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Yorkshire Murder Mysteries #4
The Morals of a Murderer
Duncan McFee is savagely murdered in a distillery. He’s found in one of the vats used to make gin. He was the chairman of the company.
Yet none of the suspects is burly enough to have delivered the fatal blow. Detective Inspector Michael Angel is called in to unravel the mystery.
He proves to be even more in demand when jailbird and bank robber Morris Yardley tries to buy his freedom with the proceeds of his last heist, insisting Angel acts as his go-between.
An old lady in a sweetshop, a dog called Schwarzenegger and a whiff of menthol all have their part to play as Angel races to reveal the murderer in this unusual and enthralling mystery.
Perfect for fans of R.D. Wingfield, Colin Dexter, Peter Robinson, Reginald Hill, and Agatha Christie.
THE DETECTIVE
Michael Angel is over fifty, married to Mary. They don’t have any children. They are a devoted couple but the relationship sometimes breaks down due to his job or due to the problems of Mary’s sister who lives in Edinburgh and imposes on their easygoing natures. Michael works at the small local police station and is devoted to defeating crime, murder, and dishonesty of any sort and has no personal ambition beyond being a good husband and a successful detective. He doesn’t want promotion with all the routine office work and stress that goes with it. He is incorruptible but always short of money. He is always at odds with his immediate chief, Detective Superintendent Horace Harker, who is lazy, a hypochondriac and not a bit interested in assisting Angel in serious police work.
THE SETTING
Bromersley is a market town at the bottom of the Pennines surrounded by stone and hawthorn-edged fields grazed by cattle and sheep. It is cold as anywhere in the winter but its closeness to the mountains protects it from many gales and heavy falls of snow. The town’s industry today includes the manufacture of ball bearings and whisky bottles, and a huge brewery produces Bromersley’s best bitter, which is considered the finest beer for miles around. Wednesday is market day, and the town centre is host to the frequent cries of stall-holders hawking their wares while the enticing smells of cheeses, coffees, foreign spices and fish and chips tempt your taste buds as you wander through the stalls. The police always find it difficult to catch pilferers and pickpockets in such a crowd. Bromersley folk are easy to befriend but many of the old people are stubborn and still buy their fruit and veg in pounds and ounces, not kilos and grams.
Praise for Roger Silverwood
“Solid plotting, unpretentious writing, thoroughly reliable entertainment>/b>.” Morning Star
“A cast of characters you really want to populate with familiar faces of actors you see each week on TV — great fun. Angel is terrific.” Books Monthly
DETECTIVE ANGEL SERIES
Book 1: THE MISSING NURSE
Book 2: THE MISSING WIFE
Book 3: THE MAN IN THE PINK SUIT
Book 4: THE MORALS OF A MURDERER
Book 5: THE AUCTION MURDERS
Book 6: THE MISSING
Yet none of the suspects is burly enough to have delivered the fatal blow. Detective Inspector Michael Angel is called in to unravel the mystery.
He proves to be even more in demand when jailbird and bank robber Morris Yardley tries to buy his freedom with the proceeds of his last heist, insisting Angel acts as his go-between.
An old lady in a sweetshop, a dog called Schwarzenegger and a whiff of menthol all have their part to play as Angel races to reveal the murderer in this unusual and enthralling mystery.
Perfect for fans of R.D. Wingfield, Colin Dexter, Peter Robinson, Reginald Hill, and Agatha Christie.
THE DETECTIVE
Michael Angel is over fifty, married to Mary. They don’t have any children. They are a devoted couple but the relationship sometimes breaks down due to his job or due to the problems of Mary’s sister who lives in Edinburgh and imposes on their easygoing natures. Michael works at the small local police station and is devoted to defeating crime, murder, and dishonesty of any sort and has no personal ambition beyond being a good husband and a successful detective. He doesn’t want promotion with all the routine office work and stress that goes with it. He is incorruptible but always short of money. He is always at odds with his immediate chief, Detective Superintendent Horace Harker, who is lazy, a hypochondriac and not a bit interested in assisting Angel in serious police work.
