Dead Before Morning

Rafferty and Llewellyn Police Procedural Series #1

by Geraldine Evans, Bookbrush-Evans (Illustrator)

Librarian note: alternate-cover edition for B004EYUHN8.

Detective Inspector Joe Rafferty has just been promoted. Then he lands the case from Hell, one involving a corpse with a mutilated face, a private psychiatric hospital and Dr Anthony Melville-Briggs, the suave, social-climbing owner, who thinks his money can buy everything, even the police.

As if that isn't enough, his Ma, Kitty Rafferty, has another little problem for him: to get his distant cousin out of the cells in time for his wedding. Against his better judgement, Rafferty promises to get his cousin sprung, though he is careful not to give a time-scale for the Great Escape.

Struggling, with no solution in sight, it is only when he is reminded of his forgotten promise and goes to see his jail-bird cousin, that Rafferty begins to put the case to bed.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Cozy Mystery, Procedural, Amazon, Mystery Thriller, British Literature

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

aka Geraldine Hartnett.

I'm a British author and live in Norfolk, England. I write mystery/detective novels and have two series on the go: Rafferty & Llewellyn and Casey & Catt.

Series:

* Rafferty and Llewellyn Mystery
* Casey and Catt Mystery

I also write historical novels, of which my first is Reluctant Queen: The Story of Mary Rose Tudor, the Defiant Little Sister of Infamous English king, Henry VIII.

Reviews

[Carol, She's so Novel ꧁꧂ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very average but that is often the case with first books in a planned series. Author tried to fit waaay too much about Rafferty's past/personal life in & the exchanges between Rafferty & his underling Llewellyn often felt forced - & again too much background information was given. While I am being critical, throughout the book there was too much telling & not enough showing.

By the end of the book (around the 77% mark) I was starting to get bored & skimmed a bit - so I had to reread a bit to work out the reasons for the crime.

I wouldn't rule out reading another book by Ms Evans - now that the characters of Rafferty & Llewellyn have been sketched out the series may improve.

But I'm not in any rush.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

** Reread January 2024 to refresh my memory. I'm going on to read more in the series. Still thoroughly enjoyable. **

Original Review:

I give this novel a solid 3.5 stars.

I SO enjoyed this book - in fact most English crime mysteries and procedurals are close to my heart.
This is the first book in what looks to be a lengthy series, so I'm sure any teething problems with our D.I. & D.S. characters getting along will eventually smooth out. Written well, it held my attention till the end trying to work out the "whodunit" amongst the varied cast of flawed characters.
I'm adding more of this series from the author onto this years reading list.

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked parts of it

Ok so I liked parts of this book. I enjoyed the murder investigation and watching the case unfold, and I enjoyed a couple of the secondary characters.

However, there were several things I didn't like. I was annoyed by Rafferty and his obsession with Llewellyn's "university education." It was exhausting. I get it he was annoyed and jealous. But every single chapter made mention of how Llewellyn thought he was better than Rafferty... If anything Rafferty thought he was better because he had street smarts instead of book smarts. I imagine the author intended for the reader to pick up on that... And I did, but I don't need to be beaten over the head with it. Maybe it calms down in the later books of the series. I liked Rafferty much better by the end of the book. Another thing I didn't enjoy was the portrayal of all children of pastors having a dreary life where they spend all their time in doors alone and miserable. I'm sure there are some who experience that, but as the child of a minister, I never experienced any of that, and I didn't appreciate a few of the disparaging comments made about Christians in relation to Llewellyn. It was completely unnecessary to the plot of the book. It literally had nothing to do with the story. Lastly, while I enjoyed the case, it dragged during the middle of the book, and then all of the sudden, everything was magically tied up within a couple of pages. It just seemed to neat and easy at the end, and it felt very rushed.

I'm not sure if I will read the other books in the series. I don't know that I connected with Rafferty very well. He was to negative and complained a lot, and while I love sarcasm, I don't think the author did a good job of writing it. The dialogue felt forced every time Rafferty attempted sarcasm, and I just wanted it to stop.

[Carol Bridgestock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had a hold on me from the start. It had everything a crime novel should have including so many twists and turns that I thought I had solved the mystery several times. Loved the twist at the end. Can't wait to get my head into Geraldine's latest that is sitting on my bedside table for tonight! Excellent!

