My Review of Treble Clef by Malcolm Hollingdrake

Treble Clef – Malcolm Hollingdrake The Harrogate Crime Series #8
Blurb

Harrogate attracts hundreds of players to the annual Games Convention and for one player it is the perfect opportunity to kill by the mechanics of his own sinister game. 

Each victim will die in the same way. Each will be classed as the loser and their time will have run out. The escape room and the game table will draw more, each believing they are invincible. 

However, in every game there is always a traitor waiting in the wings.

The latest in the bestselling Harrogate Crime Series– discover your next favourite crime series now. 

Treble Clef is available at Amazon: viewbook.at/TrebleClef

The Harrogate Crime Series:
#1 Only the Dead – viewbook.at/OnlyTheDead
#2 Hell’s Gate – viewbook.at/HellsGate 
#3 Flesh Evidence – viewbook.at/FleshEvidence 
#4 Game Point – viewbook.at/GamePoint  
#5 Dying Art  – viewbook.at/DyingArtMH
#6 Crossed Out – viewbook.at/CrossedOut  

#7 The Third Breath  – viewbook.at/TheThirdBreath 

 Thank you to Caroline Vincent for inviting me to take part in this blog tour.

.Malcolm Hollingdrake – Author Bio

You could say that the writing was clearly on the wall for someone born in a library that they might aspire to be an author, but to get to that point Malcolm Hollingdrake has travelled a circuitous route.

Malcolm worked in education for many years, even teaching for a period in Cairo before he started writing, a challenge he had longed to tackle for more years than he cares to remember. 

He has written a number of successful short stories, has nine books now available and is presently writing the eighth crime novel set in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. 

Born in Bradford and spending three years at Ripon College, Malcolm has never lost his love for his home county, a passion that is reflected in the settings for all the DCI Bennett novels. 

Currently, Malcolm is writing a new series which is set in Merseyside. 

Malcolm has enjoyed many hobbies including collecting works by Northern artists; the art auctions offer a degree of excitement when both buying and certainly when selling. It is a hobby he has bestowed upon DCI Cyril Bennett, the main character in his successful Bennett series.

Malcolm Hollingdrake on Social Media

Author Website                malcolmhollingdrakeauthor.co.uk
Twitter                          twitter.com/MHollingdrake
Facebook Author Page         bit.ly/FBtoMHdrake
Goodreads Author Page        bit.ly/GRtoMHdrake

Amazon Author Page                     bit.ly/AmtoMHdrake

My Review:

Treble Clef is the eighth book in the Harrogate Crime series and my first, but not the last, encounter with DCI Cyril Bennett and his department. Initial fears that I may not not understand who was who and their previous relationships to each other were quickly allayed as I immersed myself into the town of Harrogate and all its beauty. Malcolm Hollingdrake evokes Harrogate so well that I feel I know it and will recognise places when I get the chance to visit.

The novel is a police procedural in which the Bennett must lead his troops and solve bizarre and grotesque clues left by the murderer. It seems unsolvable but you can't help rooting for the police and also have a greater level of understanding as to just how much they sacrfice and suffer to both protect us and bring criminals to justice. The real world is expertly brought in to the story with talk of budget cuts and positive discrimination and the impact they have on police officers' lives. Home lives could be shatered beyond repair as police officers but they have a job to do that must be done and they do it. If I was a police office I'd like the portrayl of my job in Treble Clef. The realism of office politics that everbody has to deal with made me both grimace and smile. It is a real strength of Malcolm Hollingdrake's that he conveys the real world so expertly. 

The plot is superb; I loved Hollingrake's use of a gaming convention as a backdrop to the narrative and found it an inspired way to add an extra level of depth and Bennett's references to Cluedo made me chuckle. The idea of good versus bad, the police versus the criminal reminded me constantly of the binary opposites constantly in play in our society. 

Hollingdrake's subversion of stereotypes is exqusitely done. Pensioners in the novel are not sitting home alone in a damp flat and afraid to turn up the heating. Valerie and Jim were my favourite characters, you'll see why, both have enjoyable lives and both are contribute to the case being solved. I was impressed by the way Malcolm Hollingdrake challenged stereotypes, we are all so much more than people expect us to be.

Finally, I look forward to reading both the previous seven and the next seven too, and would highly recommend that you visit DCI Bennett in Harrogate too!!