Murder Undeniable is my first Anita Waller read and is the first in the Kat and Mouse series. What a good yarn this was. Not gruesome but very enjoyable. A good combination of characters with Kat (a church deacon), Mouse (a student and an escort at the beginning of the book) and Nan or Doris, Mouse's grandmother but what an unusual grandmother. There are a few murders throughout the book but the gruesomeness factor is not very high. The three women use their various not inconsiderable skills to dig up clues and information to hopefully solve the cases. ( )

A new dynamic duo

What do you get when a deacon and a former escort join forces.....a fun new mystery that breaks conventions. Full of resourceful female characters, the first of a trilogy, this is a fun book to read. ( )

Anita Waller is a Sheffield writer and, as a Sheffielder myself, I was ashamed to say I hadn't read any of her books before. I knew I had to rectify that when Murder Undeniable was published. In fact, this book is primarily set in the Derbyshire plague village of Eyam, but Sheffield still features quite strongly.

Reverend Katerina Rowe, known as Kat, is a deacon at Eyam parish church. Married to pharmacist, Leon, all seems good in her life. Until they discover a dead man and an almost dead woman down the alleyway at the side of one of Leon's shops. Kat turns into a sort of guardian angel for the woman, Beth, and her grandmother, Doris. They all turn into unlikely sleuths but in doing so, Kat makes discoveries that completely rock her world.

I must admit that this book wasn't quite what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be quite gritty and I realise now that, although it has some quite shocking events contained within it, it's actually much more of a cosy mystery. Not my usual genre but I did enjoy this story a lot. I liked the main female characters. Kat is strong and dedicated, Beth is clever and determined and Doris, well Doris is like no grandmother I've ever come across. As a crime-fighting trio they work incredibly well together.

I loved the settings. I had a bit of a thrill when one of the characters mentioned somebody getting the same bus as I often catch and getting off somewhere that is really familiar to me. There's something a little bit special about that. And Eyam is somewhere I have visited and which is a well known, picturesque country village so that was great too.

I had to suspend belief a little bit at times. No vicar I know would have the spare time to run around solving murders, but that's the whole point of fiction isn't it? Waller certainly writes a good mystery with characters that you can't help but like (and some you can't help but dislike too).

Murder Undeniable is a cracking story and marks the first of the Kat and Mouse trilogy (Beth's nickname is Mouse). I wonder what these female warriors will get up to next. ( )