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The Split Pea Tango: Highclere Inn & Carriage House Mystery #2
“A genre-defying masterpiece that marries farce and suspense with soul. Equal parts intrigue and elegy, The Split Pea Tango is a haunting dance between truth and forgiveness.” – NY Literary Review
“Josh Hellyer has written one of the most original Canadian novels in recent memory—a literary mystery with the heart of a farce and the soul of a ghost story.” –Canadian Mystery Reviews
“The Split Pea Tango is a landmark in contemporary Canadian fiction — an absurdist mystery that reimagines the national novel as a dance between tragedy and farce, intellect and instinct, sorrow and survival.” –The Maple Leaf Review
“A bold, unclassifiable thriller that dances between satire and sincerity — and lands, improbably, on both feet.” –Indie Publishers Digest
Highclere Inn & Carriage House is open for business, but don’t expect peace and quiet—because another baffling mystery is about to unfold. This time, it’s a cocktail of reincarnation theories, long-buried secrets, and just enough absurdity to keep you guessing and laughing all the way through.
When the “Society for Transcendent Understanding of Past-Life Identification and Discovery” rolls into town, Mason Valentine and his fearless cousin Cordelia "Cici" Bradshaw find themselves pulled into a case unlike any other. It all starts when two sisters arrive at the inn, desperate for help. Why? Because an 18-year-old girl knocked on their father’s door claiming to be the reincarnation of their long-deceased mother, former Highclere guest Vanessa Cromwell, who vanished without a trace before Christmas 2008.
But things get stranger from there. Armed with quick wit, curious minds, and eccentric allies including Skye Cadieux, the gang dives headfirst into an increasingly unexpected investigation. From logos of dancing flowers to a convention devoted to adult entertainment antics, and a whole heap of puzzling "Split Peas" that might just hold the key to solving it all.
With a case spanning almost two decades and secrets hiding in plain sight, Mason, Cici, and Skye are determined to untangle the truth. Did Vanessa Cromwell come back from the great beyond, or is there a far more earthly explanation?
Full of razor-sharp banter, outrageous, laugh-out-loud moments, and twists you’ll never see coming, The Split Pea Tango is your next wild adventure.
Mason and Cici are back! Welcome to their world, where mystery meets mayhem… and nothing is as it seems.
“Josh Hellyer has written one of the most original Canadian novels in recent memory—a literary mystery with the heart of a farce and the soul of a ghost story.” –Canadian Mystery Reviews
“The Split Pea Tango is a landmark in contemporary Canadian fiction — an absurdist mystery that reimagines the national novel as a dance between tragedy and farce, intellect and instinct, sorrow and survival.” –The Maple Leaf Review
“A bold, unclassifiable thriller that dances between satire and sincerity — and lands, improbably, on both feet.” –Indie Publishers Digest
Highclere Inn & Carriage House is open for business, but don’t expect peace and quiet—because another baffling mystery is about to unfold. This time, it’s a cocktail of reincarnation theories, long-buried secrets, and just enough absurdity to keep you guessing and laughing all the way through.
When the “Society for Transcendent Understanding of Past-Life Identification and Discovery” rolls into town, Mason Valentine and his fearless cousin Cordelia "Cici" Bradshaw find themselves pulled into a case unlike any other. It all starts when two sisters arrive at the inn, desperate for help. Why? Because an 18-year-old girl knocked on their father’s door claiming to be the reincarnation of their long-deceased mother, former Highclere guest Vanessa Cromwell, who vanished without a trace before Christmas 2008.
But things get stranger from there. Armed with quick wit, curious minds, and eccentric allies including Skye Cadieux, the gang dives headfirst into an increasingly unexpected investigation. From logos of dancing flowers to a convention devoted to adult entertainment antics, and a whole heap of puzzling "Split Peas" that might just hold the key to solving it all.
With a case spanning almost two decades and secrets hiding in plain sight, Mason, Cici, and Skye are determined to untangle the truth. Did Vanessa Cromwell come back from the great beyond, or is there a far more earthly explanation?