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Newly promoted inspector Joseph Rafferty has a large, rambunctious and not always law-abiding family distracting him from investigating the bludgeoning death of a young woman. There are a number of possible suspects, but Joe thinks the owner of the psychiatric hospital where the body is found--a notorious womanizer--must be faking his perfect alibi. His new assistant, Sgt. Llewellyn, is equally sure that Joe is letting his dislike of the man color his investigation. Joe is irritated by what he sees as Llewellyn's showing off his education. In the end, it takes both men to solve the crime, and Joe's recognition of Llewellyn's good points to make the future team of them. A good start to the series.

[Ted Tayler · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A police procedural with hidden depths"

Rafferty & Llewellyn could become another pair of male Inspector/ Sergeant combinations much admired by British TV audiences. They are the antithesis of Morse & Lewis, they share some traits with Dalziel & Pascoe, but over the whole series from Geraldine Evans no doubt their own style becomes established. This is the first of their cases I have read.
US audiences don't really get many similar pairings, and with many police series tightly framed inside a fifty-minute box it's hard to develop a plot in the way this writer does. Many readers will find this story too long. In part, that's because the diet of 'easy-read' books, and fast-paced cop shows has caused audiences to want a minimalist approach. They don't have time to just sit and lose themselves in a complex story.
That's a shame. Perhaps there are a few plot issues with this book. Maybe it's not as in tune with today's market as some of those written in the past year. However, I would urge you to re-read the conversation between the two detectives and Linda Wilks's parents, as an example.
Those few paragraphs alone revealed so much about families lives. The relationship between the father and mother. The mother's relationship with her late daughter. Ditto for the father. The twitching curtains that offered an insight into how the two parents viewed their neighbours, and vice versa. Rafferty & Llewellyn learned an awful lot too about Linda Wilks's relationship with each of her parents. There were so many layers in those paragraphs that as a reader one could sit back and probe further into what those three characters' lives were like. This may have had a few shortcomings, but its description of the human condition was beautifully observed throughout.

[John Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one looked interesting sat in my wife's Kindle archive just when I was in need of my next read.
It started off all right and seemed like one of my type of English village murder mysteries. I absorbed the main characters and the early action easily enough but by half way through it was getting a bit hard going.
I finished it although by that time I wasn't really bothered who the murderer was and there was little fanfare and drums or even excitement when the identity was uncovered. If I am honest, I didn't really think that the reasoning was that convincing either.
In the section about the author, after the epilogue , we are advised that her two crime series are "police procedural with a lot of humour'. I am sorry but I found little humour and the relationship between the two 'stars' was awkward and particularly without humour, but I have just finished reading the DI Priest series by Stuart Pawson and so I might be spoilt.
On Kindle this is titled "Dead before Morning (First in the critically acclaimed Rafferty & Llewellyn mystery series)" The title seems to have little to do with the narrative and as for critically acclaimed, I am sorry but I didn't think that there was anything special about this one at all.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

My interest was piqued in this series, since it seems to crop up in recommendations and searches I've done for other mysteries. Thought I give it a go.

Not really disappointing, but not really as satisfying as expected. This is the first in the series, so this will not stop me from continuing. However, Joseph Rafferty is a bit of an enigma in this book. I don't quite know what to make of him and the series. He doesn't seem in question as much as his family does - there are hints of questionable practices there, and even an outright "burglar" marrying a cousin of his. He does seem insecure because of his educational and Irish background, especially as he compares himself to his partner, an intelligent and well educated, though a "rookie" police man. I guess time will tell.

I guess Rafferty was a bit too human and had too many foibles for me to really embrace, though I did like him. Hopefully, he matures as the series grows. While I like his emotional and instinctive investigation skills, he still seems a bit immature, insecure and going of a bit more half-cocked than I would like.

[Paige Bentch-pruitt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible

I personally could not finish this book. The characters are stiff, unlikeable and poorly written. Extremely slow moving. The main character Rafferty is self-centered and seems to jump to conclusions without proof. This is definitely not a cozy mystery

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story is good enough, but the writing isn't. I won't be reading any more books by Ms. Evans.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

So British that the author has included a list of expressions in the back for reference.

Written in 1993 I believe this series was updated in 20111. This is book one of 18. I expected more humor form all of the hype about this series.

Newly promoted to Det. Inspector, Irish Catholic Joseph Rafferty's new partner is Dafyd Llewellyn is a Welshman and son of a Protestant preacher. Their first case - solving the murder of a young woman found on the grounds of a high-end, posh psychiatric hospital.

A steady investigation and a conclusion that came out of left field, though not unexpected.

My TBR pile has books that interest me more than continuing with this series at least for now.