THE SETTING
Bromersley is a market town at the bottom of the Pennines surrounded by stone and hawthorn-edged fields grazed by cattle and sheep. It is cold as anywhere in the winter but its closeness to the mountains protects it from many gales and heavy falls of snow. The town’s industry today includes the manufacture of ball bearings and whisky bottles, and a huge brewery produces Bromersley’s best bitter, which is considered the finest beer for miles around. Wednesday is market day, and the town centre is host to the frequent cries of stall-holders hawking their wares while the enticing smells of cheeses, coffees, foreign spices and fish and chips tempt your taste buds as you wander through the stalls. The police always find it difficult to catch pilferers and pickpockets in such a crowd. Bromersley folk are easy to befriend but many of the old people are stubborn and still buy their fruit and veg in pounds and ounces, not kilos and grams.
Praise for Roger Silverwood
“Solid plotting, unpretentious writing, thoroughly reliable entertainment>/b>.” Morning Star
“A cast of characters you really want to populate with familiar faces of actors you see each week on TV — great fun. Angel is terrific.” Books Monthly
DETECTIVE ANGEL SERIES
Book 1: THE MISSING NURSE
Book 2: THE MISSING WIFE
Book 3: THE MAN IN THE PINK SUIT
Book 4: THE MORALS OF A MURDERER
Book 5: THE AUCTION MURDERS
Book 6: THE MISSING
220 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
1116 people are currently reading
207 people want to read
About the author
Roger Silverwood
78 books86 followersThe Yorkshire author writes crime stories about Detective Inspector Michael Angel who lives a fairly happy existence with his wife Mary in the town of Bromersley in South Yorkshire.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
August 29, 2023
Reviewed as Box Set
September 26, 2020
Best yet
For me this is the best I’ve read so far- excellent characters and a really good plot which skips through several cases and always leads to everything coming together leaving nothing unturned
For me this is the best I’ve read so far- excellent characters and a really good plot which skips through several cases and always leads to everything coming together leaving nothing unturned
June 10, 2020
Entertaining!
This cozy mystery is delightful--- lots of eccentric characters and pompous upper level police personnel! Story line is interesting , moves quickly, and Angel doggedly pursues all clues, despite snafus. This is a case of crook being much more clever than his pursuers--- very " tongue in cheek" conclusion!
This cozy mystery is delightful--- lots of eccentric characters and pompous upper level police personnel! Story line is interesting , moves quickly, and Angel doggedly pursues all clues, despite snafus. This is a case of crook being much more clever than his pursuers--- very " tongue in cheek" conclusion!
December 3, 2019
Loved It!
This is the fourth book in the DI Angel series. I have thoroughly enjoyed every one of them. The mystery is fantastic. The characters are likable. And there is no bad language anywhere. If you want a wonderful mystery, read this series! You won’t be disappointed.
This is the fourth book in the DI Angel series. I have thoroughly enjoyed every one of them. The mystery is fantastic. The characters are likable. And there is no bad language anywhere. If you want a wonderful mystery, read this series! You won’t be disappointed.
January 3, 2020
Another great story
Another great story by Roger featuring Inspector Angel. Very easy to read the story just flows along. The inspector is a very quirky character but always gets his man. More please.
Another great story by Roger featuring Inspector Angel. Very easy to read the story just flows along. The inspector is a very quirky character but always gets his man. More please.
January 13, 2020
One of those stories you don't want to end
Odd ball plots, great characterisations and a lot of fun. I read a lot of crime stories and they usually follow a familiar route. This doesn't. But now and enjoy.
Odd ball plots, great characterisations and a lot of fun. I read a lot of crime stories and they usually follow a familiar route. This doesn't. But now and enjoy.
April 18, 2020
Another fun outting.
This has been a most enjoyable mystery. While some readers may solve one of the crimes, I think the other might prove elusive. To me, a large part of the enjoyment is how Angel does it! Loved the characters in this one too!
This has been a most enjoyable mystery. While some readers may solve one of the crimes, I think the other might prove elusive. To me, a large part of the enjoyment is how Angel does it! Loved the characters in this one too!
September 15, 2020
The Chairman of Imperial Gin is found murdered and stuffed inside a vat of his own fine produce. He was just short of his fiftieth birthday and his Board consisted of old men over 70s and 80s not strong enough to kill him. Also killing him wouldn't solve their issues.
