The Shell House Detectives (Shell House Detectives #1) (2024)

This cosy mystery managed to be a little different from the norm, in a very good way.

Ally Bright lives in a house in the dunes in Porthpella on the Cornish coast. She lives alone and is still grieving the death of her husband who was the local policeman. Walking her dog on the beach one morning she discovers the body of a man and her calls for help are answered by a young man who is surfing. He turns out to be Jayden Weston, an ex policeman who left the force after his partner was killed.

Fate must have brought them together because they become friends almost immediately and, when the police make very little progress in the murder investigation, the two of them bring their combined knowledge of police work together and set out to solve the mystery. And what a mystery as turns out to involve a cold case of suicide and another of murder, and new cases of a missing woman and a possible attempted suicide.

Nicely written with interesting characters, beautiful setting and a cute dog. An excellent start to a new series and I will be looking out for book two.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The Shell House Detective was a fun book to read. I must admit that the beginning was a little confusing to follow but once I got into it I enjoyed it very much. It is the first in the Shell House Detective series. The book takes place in England in the town of Porthpella a seaside town. Ally Bright is the main character. She lives in a house called The Shell House with her dog, Foxy, at the end of a lane and overlooks the ocean. Her husband was a policeman who was loved by all died a year ago. One night she goes to bed but is awaken by Foxy as there is someone at her door late at night. A young man named Lewis Pascoe is there asking for her husband. He seems confused , He tells her that he just got out of prison and her husband promised him that he would help him. She tells him that her husband is dead. Upon hearing this he leaves. He also went to a house called Sea Dream that has been built where his grandmother use to live. The man who lives, Roland Hunter, tells him that his grandmother, Maggie Pascoe, sold him the house and moved away. She had recently died. He also leaves. Helena is his wife who was frightened by his arrival. Lewis again goes back to Sea Dream the next morning and confronts Roland again. Helena goes out for her run.

Jayden Weston has moved to Porthpella with his wife, Cat, who is pregnant with his first child. Cat grew up here and wanted to come home. Jayden was a policeman who has left the force because he was recovering from the death of his partner, Kiernan.

Jayden Weston is sitting in his truck overlooking the beach. He is there to surf. While in his car he sees a woman running but looks like not for fun but running away. When he looks up again she is not there. He goes to surf as he is learning. When getting out of the water he hears someone calling for help. He goes to see what the problem is. A man has fallen off the cliff and is lying on the rocks. The man is Lewis who is still alive but unconscious. Ally walking on the beach goes and finds out that the young man who arrived at her house is the one hurt. She and Jayden starting talking and she tells him that Lewis had come to her house the night before. Jayden suggests that they go for coffee as he is concerned about her. Lewis has been taken to the hospital and is ICU still unconscious.

Roland is concerned that his wife has not returned from her run. He reports it to the police as she is missing. Could her missing and Lewis's fall have something to do each other. His brother, Nathan is there for the weekend to visit. There are two other characters that make up this story. One is Saffron who owns the coffee shop and Gus Munro who is renting the house next to Sea Dream. He is an author who is there to write his novel and recovering from a recent divorce.

This is where the story takes off with Allie and Jayden deciding to find out more about Lewis and to try to find what happened to Helena. I will leave the story to the reader to enjoy and all the mystery that goes with it.

I loved the friendship that develops between Allie and Jayden as well as her relationship with Gus. I look forward to the next book in this series and what adventure the Shell House Detective Agency will getting into.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this ARC.

Solid!

Cozy mystery I thought! That’ll be a pleasant change. But this was so much more than that! Think more along Vera lines.
Aly Bright is a misunderstood artist whose husband Bill, her rock, has died. Aly’s daughter wants her to move to Australia but Aly loves her treasured seaside home.
Jayden Weston is an ex cop from Leeds suffering PTSD after his partner had died in a stabbing. His wife Cat had talked him into moving back to her family’s farm at Upper Hendra near Porthpella, Cornwell, to start a Glamping business.
A woman is missing! This unites Aly and Jayden into doing something about it. Jayden laughingly calls them the Shell House Detectives. They follow through on clues that the police seem to have ignored with some surprising, and at times, dangerous leads. A real page turner!
Then there’s the characters we meet, a disparate group of people. Outsiders who are beginning to find community with each other. Sensitive stuff!
A novel full of promise. I’m looking forward to the next in the series.

An Amazon Pub. ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

This book just wasn’t for me. I tried reading it and got bogged down with all the descriptive prose (not my thing) so I thought listening might be better but it didn’t work out that way. There is an interesting story but the writing is difficult to get through. Add into that that the story is told from multiple (A LOT) of different points of view and I lost track of who was who and what really was going on. Ultimately, after the first mystery was solved, I had to give up.