[Pat Barbosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. As I was reading/listening, I felt I was with the Inspector and his partner interviewing police suspects for a brutal murder case. Quite a few twists and turns until the end. A real whodunit!!

[Cindy B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the main character’s growth in this novel. As advertised it was a clean and an entertaining read. I signed up for the author’s newsletter, not a usual for me but I liked the pace and clearness of the plot and characters.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Satisfying police procedural.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was confused when I started this book - while it says that it is first in series, I felt that there must have been a prior book because we jumped right into the characters and personality traits I felt I should have known. I did not feel like we were building, and getting to know, two characters together.
The story had promise, the body of a young adult female found on the grounds of a sanitarium, accessed only by keyed entry. Sort of a locked room mystery.
But I felt the story was overshadowed by the main character, Rafferty, and his quirks. He feels inferior to his partner because his partner is educated. He feels out of place among the well heeled in society. And he needs a haircut and he needs to change his tie because it had today's egg on it. Sigh.
Again, I thought the mystery had promise, and I liked the way that came together, but the characters did not pull me towards feeling that I must go to book 2.....
Overall, it was ok.

[AngryGreyCat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dead Before Morning is the first in the Rafferty and Llewellyn British Mysteries by Geraldine Evans, a police procedural featuring a pair of very different detectives. Rafferty is a little rough around the edges, a widower with no children but a large extended family, who apparently dabble on the wrong side of the law. Llewellyn is an intellectual man, with an aversion to “messiness” in every form. They work together to solve a case centering around a local psychiatric facility and its founder, drug addicts, and prostitutes. There are some interesting characters/suspects to sort through and a little to neatly tied up conclusion. The partnership works but the writing needs to be tightend up some. This was definitely on the lighter side of police procedural even though the subjects were dark. I’ll try another in the series, as I have it waiting on my Kindle.

[Ron Chicaferro · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like a good British mystery then you'll like Dead Before Morning. Detective Inspector Rafferty and his partner, Detective Sergeant Llewellyn are as different as two people can be. They both approach the murder of a young woman with two different styles although Sergeant Llewellyn always defers to his senior officer. This is the story of a brutal murder and how love and hate play pivotal roles. The banter between the protagonists can be funny at times but the game is deadly serious. Geraldine Evans' writing style is straight forward. You get the benefit of not only the dialogue but also their thinking. A very good and satisfying story.

[Eric_W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recently promoted DI Rafferty and his overly-educated sergeant Llewellyn (shades of Lewis) are sent out to a local mental hospital where a young woman, her face smashed into an unrecognizable pulp, has been found on the grounds.

Billed as a detective cozy mystery, I would probably classify it more as a police procedural. The ending was perhaps too “deus ex machina”, as I’m always a bit suspicious of the sudden illumination to the detective of who did it and why.

[Val Sanford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this mystery, with an uptight Welsh sergeant and an Irish chip-on-his-shoulder DIS paired up to solve the vicious murder of a young woman left dead on the grounds of a mental sanatorium. The characters grew on me as I began to see the human side of our two police officers, and the human side of the suspects. I did not guess the culprit, which is always fun.

[Mary Kay Kare · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, that was awful. There wasn't one single solitary person in that book I liked or cared about. The 2 policemen were each awful in his own way. I can't believe so many of these books got published. The same audience that reads the Dalziel & Pascoe books perhaps. I don't understand it. If the main character is unlikeable what's the point?

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good, solid British police procedural with realistic characters and some humor as well!

[sarg · Rating 3 out of 5]

British police procedural so.far its pritty good read

[Little Red Readinghood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice little mystery. It's British and I don't much care for the main character but I read another book later in the series and liked it. As this is the first book I will continue to read the series.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Conjecture!
This book is full of it.
Apparently, this is the first of the Rafferty and Llewellyn British detective series, and it does not appear to be very well written. In this novel, the author depicts Rafferty, a Detective Inspector who is disorganized and prone to snap judgements, and his teammate Detective Sergeant Llewellyn, highly educated, and cool as a cucumber. It appears that the author uses Rafferty's conjectures to fill otherwise blank pages, and it does not help this slow-moving story at all.