But DI Michael Angel could not concentrate on the murder, he was summoned by his Superintendent to assist a Special Branch Investigation involving the missing 820 bars of gold from the Bank of Agara. The crown Prince of Agara is extremely pissed off at the non-recovery, threatening major international political upheavals if the money isn't recovered. And even though the man behind the scheme is safe inside the prison, he won't open his mouth to anyone except Angel.
Angel doesn't like this one bit and he doesn't want to make promises that he knows will not be kept but he is pressurized officially (and don't we all know how that is done) to do what he didn't want to. Give a false hope to the prisoner but the man escapes the 5 tracking cars, the Special Team leader and the helicopter hovering upwards and vanishes into thin air. Angel finds out where 820 bara could have been hidden but they were emptied already.
So the man was away and the fact that he had murdered a policeman during his arrest was put to bed. Angel could finally concentrate on the murder at hand and he does. Based on just a smell of menthol and a lightweight spanner. But he soon hears from the disappeared man, who has been appointed as the police chief of Agara and has averted the international crisis with his persuasion and now wants to honour Angel for the service and honesty..... He might be a murdered but he is one with morals(!!!!)
Silverwood has done a great job in not just creating and solving the murder mystery but also intertwining them with a man's duty to be a superior and a juniors; to do things he doesn't believe in because it's just his duty to do so, to be a husband, to be compassionate and caring, to be torn between right and wrong, to have a 'moral'. His books are interesting because of the way the characters evolve in his book, not out of the world but like actual human beings.
But DI Michael Angel could not concentrate on the murder, he was summoned by his Superintendent to assist a Special Branch Investigation involving the missing 820 bars of gold from the Bank of Agara. The crown Prince of Agara is extremely pissed off at the non-recovery, threatening major international political upheavals if the money isn't recovered. And even though the man behind the scheme is safe inside the prison, he won't open his mouth to anyone except Angel.
Angel doesn't like this one bit and he doesn't want to make promises that he knows will not be kept but he is pressurized officially (and don't we all know how that is done) to do what he didn't want to. Give a false hope to the prisoner but the man escapes the 5 tracking cars, the Special Team leader and the helicopter hovering upwards and vanishes into thin air. Angel finds out where 820 bara could have been hidden but they were emptied already.
So the man was away and the fact that he had murdered a policeman during his arrest was put to bed. Angel could finally concentrate on the murder at hand and he does. Based on just a smell of menthol and a lightweight spanner. But he soon hears from the disappeared man, who has been appointed as the police chief of Agara and has averted the international crisis with his persuasion and now wants to honour Angel for the service and honesty..... He might be a murdered but he is one with morals(!!!!)
Silverwood has done a great job in not just creating and solving the murder mystery but also intertwining them with a man's duty to be a superior and a juniors; to do things he doesn't believe in because it's just his duty to do so, to be a husband, to be compassionate and caring, to be torn between right and wrong, to have a 'moral'. His books are interesting because of the way the characters evolve in his book, not out of the world but like actual human beings.
January 1, 2020
Another great Detective Inspector Michael Angel book!
As we've come to expect, it has all the clever story lines - that slowly unravel, until it all comes together in the end.
The old fashioned feel of DI Angel, with his unshakable morales & no nonsense ways. Have yet again made for a thoroughly enjoyable book.
So I'm straight onto the next one - The Auction Murders, with the excitement of a child on Christmas day!!
As we've come to expect, it has all the clever story lines - that slowly unravel, until it all comes together in the end.
The old fashioned feel of DI Angel, with his unshakable morales & no nonsense ways. Have yet again made for a thoroughly enjoyable book.
So I'm straight onto the next one - The Auction Murders, with the excitement of a child on Christmas day!!
October 12, 2020
Really a 3.50. This is the fourth book in this series of cozy mysteries and it was a quick and enjoyable read. Love the main characters and the English Village setting. Interesting plot involving murder in a gin distillery AND a multi million dollar theft with international overtones. Recommend it.
December 1, 2019
An interesting mystery until the end.I know w
I don't know why I was disappointed the last few chapters other than a feeling that the author was setting up for a one sentence endding.