I received a copy from #NetGalley for an honest review.

This is one of those books that was a perfectly fine read, but I finished it not really all that bothered that it ended. It was fine in the moment and I thought the plot was great, but there was just this feeling that it lacked potential somewhere along the way. I'm not sure what though. Give it a read and see what you think.

Ally’s peaceful life is about to get busy!

Having unreservedly loved Emylia Hall’s commercial women’s fiction, I approached her departure into crime writing with The Shell House Detectives with very high expectations and not a little trepidation in case the new genre didn’t meet my hopes. It didn’t. It completely exceeded them in every respect, whilst retaining the magnificent story-telling I knew I’d find. The Shell House Detectives is an absolutely smashing read and I could not have enjoyed it more.

The Cornish setting is a triumph. The sense of community, the sea and the beach, the weather and small businesses all combine to add a touch of magic to the story which is enhanced by Jayden’s mixed race otherness, drawing in the reader to an enthralling story. I wanted to be in Porthpella.

The plot is so brilliantly wrought because Emylia Hall weaves in her characters’ backstories with a precise balance of subtlety and clarity so that there’s a smooth depth that underpins an intelligent, entertaining and compelling narrative. I loved the fact that there’s murder and crime that feels so realistic, without recourse to shock tactics and visceral blood and gore.

That said, whilst The Shell House Detectives might be billed as cosy crime and it does draw on some Golden Age crime characteristics, it also considers dark themes and social issues in a natural and mature manner so that this story feels like a read for grown ups. I thoroughly appreciated this aspect. I loved, too, the exploration of truth and right. Ally and Jayden don’t always employ conventionally acceptable means to support their highly morally motivated actions so that the story is thought provoking as well as diverting. Emylia Hall understands what causes people to behave as they do and weaves this understanding so sensitively into her narrative. She shows us how we all too often live for the approval of others, losing sight of who we are for ourselves. I found this such an affecting and uplifting theme.

Ally in particular is a triumph because she’s middle aged, unassuming and ostensibly a no-one following the death of her policeman husband, but her public persona belies an incisive mind, a compassionate nature and a tenacity and strength that bring her to life completely. However, what works so well here is that there is a wide enough cast for variety and reader interest, but, simultaneously, a narrow enough focus to afford development for characters like Tim Mullins with scope for the future. What Emylia Hall does so beautifully is to convey the thoughts and emotions of her characters and I admit to shedding a tear or two with them, both in joy and sadness.

I loved The Shell House Detectives. It’s a fabulous read that sets the scene for what I hope will be many other adventures for the characters because I’m simply not prepared to let them go.

The Shell House Detectives is brilliant because it has heart and soul as well as entertainment, making it sensitive, gripping and compelling. Don’t miss it.

Ally Bright lives in a little cottage by the sea with her little dog Fox. She’s lived in the place the community of Porthpella on the Cornish coast of England, known as The Shell House, for nearly 40 years. Everyone knows the little cottage not only for the exterior that named it but as the home of former Sergeant Bill Bright. Late one night, she’s scared by loud knocking on her door and an overwrought young man looking for her husband. Ally is confused by the late hour, the man’s distress, and not knowing of Bill’s death as it has been a year. Before she can explain, the man has left. But the next morning, the young man is dead, and it wasn’t an accident.

Ally has so many questions. But others have questions too. Jayden Weston, an ex-cop that runs to answer cries for help, and Gus Munro, on holiday, to write a detective novel, and now there’s a mystery on his doorstep.

I loved this story. The atmospheric writing took me to the little cottage by the sea and allowed me to completely imagine the coastal town, the characters, and their lives. A widow, a cop trying to make his way after the loss of his partner, and a man adjusting to life after divorce. As the character development is portrayed for Ally, Jayden, and Gus evolving and moving forward with their lives, it may give others inspiration and hope. As Ally and Jayden consider their partnership, readers will welcome the addition to cozies featuring senior sleuths.

I look forward to the future of the Shell House Detectives.

Thank you to Emylia Hall, Amazon Publishing UK, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an eARC of this book.

#TheShellHouseDetectives #NetGalley

I received this copy from Netgalley on the read now section.

My review: It's okay. Personally I find it kind of bland. I don't find it very exciting or thrilling. It's definitely a mystery but I think it needs more umph. A bit more of something to make it want to read it. I didn't enjoy it enough to finish. I do appreciate the chance to try it though.

A bit verbose as British cozies tend to be but overall it was a pleasant way to pass a sick day. Allie, Gus and Jaden are all likeable characters. You delve deep into their lives along with the mystery they’re trying to solve so you’re there for the highs and the lows.

