Kissing the Demons: Book 3 in the Joe Plantagenet series

Joe Plantagenet #3

by Kate Ellis

A Joe Plantagenet murder mystery - Thirteen Torland Place is a house with a disturbing past. When a student living there is found murdered, DI Joe Plantagenet wonders whether her death has anything to do with its grim history. Then other, similar deaths come to light and he fears that a ruthless serial killer is at work. Could the deaths be connected to Obediah Shrowton, an executed murderer whose presence still seems to linger in the house? Or is there a yet more sinister and dangerous explanation?

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Thriller, British Literature, Police, Ebooks

336 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2011

About the author

Kate Ellis was born and brought up in Liverpool and she studied drama in Manchester. She worked in teaching, marketing and accountancy before first enjoying writing success as a winner of the North West Playwrights competition. Crime and mystery stories have always fascinated her, as have medieval history and archaeology which she likes to incorporate in her books. She is married with two grown up sons and she lives in North Cheshire, England, with her husband. Kate was awarded the CWA DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY award in 2019

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kissing the Demons by Kate Ellis
Joe Plantagenet Series Book #3
4 ★'s


What's It About?
Thirteen Torland Place is a house with a disturbing past. When a student living there is found murdered, DI Joe Plantagenet wonders whether her death has anything to do with its grim history. Then other, similar deaths come to light and he fears that a ruthless serial killer is at work. Could the deaths be connected to Obediah Shrowton, an executed murderer whose presence still seems to linger in the house? Or is there a yet more sinister and dangerous explanation?

What Did I Think?
If you enjoy a good, solid police procedural with strong supernatural overtones, you will diffidently like the Joe Plantagenet series. Kate Ellis has skillfully blended history with present-day crime to produce an outstanding series with excellent characters.

The story is complex...perhaps a bit too complex, which lost it the 5th star...and suspenseful. This is due partly to the fact that there are so many people who have a great deal to lose if their secrets are revealed. It's the third book in the series but it can very well be read as a standalone. However, something tells me that you'll want to go back to read the others. The atmosphere of the town of Eborby along with a strong story line and believable characters make this one a winner.

[L.E. Fidler · Rating 2 out of 5]

okay, seriously, eborby is a small city with a serial killer problem that would make mrs. fletcher salivate with the need, the need, for...speedy justice?

i don't know.

all i'm saying is: this town gets a lot of semi-possessed/haunted disappearances of young women that turn out really, really not good for those missing women and i'm a little worried that their police force seems so preoccupied with 1. their weights, 2. their spouses (living and dead), 3. their awful sister-in-laws, and 4. their last names.

oh wait. i wrote that rant already.

this one was good, but maybe two of these back to back was a bit much in retrospect. the ability to suspend disbelief was weak.

2.5 stars - not my favorite.

[Valerie Campbell Ackroyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Ellis' Plantagenet/Eborby series mainly because it's set in a fictional cathedral town that sounds like a mixture of York and Canterbury. I really enjoyed visiting York last year, Canterbury two years before. So, although her mysteries are quite grim, verging sometimes on the supernatural, I do like the series as I feel as if I am both "there" but also safely tucked up in my bed.

This one hinges on a creepy old house, murders of young women that at first seem to be random and then Plantagenet and his DCI Emily Thwaite realize it's a serial killer at work. I gave the book 3 stars because I found my attention wandering off quite a bit; I would put the book down for a week and not feel driven to pick it back up. And it's not super long either. Which could be more a function of me than the book but, nevertheless, it's a 3-star for me. Also there is one hanging thread at the end that bothered me, how and why one of the murders was committed. It didn't quite make sense. At least not to me.

However, I do like the series, it's almost as good as the other two Plantagenets I have read and I am indeed casting around to see if there's another.

[Carol Kerry-Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third Joe Plantagenet mystery and definitely a winner, as Ellis melds a tale of the cold case of two missing girls from 12 years ago with a series of murders some if which date back to almost the same time. Joe & his boss Emily have to try and work out what if anything connects the two cases; and what has 13 Torland Place, nortorious for being the scene of several murders in the 1890s have to do with the modern cases?

