilbur were killed after the fact. The impact of investigating the murder of a child is shown to keenly affect the detectives assigned to the case – especially Toni whose father was murdered when she was a child.
Toni is a superb character and I hope to see her in future books; she has a fascinating backstory which still demonstrably influences her behaviour but she isn't the typical damaged detective who drinks heavily and instead turns to bottles of Gaviscon and shoplifting Snickers bars. Although there are suggestions that her light-fingered habits could eventually derail her career, it's really quite refreshing – and slightly amusing – to come across a police officer who could never be accused of being corrupt but is still occasionally on the wrong side of the law. Her friendship with Freddie Power is another highlight of The Companion. They don't always agree and can be quite sharp-tongued with each other but the love that underpins their abiding bond is apparent throughout and is the most important relationship in the book.
The residents of Blacklock House are introduced quickly and it took me a little while to feel I properly knew them but I felt this worked well as it reflected the experience of Timothy Mew, the companion of the title. Timothy, a pretentious, rather strange character who is difficult to like, has been engaged to provide companionship to one of the residents; former defence barrister, Rex Lomax. In a brief scene that is both a little perturbing and witty, Timothy and the readers meet the other people who live in the mansion – and it's fair to say they're an eccentric bunch who wouldn't be out of place in an Agatha Christie novel. There's the elderly, undeniably shrewd former Earl's daughter who verbally spars with the repugnant ageing lothario who wants to be Michael Caine's Alfie; a pair of married doctors who bicker constantly and evidently have money worries; a woman who says she works as a researcher for a famous crime writer but refuses to name him; and a man living in the former servants' quarters who takes a close interest in Timothy's friend, Martha. Meanwhile, Martha is shown to be a habitual liar who stalks her married lover's wife on Facebook.
Throw them all together, add more murders which alert the police and press to the possibility of a serial killer being active, a noisy peacock and a missing baby owl, and the scene is set for an intriguing story featuring a plethora of suspects and red herrings. The investigation itself is shown to be painstaking and there seems to be no real sign of a breakthrough despite Toni and her team coming up with several potential leads. This is a slower driven, character-led novel that gradually reveals its secrets but there is an underlying sense of tension throughout the book, culminating in a terrific denouement which fittingly finds all the main players together on a stormy night with a killer in their midst. Having changed my mind several times during the course of the book, I had worked out the murderer before the reveal but the clues are there and I enjoyed having my suspicions proved correct.
The Companion is an engaging mystery which echoes classic whodunnits without feeling stale or derivative, and in DI Toni Kemp and Frankie Power has a double act I hope to see more of.
The Companion will be published by Aries on 9th June 2022 and is available to pre-order from bookshop.org, Hive, Amazon, Kobo or from your favourite independent bookshop.
Don't miss the rest of the blog tour, details are below.
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