top of page
Barbara Copperthwaite

Review: DEATH STALKS KETTLE STREET, John Bowen


Death Stalk Kettle Street, by John Bowen. Review by Barbara Copperthwaite

“A fun cosy mystery that will keep you guessing all the way”

THEY SAY

Some accidents are no accident...

Someone is murdering Greg Unsworth's neighbours and staging the deaths to look like accidents.

Greg knows the truth, but when he's grappling with OCD and simply closing his front door and crossing the road are a battle, how is he supposed to catch a serial killer?

From the internationally bestselling author of Where the Dead Walk, Vessel and Cold Sweats & Vignettes comes a cosy murder mystery with a difference...

Meet Greg Unsworth, afflicted with OCD, who begins to realize that a series of fatal accidents on his street are in fact a series of murders. After encountering Beth Grue at the scene of one such crime, the two bond over their shared fears and suspicions, and struggles: Beth has cerebral palsy. When the police repeatedly dismiss their concerns, they take matters into their own hands and attempt to discover the killer's identity and expose him...

I SAY

Death Stalks Kettle Street is a fun cosy mystery that will keep you guessing all the way. It is the central characters, Beth and Greg, who steal the show for me though. Beth has CP, while Greg has severe OCD, a condition that rules his life. Both characters have their own very different struggles in the world. But when they come together to discover just why there have been so many unfortunate ‘accidents’ in the seemingly ‘normal’ Kettle Street, the pair form a dynamic duo.

Greg’s OCD and his struggles against it are exhausting to read at times, and author John Bowen handles it with great care. But it never detracts from the mystery, and I was rooting for Greg and Beth as they dashed around (sometimes having to count backwards down from 100 in order to cross the road – which in the middle of a tense scene made me want to scream in frustration along with poor Greg).

I loved the clever cast of potential killers (all of whom kept me guessing and changing my mind about whodunit) and the ingenious deaths as neighbours dropped like flies. As a result, this book was devoured in one afternoon.

I was sad to say goodbye to Greg and Beth, and would definitely welcome the chance to see more of them in action. John Bowen’s got himself a winning team!

66 views0 comments
bottom of page