Nope, not reading pretentious twaddle in present tense.

"'The Shell House sounds like it was designed to be an HQ'
'An HQ?'
'For the Shell House Detectives, of course.'
Ally laughs and shakes her head. 'You're in good spirits.'
'I've got something interesting to share with you. Something very interesting.'"

Present day in Porthpella, on the Cornish coast and widow, artist Ally, has rather lost her spark, her daughter and granddaughter live in Australia. Former West Yorkshire Police officer, Jayden, newly moved to his wife's childhood home after a tragedy at work and for the birth of their first child, is also floundering. Ally and Jayden are both present when a badly injured man, recently released form prison, is found on the beach. When a neighbour goes missing, they soon find themselves playing detectives. As the local police seem to have the wrong idea about who is to blame, Ally and Jayden get stuck into their first case.

Perfect seasonal reading, this cosy crime novel, the first in a series, is securely settled in its enviable, Cornish coastal location. There are plenty of supporting characters (including a potential love-interest for Ally) whose perspectives the reader also gets to dip in and out of. The main characters, Ally and Jayden, are likeable and engaging, each finding their time spent together on the case helping them help others and find purpose. It is an intriguing mystery and there are some red herrings, some twists and some turns, but the ending, which see everyone get their just deserts, is reassuringly right. For fans of British, cosy crime mysteries, seaside settings and charming characters. I found this a promising start to a new cosy crime series, with book 2, The Harbour Mystery Lights, due to be published on 17th October 2023. Available now on e-book and tomorrow in paperback.

Ally Bright is a widow living alone in the small town of Porthpella in Cornwall. Following her husband Bill's death a year ago she has retreated into her shell and is contemplating moving to Australia to be closer to her daughter and her family. One night she is disturbed by a young man banging on her door, looking for Bill. He has just been released from prison and is disorientated, whilst he was in prison his only remaining relative, grandmother, sold her bungalow and newcomers have built a glass mansion in its place. In addition, his grandmother has recently died and no-one informed him. Too scared to help him, Ally turns him away.

The next morning, former PC Jayden Weston, who left the police and moved from Leeds to Cornwall after his partner was stabbed and killed in a street brawl, is attempting to surf when he hears a commotion and rushes over to find that a fellow surfer has discovered the body of a young man at the bottom of the cliff. When Ally walks her dog early that morning she comes across the scene and realises that the young man is none other than her visitor the previous night. The local police are sure it is an attempted suicide, especially since the young man's father committed suicide at the same spot over twenty years ago. But Ally and Jayden aren't convinced. Then when the wife of the man who built the mansion on the site of the boy's grandmother's house goes missing the plot thickens.

This was an interesting detective story, things didn't turn out the way I thought they were going and there was enough personal interest to find the characters interesting. I've already downloaded the next book in the series.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

Widowed Allie misses her husband, the local constable, who has been gone for a year. Jaden left his police job in Leeds after a tragedy he could not avert, and moved to Cornwall to live with his wife's parents. They meet over a nearly-dead man who has fallen (jumped?) from a cliff onto the beach, where Allie looks for cast-off plastic for her collages. A wealthy local woman disappears, and rumor connects her to the lad who is now in the ICU fighting for his life. As stolid, not too bright police constable Mullins begins to develop some empathy for the people he serves, as Jaden's wife moves closer and closer to her due date, Jaden and Allie, with the help of would-be novelist Gus, troy to find the missing woman, and also find themselves trying to solve the murder of her husband's first wife. Despite the author's insistence in writing in the present tense (which is almost as annoying as writing in the second person), the poetic style , multiple POVs, and interesting plot will keep you reading.

What an enjoyable book and a great way to start a new mystery series. Emylia Hall has a winner here. It was such a pleasure to learn more about the country of Cornwall--a setting I don't often encounter in novels. I also appreciated how grief was often the driving force of the story as Ally is coping with her loss and that plays into her behavior and actions in Cornwall. I also appreciated how Hall did such a solid job of creating the environment around Cornwall.

The mystery was enjoyably twisty without resorting to ridiculous shock twists. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

An easy 4/5. Enjoyed this book far more than the previous one I tried by Emylia Hall. There's a beautiful rhythm to this book, the pace of the story is just right. I love the different characters and how they grow and find myself wanting to read the next in the series to see what happens to them, so that's a good sign. I feel that Emylia has also grown as a writer; she has kept all of her strengths such as her intricacy of description but her strength to weave a yarn of a story has blossomed.
Well worth a read. I will definitely be adding the next one in the series to my "to be read" list.

