Glass House

The Falconer Files #11

by Andrea Frazer

A neglected house in the village of Fairmile Green is suddenly descended upon by a veritable army of builders and tradespeople, and the locals are - mostly - enchanted to discover that it has been bought by the new media darling and winner of reality TV show The Glass House, Chadwick McMurrough. It is only when he and his new partner, Bailey Radcliffe, move in that the locals' hostility begins to become evident. After months of relentless noise during the property's transformation, the newly restored peace is shattered, much to the neighbours' chagrin, when McMurrough rashly introduces highly vocal peacocks into his huge rear garden. Ominously, older feelings of resentment towards the couple are stirred up by the nearby presence of both their ex-partners. What with that uncomfortable situation, and the birds' constant crimes causing ructions, the couple's residence undoubtedly makes serious ripples in the usually tranquil pond of village life. And when the attempts on Chadwick McMurrough's life begin, the game is afoot, and the police are called in. It is not long before Detective Inspector Harry Falconer and Detective Sergeant 'Davey' Carmichael have a murder to solve - and things don't stop there ...

Genres: Mystery

226 pages, Paperback

First published January 16, 2014

About the author

An ex-member of Mensa (bored!),Andrea Frazer is married, with four grown-up children, and lives in the Dordogne with her husband Tony and their seven cats. She has wanted to write since she first began to read at the age of five, but has been a little busy raising a family and working as a lecturer in Greek (she has a Fellowship Diploma in Greek), and teaching music.
Apart from writing, Andrea continues to teach music, and now also teaches French to ex-pats.
Her interests include playing several instruments (but not all at the same time!), reading, and choral singing (she sings with two choirs in a nearby town). In her spare time, she breathes!

Reviews

[Damaskcat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fairmile Green has just got over several months of noisy renovations and is settling down for some much needed peace and quiet when the new owner of what was Orchard House and is now called Glass House import a flock of Peacocks to their extensive garden. The newly established peace is shattered at all hours of the day and night and the much tried villagers could almost be forgiven for plotting vengeance. If you add to the mix the spurned former partners of both occupants of Glass House, and a sausage dog which is an expert escape artist and you have an incendiary combination which leads to murder via a series of nasty accidents.

This looks like being a case which will baffle the combined intellects of DI Harry Falconer and DS Davey Carmichael, not so ably assisted by DC Chris Roberts who spend more time off sick than he does at work. This is an entertaining and well written mystery and number eleven in this excellent series. The main characters are likeable - even lovable - there are intriguing plots and plenty of humour as well as serious investigation.

The series can be read out of order but it is better to read them on the order they were published to follow the development of the relationship between Falconer and Carmichael and the growth of Carmichael's lively family.

[Balthazar Lawson · Rating 1 out of 5]

The thing I dislike about this, and the rest of the series, is the repetitive way in which Falconer and Carmichael conduct their investigations. Just talk to the people in the village, repeatedly. Nothing is ever really revealed until the very end of the book. However, the repeated jumping to conclusions is what fills these books. There are attempts at humour but it always revolves around the hospitalised DC Roberts, yet again, giant dogs and a clowder of cats.

This is very lightweight and shallow. I’ve three books left in the series to read and the sooner I’m done the better. I have the books therefore must read them.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chad McMurrough moves to quiet Fairmile Green. He and his partner right away cause havoc in the neighborhood by the construction and peacocks, among other things. Chad is a very popular, loud television star. Then he starts getting death threats. Falconer and Carmichael (recently back from convalescence) are sent to find out what's going on. Then there's a murder...

Interesting case and characters. Pretty funny, too.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3

Not one of my favourites from this series.
The mystery part of the novel is very slight, and indeed any body who has read mysteries before will almost certainly guess the guilty party well before the ending.
It does have the usual humour quotient though which made the book entertaining to read.

Overall probably only for someone who is reading the series.

[Loraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually finished this book awhile ago and forgot to write a review for it. I enjoy the Falconer series for the most part, but they are very repetitious. After you've read a couple, you pretty much can tell how the book is going to go. This time I think Frazer had a bee in her bonnet about discrimination against gays in Great Britain. There was a lot of preaching going on in this book as concerns discrimination against them. I'm sure it happens, it happens to a lot of people. As a Deaf person, I am very aware of discrimination of all types.

In this story, two men move into a village. They are television types, hoity-toity, and full of themselves. They've already alienated the entire village, by redoing an existing house. All the noise and bother had annoyed the people in the village. Then these two move in, and start doing various things to offend their neighbors such as buying peacocks. One of the men starts having a series of accidents, which at first are minor, but then turn serious. Eventually, the partner is actually murdered.

Falconer and Carmichael are perplexed at first. Why is the one who the tricks were originally played on, not the dead one. They uncover a lot of secrets in the village (seems like in Frazer's books all British villages are chock full of secrets).

I think I'm going to give this series a rest...they aren't worth the brain cells or time to be wasted upon...

[Jay-me (Janet) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoilt by bad formatting in the last chapters.