A girl has been brutally murdered on the grounds of a private sanitarium in England. (The author calls it a "sanatorium," which is a hospital used to treat tuberculosis patients in the US, but apparently not in England.) The owner and general manager of the facility is the wealthy and powerful Dr. Melville-Briggs, and his clients (patients) are the members of England's wealthy and powerful families. Rafferty immediately suspects him. Until, that is, he learns that the doctor was attending an event for physicians that even the police surgeon was attending, giving the man a perfect alibi. Rafferty's suspicions then turn to Dr. Simon Smythe, a researcher who works for the powerful man. Not to forget Charge Nurse Allward, who is male, and who is known to occasionally leave his station at the hospital of an evening and sneak off to the local pub.

Then there is the competing physician, Dr. Whittaker, who runs a lower-grade facility just a few miles from the site of the murder. He has clashed physically with the great Dr. Melville-Briggs, even though they hardly compete for patients. Dr. Whittaker is focused on finding a cure for Alzheimer's Disease, and on caring for the poor, while Meyers-Briggs focuses on making money.

The dead girl's face has been beaten so badly that she is not recognizable, but the police are eventually able to identify her as a local prostitute who was two months pregnant at the time of her death. The murderer must have been a man, right? Rafferty isn't sure. He continues to run around that part of England suspecting everybody with little evidence against anybody. Does he come across as being incompetent? I think so. He is hardly my idea of a competent detective, or of a likeable principal character in a novel, but you might not agree.

[Saundra Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

First morning of his new promotion and Joe Rafferty already has too much on his plate! An enigmatic Welsh Sergeant Llewellyn for a new partner, his mum is calling for him to spring his cousin, Jailhouse Jack, from jail and there's an inidentifiable body at a posh private psychiatric hospital waiting to be investigated. All this and Rafferty's chief is off on a two week holiday. So things had better be wrapped up in short order if Rafferty wants to keep his promotion!

Once the investigation gets rolling, you are surrounded by a plethora of suspects, plot twists and turns and layers of mystery to peel back one at a time. Enlivened with Ms. Evans original characters, richly developed. You will love the glimpses into Rafferty's family! The story is greatly enhanced throughout with sharp wit and wraps up with a rather unpredictable conclusion. The beginning of a truly great detective series! I was gifted a copy of the box set which includes this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[BooksCoffee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evans's first installment in Rafferty and Llewellyn Police Procedural Series see DI Rafferty and Sergeant Llewellyn investigating vicious murder of a young woman at an unlikely place.

Recently promoted Detective Inspector Joe Rafferty and Detective Sergeant Llewellyn are sent out to a local psychiatric institution to investigate brutal murder of an unidentified young woman. The pair’s digging into the lives of hospital staff and other people stirs fears of what secrets might be revealed.

The gusty, resolute Rafferty and the gruff, scholarly Llewellyn’s odd pairing and their comic banter is a treat to read. Illegal drugs, jealous colleagues, and scorned lovers all mix into the intrigue. Short chapters with top-notch prose, and catchy, ironic dialogue keep the action moving.

Evans’s successful maintenance of the spunk and humor throughout the story will earn her a devoted following.

[Nini · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice easy read whilst sat out in the garden. This was both undemanding and interesting enough for me to read it in two sittings. The detectives have been set up to have great opportunity for some humorous exchanges. I found that in this, their debut outing, most of the time outside of the investigation was spent cramming in information about their respective backgrounds rather than the humour that was promised in the reviews.
I fully expect to read another in this series, if like me you are familiar with the cozy mystery genre this should feel like a pleasant and comfortable read for you, even if you are in no immediate rush to pick up book 2.

[France Nadeau · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story had a good base, but unfortunately, the protagonist was too self-centered and judging for my taste. He was opinionated about everything--every two sentences, it seemed--and every tid bits was an opportunity to tell something about him. That affected, in my opinion, the fluidity of the scenes. Also, I cannot stand the way he spoke about his mother--with much disrespect (I might be opinionated, here). By chapter 10, it all became too much. I skipped the remaining chapters and went to the end to learn who did it.

[Alana Byers-Crawford · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was okay. The writing style was okay. The plot was heavily used and okay. The characters were okay.
I love a good a mystery/crime/thriller type book but unfortunately this one fell a little short. It took a while to get into and even then there was nothing overall enjoyable about it that kept me going back for more.
The plot was pretty predictable and even the attempted twists were expected and not that surprising. There was no real action to go along with the story and when it was worked out who the killer was it all ended really quickly.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good British murder mystery.

I thought this was a very good book; not brilliant, but very good. The characters are presented in a realistic fashion, warts and all. The writing is witty and well done. Very entertaining overall, and I cared what happened to the characters, whether good or bad!

Overall, I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a bunch of odd characters in the English countryside solving a mystery.