[Nancy Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thirteen Torland Place is supposedly haunted by the ghost of Obediah Shrowton, who murdered his family back in the 18th Century. A student currently living there is murdered, and when more murders occur, DI Joe Plantagenet wonders if there is any connection to the presence of the murderer which seems to linger in the house. He soon discovers an even more sinister explanation.

Joe is one of my favorite characters, and once again, the hint of the supernatural makes this even more enjoyable.

[Azara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was a good book with good amount of mystery I couldn’t have told you who was the killer until the end so solid read. Way too many characters tho considering how small the book was half way through I couldn’t tell who was who. Was just reading names and hoping it’ll make sense to me at some point. Apart from that it was a solid book

[Windy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining episode with plenty of suspects

[H. Daley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bit of a page turner!

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not enjoy this one as much as some from her Wesley Peterson series.

I found the characters dull and pretty much uninteresting. Found it impossible to actually care about what was happening.

Not sure I'll bother with another in this series.

[Eadie Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 3rd Joe Plantagenet Murder Mystery book by Kate Ellis. Although it was a decent mystery story, I actually enjoyed the first 2 books more than this one. For one thing, there were entirely too many murder victims from different time periods and it was too hard to figure out which ones were connected to the present murder victim. There were also too many characters who were surprisingly not who we thought they were. Too impossible to figure out the murderer where the plot is too complicated and every person is made to look like the guilty person. As you're reading the book, you head starts spinning and you end up totally confused. I'm still sticking with this series though, as I'm bound to get it right sooner or later. I would recommend this series for those who like hard to figure out murder mysteries.

[Larraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve really enjoyed the Joe Plantagenet series. Unfortunately, there haven’t been any lately. She continues to write the Wesley Peterson series which is good, but I came to it late. I’ve also enjoyed her Albert Lincoln series. The last one will be coming out this year. Whether it just wasn’t a big seller or she planned it as a limited series, I don’t know. The DI Joe Plantagenet series is one that I find especially interesting takes place in York, one of my favorite cities although, for whatever reason, the author has chosen to use a synonym for that city, but it IS York. York is an interesting city in northern England. It’s a beautiful city with an interesting history. It was the last outpost of the Roman Empire. Some residents say there are places that are haunted. I took a ghost tour there years ago. It was a lot of fun.

This book explores a series of brutal murders of young women. The book opens with a party at a house shared by a group of students. The house belonged to a man who was hung for the murder of his family although he protested his innocence right up to the end. The students are hosting a costume party and centers on one of the students a young woman, Petulia, who is dressed as a fairy and is described as having an ethereal beauty. At the same time Death enters the party. Nobody notices him other than to assume he is just another student, but of course he’s not.

Just as her Wesley Peterson books always include a secondary story about archaeology, this series always includes a secondary story about a ghost. This is no exception. It’s an entertaining and slightly spooky book. I hope Ms Ellis writes another one soon. I’m not a ghost story reader. These aren’t ghost stories. Rather they are stories about murder and ghosts and they are well written and always literate and gives the reader a bit of history.

[Ape · Rating 2 out of 5]

Er, no. I am not quite sure what her aim is with this modern muder series, whether there's a gothic, semi supernatural theme to it or what, but it just got a bit too sensationalist and silly for me. I was also disappointed as I'd read a book from one of her other series, and it was all right, so I thought this would be ok.

Another thing that grated for me was because I live in York. This book is set in York except she has decided to call it Eborby (wierd choice, mixing a bit of the roman name with some old norse.... I get that both cultures were here but I can't see the vikings absorbing the old roman history). And a lot of the street names are fictional, but you can guess where she means, but she also mixes in real place names. Why not just call it York? I can't see any benefit in this book at least of having this quasi fantasy version.

So it's a Plantagenet book, as in ex seminary student turned copper is investigating. He is haunted by the dead wife and his mad sister in law has turned up swearing she will prove he killed her sister.

