"Murder at the Ashmolean" by Jim Eldridge is the third in his Museum Mysteries series and like the other one I’ve read (Murder at the British Museum), this one starts off with a bang (literally)—but, remember, these books are murder mysteries and, of course, a body or two is a prerequisite. Remember too, that these are thrillers, not museum guides!
It’s 1895 and Jack the Ripper time, so naturally citizens become alarmed when another murder is discovered. Set in Oxford (a short distance from London), the usual staid academic city of renown, we have lots of brains working on the case. The body found at the Ash is a member of the museum’s staff—at first glance it looks a suicide (ruled so by the coroner) but when the museum’s administrator isn’t convinced (he has the reputation of the museum to consider, too!), he calls in noted private inquiry agent Daniel Wilson to investigate. Wilson, and his archeologist friend Abigail, accepts, but it’s not so easy, of course, to solve this case, with a myriad interruptions and hindrances from various sources (Special Branch being one of them) the case becomes more and convoluted. Eldridge doesn’t forget to include other elements of late 19th century England to make the setting even more complete, tossing in the troublesome South Africa problems and there’s even a missing Shakespeare play.
Eldridge is quite prolific in his prose, from children’s books to his Museum Mysteries, in which he’s published five. One of the elements that caught my attention is that I’ve visited, repeatedly, the Ashmolean and the Brit Museum, so these settings were like “family” to me. The author’s style is sharply focused, not pedantic, and moves quite well; his characters also seem created well for this type of setting and plot. I look forward, some day, of finishing this series.