Death at Crookham Hall by Michelle Salter – Book review and Blog Tour

I’m pleased to be part of the Racheal’s Random Resources Blog Tour for Death at Crookham Hall by Michelle Salter.

A fatal jump. A missing suffragette. An inexplicable murder. 

London, 1920. When she catches news of a big story, reporter Iris Woodmore rushes to the House of Commons. But it’s a place that holds painful memories. In 1914, her mother died there when she fell into the River Thames during a daring suffragette protest. But in the shadow of Big Ben, a waterman tells Iris her mother didn’t fall – she jumped. 

Iris discovers that the suffragette with her mother that fateful day has been missing for years, disappearing just after the protest. Desperate to know the truth behind the fatal jump, Iris’s investigation leads her to Crookham Hall, an ancestral home where secrets and lies lead to murder…

Review

Death at Crookham Hall by Michelle Salter is a murder mystery set just after World War I, just after women won the right to vote (some women anyway) and were just beginning to step into a world outside of marriage and babies.

I received a copy of the book for a free and unbiased opinion.

Iris is a 21-year-old aspiring reporter taking advantage of the new opportunities for women especially since her mother was a suffragette who died in the middle of one of the protests. Iris’s world is turned upside when she finds out her mother jumped rather than fell into the Thames and one of her mother’s suffragette friends vanished at the same time. Iris investigates these two events with help of her colleagues and former suffragettes.

There are several mysteries to be solved and no one is quite what they seem- the eventual murderer and motive took me completely by surprise. But I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the political campaigning of the three candidates- two women and a man in a time when a woman MP would have been completely unheard of.

The issues discussed in the books through the candidates, unfortunately, seem relevant today- workers’ rights versus more profits, access to affordable housing, women’s rights, and protecting the environment over expanding businesses.

Iris, herself is a fascinating character a woman navigating a new world of employment, dating, hairdresser and shortening hemlines

Content Warning

References to sexual assault and domestic violence.

Perfect for Fans

Historical Cosy Crime

About Michelle Salter​

Michelle Salter is a historical crime fiction writer based in northeast Hampshire. Many local locations appear in her mystery novels. She’s also a copywriter and has written features for national magazines. When she’s not writing, Michelle can be found knee-deep in mud at her local nature reserve. She enjoys working with a team of volunteers undertaking conservation activities.

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