That's not even what this book is about. Women keep turning up dead, stabbed in the heart and with a facial feature or fingers removed. All this is revolving around a creepy victorian muder house let to students and two teenage girls who vanished 12 years ago. A array of creepy male suspects to keep you reading to the end. The explanation gets more fantastical the further through you get.

[Debbie Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is part of the DI Joe Plantagenet series and this first one I have read, and it follows the familiar pattern of old mystery, fairly modern crime and a current killing. In this book the fairly modern crime is the resurrection of a cold case where two girls have disappeared, the current crime is a murdered student and the common thread is the century old murder which happened in the house with links to the other two investigations. 13 Torland Place near the City of Eborby in West Yorkshire is the key to all three mysteries and is in itself a house with its own secrets.

Like the DI Wesley Patterson series, this is full of history and police procedure and weaves a complex picture which becomes clear at the end. I really enjoy both series and will I read more, definitely, in fact I’m off to start another one right now.

[Terri Stokes · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third instalment in the Joe Plantagenet series, sees Joe and his partner Emily once again investigating a crime, which at first seems like just another case of a missing young girl, before it turns to one of murder, but that is not all, the victims address was once the scene of a gruesome slaughter in the 1800's.
With roommates feeling a presence and with a cold case of two missing girls from twelve years ago, weighing down on their shoulders, it is up to detective inspector Joe Plantagenet to get to the bottom of both cases before another young women is killed in cold blood.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

My second book by Kate Ellis and I did really enjoy it however I found myself having do suspend disbelief a few times and it also felt that the book was a bit cliche with the character of 'death'. It just felt a bit on the nose or a bit whimsical.

Despite this, I did really enjoy the book and unique plot, and I would say I have never read anything like it! I would recommend this book and anything else Kate Ellis writes despite this book not being my favourite in the series.

[Garth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Liked this one better than the previous two in the series. I feel as though I'm getting to know the characters now although I kept getting visions of the tv series 'Vera' in my mind's eye. Set in Yorkshire rather than NE England but there are a lot of similarities between Emily and Joe and Vera and Aiden. If you like detective series you should enjoy this.

[Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very different and harder hitting than the familiar Wesley Peterson series but nevertheless highly enjoyable and engaging. Set in a re-named York, Scouser Joe Plantagenet investigates the death of a student who just happened to live in an infamous house where something rather nasty lurks in the attic....

[Doreen Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed it. Interesting how everything, all the little pieces, fit into the puzzle. Not sure that I would have coped well with a mummified corpse, falling through the ceiling. And am very sure at least that I would have moved out of the house.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This had me on the edge of my seat throughout, trying to guess who “death” was. Great book, full of suspense. The main characters are unfolding nicely in this series of books. I didn’t want to put the book down and look forward to reading the next in this series

[Lynn McB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book but like I say almost all the characters had names beginning with J which meant my poor addled brain was even more confused. Loved the storyline though. Good mix of detective work and the occult.

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I’ll need to read the rest of this series. The killer wasn’t obvious but loads of misleads along the way. The story had a few twists and turns with more than one case at play. Overall an interesting read that I enjoyed.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up without realising it was part of a series, but this didn’t matter at all.
It’s a well written murder mystery, the characters are interesting, and I didn’t guess the killer.
4.5 stars for me😊

[❤️‍🔥 · Rating 2 out of 5]

was okay, i feel like i shouldve read the other three first to like the characters more or know what actually happened with his wife but i had no idea until i was half way through it was the third in the series, it still made enough sense though. i love a grumpy detective

[Linda Frances · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars
A little too gothic.

[LaShana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. People died and the case was solved.

[Sarah Glaze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great storyline
Riveted
Really enjoyed this book

[Cynthia Kauffmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite grisly but I liked the plot.

[Kara Rowley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool and scary

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tense and disturbing but Joe and Emily get their man.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too creepy for me

I won’t keep going on this series. Maybe some day when the world isn’t already so crazy but definitely not now in 2022.