Death on the Prowl

Campbell and Carter Mystery #8

by Ann Granger

The eighth Campbell and Carter mystery from much-loved crime writer Ann Granger is sure to appeal to fans of her Mitchell and Markby mysteries, as well as to fans of Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club series.

When Jerry Harrison receives an unwelcome visitor at his remote Cotswold cottage one winter's night, the last thing he expects is to end up dead. But, next morning, his cleaners find him fatally stabbed and the police have a murder inquiry on their hands.

At first, Inspector Jess Campbell and Superintendent Ian Carter aren't sure of the victim's identity, but it's not long before a neighbour, Eleanor Holder, comes forward with her opinions on the deceased. Jerry Harrison was not a popular man in the village of Weston St Ambrose; his aunt's tragic death led to him inheriting her cottage and many of the locals still see him as an outsider.

With no witnesses coming forward and very little evidence to go on, Jess and Ian must dig deep to find the answers to this baffling case. But not before another villager is attacked and left for dead...

Genres: Mystery, British Literature, Audiobook

262 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 5, 2024

About the author

Ann Granger attended the Northern Grammar School for Girls, and had thoughts about becoming a veterinarian, but discovered women were not accepted into vet schools because they were not believed to be strong enough. Instead she earned a Modern Languages degree at the University of London, where she first developed a desire to become a writer. worked in British embassies in various parts of the world. She met her husband, who was also working for the British Embassy, in Prague and together they received postings to places as far apart as Munich and Lusaka. They had two children.

Her first novels were historical romances published under the nom de plume Ann Hulme.

In 1991, Granger made the decision to switch to crime novels, saying, "Basically, there is only one plot in love stories: You can describe it in different ways, but you always come back to the subject of man and woman. Crime fiction opens up a world of possibilities for the writer. It lets you tackle deep and difficult issues." Her first crime novel, Say it with Poison, centred on the protagonists Meredith Mitchell, a consular clerk, and police officer Alan Markby. The book proved popular and Granger wrote 14 more Mitchell & Markby novels between 1991 and 2004.

Granger also wrote other crime novel series & in 2021, in recognition of thirty years of crime novels, Granger released a collection of eighteen short stories, Mystery in the Making.

On 24 September 2025, her publisher Headline announced that Granger had died at the age of 86

This autobiography was added to with information from Wikipedia & Encyclopedia.com.

Reviews

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started off well but got a bit confusing. A good read though.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3

Quick easy read.
Fairly unremarkable story I thought. The plot is slight and very thin with nothing for the reader to really engage with. Reading the novel is a very passive activity and nothing about the plot made me think.
The best part of the novel were the characters , both series protagonists and the ‘locals’. Quite well drawn and easy to spend time .

So overall not terrible, but nothing new, original or interesting in a detective/mystery novel

[Sarah H · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is quite possibly the worst book of the year. The plot is really thin, most of the book is made up of introducing characters and explaining their relationships, plus the overly repeated fact ; no one liked Jerry Harrison. To me, it felt like the author wrote this for people with onset of dementia, by the amount key points that were repeated.

[Sarah Woods · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first Ann Granger novel and I really enjoyed it. A great mystery. with interesting characters but not too taxing. Lovely to curl up with on a long winter's evening, I will definitely look for more by this author!

[Colin Andrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first book by Anne Granger that I had read. I found it rather uninspiring with stereotyped characters, and fairly predictable culprits, though with an unexpected twist at the end. It won't put me off reading more of her books in the hope that others have more appeal.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

After a visitor to his cottage, Jerry ends up dead. When the police start investigating they find his aunt was more popular than him. Nobody liked him. Nobody really knew him. Can they figure out who would want to kill him?

Great police procedural.

[Jill Stirling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever plotting, but perhaps a bit too much time spent with dialogue between the villages. Not enough time spent with the police solving the crime. The end was strange.

[Lorraine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slow start but gradually gained momentum. Quite a lot of characters to try and keep up with and a confusing ending.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe jumping in at book 8 of a series was not the best idea.

[JenniferB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story. Good characters.

[Amarni · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit thinner than the rest of this series. The last third was drawn out and harder to finish than her other books.

[BRT · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good mystery but a bit repetitive with information at times.