I don't know why I was disappointed the last few chapters other than a feeling that the author was setting up for a one sentence endding.
May 6, 2021
A YAWNER OF A YARN
Are we really to take this claptrap seriously? How did Yardley get the gold out of the country? How and why would the country from which he stole the gold make him Chief of Police? Just too cute by half!
Are we really to take this claptrap seriously? How did Yardley get the gold out of the country? How and why would the country from which he stole the gold make him Chief of Police? Just too cute by half!
November 8, 2019
Brilliant
Enjoyed this book very much old fashion policing good native not swareing which was nice jolly good read very enjoyable
Enjoyed this book very much old fashion policing good native not swareing which was nice jolly good read very enjoyable
December 21, 2019
Although I enjoyed previous books, this one did not ,,it was a good story but something about it seemed off, just not for me
January 14, 2020
Enjoyable Story
Really enjoyed reading this! Love Mrs. Buller Price. What a character! Inspector Angel is so funny the way he figures out what happened. Really good read.
Really enjoyed reading this! Love Mrs. Buller Price. What a character! Inspector Angel is so funny the way he figures out what happened. Really good read.
January 25, 2020
Amazing mysteries
Silverwood writes the most amazing mysteries I have ever read. There is never a dull moment, a real page turner! Love them all!
Silverwood writes the most amazing mysteries I have ever read. There is never a dull moment, a real page turner! Love them all!
February 10, 2020
Yet another good read from Mr silverwood, the plots always keep you guessing, I. love the querky characters he puts into his books.
February 19, 2020
The MORALS OF A MURDERER
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was quite funny in places. I'm glad his jokes have improved there was only one way to go.😊
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was quite funny in places. I'm glad his jokes have improved there was only one way to go.😊
April 2, 2020
No morals!!
A police officer who doesn't like his superior! What a surprise! This seems to be the latest trend. It works well in this novel giving the story an edge.
A police officer who doesn't like his superior! What a surprise! This seems to be the latest trend. It works well in this novel giving the story an edge.
April 23, 2020
Fascinating Characters
Here it is midnight and I just had tofinish reading about all my new friends, even if a little naughty!
Here it is midnight and I just had tofinish reading about all my new friends, even if a little naughty!
May 22, 2020
Interesting
Quite charmingly witty
Characters really come to life and keep you enthralled
I enjoy ready these series of books from this author
Quite charmingly witty
Characters really come to life and keep you enthralled
I enjoy ready these series of books from this author
July 30, 2020
Another great read from this author. Lots of twists in this book, with lots of interesting characters.
October 9, 2020
Still enjoying this series
This series a great entertainment and very tricky paths to the culprits. Don’t delay start reading today! It is a fun fast read
This series a great entertainment and very tricky paths to the culprits. Don’t delay start reading today! It is a fun fast read
January 22, 2021
I thought this book was a bit contrived.
February 22, 2021
Another great read
This book is fantastic,really enjoyed the characters,and was really funny i was laughing out loud .will look forward to the next one
This book is fantastic,really enjoyed the characters,and was really funny i was laughing out loud .will look forward to the next one
September 4, 2021
I found the book to be very amateurish
All the characters kept sniffing so much I wondered if they were all on crack cocane. Sorry I. Did not finish it. Poorly witten
All the characters kept sniffing so much I wondered if they were all on crack cocane. Sorry I. Did not finish it. Poorly witten
May 16, 2022
Pleasant read
I love this series of books. Entertaining humorous without unnecessary social relationships , just good sleuthing and good detective work.
I love this series of books. Entertaining humorous without unnecessary social relationships , just good sleuthing and good detective work.
July 13, 2023
Clever and kept guessing as usual!
March 10, 2018
Being Honest is a mangle of 3 plots: a murder, a heist, and a third 'plot' with no clear purpose other than filler. In Honest, Mick Angel turns bellicose: he bellows, he bawls, he snarls and when he wasn't bellowing, etc, he was sweating, shaking, panicking. There's even an attempt to implicate him in the heist by an unsavory superior. It ends with someone getting away with murder. A marginal read.
April 5, 2014
Good story with cool twist at the end. :-)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews