Reviewed by Lesley
TITLE: Murder in Shades of Blue and Green
SERIES: DS Charlie Rees #1
AUTHOR: Ripley Hayes
PUBLISHER: Self -published
LENGTH: 238 Pages
RELEASE DATE: April 30, 2023
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:
I normally have a routine when I write reviews. I fill in all the peripheral details on the form and then write the actual review. I am so excited by this book & moving on to the next one I am writing the review first.
As you may have guessed I really enjoyed this book. Why haven’t I read any Ripley Hayes before? Definitely a miss on my part.
This book sees DS Charlie Rees moved to new police force after an embarrassing encounter where he sleeps with a suspected murderer on holiday. (Murder in Shades of Yellow- which I haven’t read, and I don’t feel like it impacted my enjoyment of this book). He is brought into an existing police force in a small town in North Wales. This is where we meet a cast of new characters that make up the revitalised Llanfair police force. The description of the police station and town instantly make me think of some of the police dramas that have been on TV recently that I have also loved.
I am purposefully not going to tell anymore of the story because I don’t want to give anything anyway. I will however confess I didn’t see all the twists coming which added to my enjoyment.
This book is a really well written crime story, where the focus of the book is on it being a murder mystery, not the characters sexuality. Yes, DS Charlie Rees is gay and yes there is a love interest (and one sex scene) but that is just a relatively small part of the story.
I also really liked that this book talks about art in an intelligent way. As someone who isn’t really into art but has been dragged around a few galleries by her mother over the years I instantly recognised the paintings being discussed and could instantly visualise them. Saying that please don’t let that discourage you from reading this book as it is explained to Charlie who doesn’t recognise them in a really clear, descriptive way.
If you are a fan of murder mysteries and are not worried about a high heat rating, then this is a book for you.
RATING: 
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