A very interesting novel. I had pretty much made my mind up that it was a standard cosy mystery. Nothing too psychologically complex but still satisfying nonetheless. I was firm that this was going to be a 3 star read.
I got to 80% through when the plot seems to have resolved itself and this is the point at which things got much more exciting!
There are layers to this story and I love the beach setting being a bit of a beach bum myself. The characters were developed strongly in this last 20% and the scene has been set for a series. I will definitely continue with this.

I loved this! Apparently this is Hall’s first foray into murder mystery and I reckon she nailed it in one.

Set in beautiful Cornwall, The Shell House Detectives follows an unlikely menagerie of characters as they work to solve a mystery. We first meet Ally Bright, recently widowed from her husband Bill, who was a well known and loved policeman in the town of Porthpella. Late at night, a young man - Lewis - comes to her house and begs for Bill’s help; confused and distraught, she turns him away. He’s found the next morning, having fallen (or jumped? Or pushed?) from the nearby cliffs.

Our other crime solver is ex-cop Jayden Weston, who escaped to Cornwall with his pregnant wife after his partner was killed in the line of duty. Suffering from survivor’s guilt, Jayden is struggling with his new, quiet life on the Cornish coast until he gets drawn in to the same mystery that Ally is left to solve after Lewis’ late night visit to her home.

I found the characters extremely engaging, and the twists and turns throughout were great. None of the story felt too predictable, and the characters all had flaws and quirks that added to their personality.

I can’t wait for the next book in the series!

[I received an ARC in return for an honest review, thanks to Goodreads and the publisher]

Set against the stunning backdrop of a coastal Cornish town, this quaint mystery novel kept me engaged with a delightful blend of charming characters, an atmospheric setting, and intriguing plot twists.
The author, Emylia Hall, writes with enough intrigue that keeps you guessing.
By the final chapter, I found myself looking forward to the next installment in this captivating series.
A must-read for fans of cozy mysteries and seaside adventures like I am!

Thankyou to author Emilia Hall, Thomas and Mercer and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this!
Charlene 📚🌸🤗 @lastnownext

When I first requested this ARC, I thought it would be more cozy British, but its in the vein of a traditional mystery. We're introduced to the main characters right off the bat as a mysterious man knocks on Ally Bright's door. The mystery continues with a missing woman and several cold cases that might not appear as they seem. The author did a great job of bringing Cornwall alive and establishing the characters. There were several twists and turns throughout the story and I expected it go a certain way that it did not. I appreciated the ending and the resolution of the characters. Looking forward to more!

Ally Bright’s peaceful life on the Cornish coast is shattered one night when a young man knocks on her door talking incoherently.

The next morning he’s doing at the foot of the nearby cliffs. Was he pushed? Overall a good mystery. Would recommend

Thank you to Emylia Hall, NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for the arc of this book

Thank you, Netgalley, for this arc.

This was a very enjoyable cozy murder mystery. It has multiple POVs that are constantly switching, and that confused me a bit at the beginning, but I got used to it and I loved all of the characters. I have to say I didn't expect to get attached at all, but I did, and I desperately need the next book.

The mystery plot was thrilling enough, but definitely kept in the department of cozy murder mysteries. Though I have to give some points to the author because I haven't guessed any of the twists, which I usually do, I really liked the writing and the world that the author created.

This was a good cozy mystery but, the story did seem to slow down quite a lot. Set in Cornwall this was what appealed to me but, I quickly lost interest and was glad to get to the end.

Unexpected, and wonderful

I really loved this book. By the end the characters became treasured friends, and I can't wait to meet them again.

This first in a series is a compelling mystery with a beautiful Cornwall setting and an eclectic cast of characters. I already preordered #2!

Very well done. 4.5*****

A light detective story, well-written and relatable characters. Will read more in this series.

This was a very cosy mystery. Reading it kind of felt like curling up with a cup of coffee while it’s raining outside. It felt wonderfully immersive and I could visualise Porthpella and really got the sense I felt I knew the community and what it felt like to be amongst them. Lots of lovely characters and the ending I didn’t guess which is always a big win. It also felt like it made sense, which may sound silly but a lot of these mystery books have the most ridiculous turn of events that have me rolling my eyes but this one DIDN’T and yet somehow still surprised me.

lovely read

Great characters, good to know my favourites will re-appear in book 2. I enjoyed the surprise twist and turns too.

An enjoyable mystery, with an interesting cast of characters. I will definitely read the next book in the series.

4.5 * from me. Cleverly and interestingly plotted novel, set in a beautiful sounding part of England. Grief in all its forms is tempered by lots of love, with some horrible coniving characters along the way. I look forward to more Ally and Jayden.