Full of razor-sharp banter, outrageous, laugh-out-loud moments, and twists you’ll never see coming, The Split Pea Tango is your next wild adventure.
Mason and Cici are back! Welcome to their world, where mystery meets mayhem… and nothing is as it seems.
391 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 4, 2025
10 people are currently reading
7 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 14, 2025
Some novels entertain. Some provoke. And every so often, one arrives that seems to rearrange the furniture in your mind. The Split Pea Tango is that rare book—a crackling, clever, profoundly thoughtful mystery that treats the absurd and the devastating as dance partners rather than opposites.
Josh Hellyer’s second Highclere mystery expands his fictional universe with astonishing confidence. On its surface, it’s a tale of conspiracies, hidden loyalties, and a clutch of characters trying (and frequently failing) to stay one step ahead of looming danger. But beneath the satire and suspense runs a tender exploration of how people stitch themselves back together after life frays the seams.
Hellyer’s greatest trick is tonal alchemy. Tragedy arrives wrapped in irreverence; humour is sharpened to a scalpel. A single chapter can make you laugh out loud, wince with recognition, and—without warning—feel the atmosphere drop into something grave and tender. Few novels manage this kind of emotional multitracking without wobbling. This one doesn’t wobble for a second.
The ensemble is unforgettable. The banter is electric. The emotional intelligence is startling. Hellyer's prose glides with the ease of a seasoned storyteller—crisp, vivid, and effortlessly visual, but this time it’s layered with a richer melancholy. The author writes with the knowing humour of someone intimately familiar with grief’s weird choreography. The book’s most surprising achievement isn’t its plot twist (of which there are many), but its compassion. Every character, even the ones who hide behind bluster or bravado, is granted dignity.
By the final pages, The Split Pea Tango has proved itself not only a gripping mystery, but a work of emotional audacity—funny, bruising, and unexpectedly restorative. It’s a novel that stays with you long after the dust settles, whispering that healing rarely looks the way we expect. In a crowded literary season, this one shines.
My humble opinion: Josh Hellyer has written one of the most original Canadian novels in recent memory—a literary mystery with the heart of a farce and the soul of a ghost story.
Josh Hellyer’s second Highclere mystery expands his fictional universe with astonishing confidence. On its surface, it’s a tale of conspiracies, hidden loyalties, and a clutch of characters trying (and frequently failing) to stay one step ahead of looming danger. But beneath the satire and suspense runs a tender exploration of how people stitch themselves back together after life frays the seams.
Hellyer’s greatest trick is tonal alchemy. Tragedy arrives wrapped in irreverence; humour is sharpened to a scalpel. A single chapter can make you laugh out loud, wince with recognition, and—without warning—feel the atmosphere drop into something grave and tender. Few novels manage this kind of emotional multitracking without wobbling. This one doesn’t wobble for a second.
The ensemble is unforgettable. The banter is electric. The emotional intelligence is startling. Hellyer's prose glides with the ease of a seasoned storyteller—crisp, vivid, and effortlessly visual, but this time it’s layered with a richer melancholy. The author writes with the knowing humour of someone intimately familiar with grief’s weird choreography. The book’s most surprising achievement isn’t its plot twist (of which there are many), but its compassion. Every character, even the ones who hide behind bluster or bravado, is granted dignity.
By the final pages, The Split Pea Tango has proved itself not only a gripping mystery, but a work of emotional audacity—funny, bruising, and unexpectedly restorative. It’s a novel that stays with you long after the dust settles, whispering that healing rarely looks the way we expect. In a crowded literary season, this one shines.
My humble opinion: Josh Hellyer has written one of the most original Canadian novels in recent memory—a literary mystery with the heart of a farce and the soul of a ghost story.
December 10, 2025
This is another romp of a book. Along with the slapstick silliness and the sarcasm there is a well-crafted mystery, thrilling situations and danger. It ticks all the boxes for me.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews