Murder at the Spirit Lounge

Jess Kidd

FORMER nun and now a familiar figure in the Kentish seaside town of Gore-on-Sea, Nora Breen is finding her feet at the ‘dead centre’ of a new calling… an amateur detective with a sharp mind, an advanced sense of worldly intuition, and a cynicism rare for someone who spent 30 years in the contemplative shadows of the cloisters.

But when a private séance at a local medium’s home ends in an unholy death, and an ever-increasing threat to all those in attendance that night, Nora is unexpectedly launched into a race against time to discover who is the spectre at what is fast becoming a ‘feast’ of suspiciously spooky murders.

Jess Kidd (pictured below), one of today’s most multi-talented authors, spirits us back into the life of the indomitable Nora, the former Carmelite nun with the observational skills of Hercule Poirot and lead player of the enchanting Nora Breen Investigates series which burst on to the cosy crime scene last year with Murder at Gull’s Nest… and wowed readers with some stellar super-sleuthing and an author at the top of her game.

Set in the 1950s and in a land still weary from six long years of war, the past plays into the present in this witty and wonderful series which shines with the brilliance of coastal sunshine, delivers time and place with aplomb, and features an unlikely detective who – like the deceptively astute Miss Marple – is determined enough and brave enough to dig deep into territory far more unsavoury than a nun would normally experience.  

After her three decades as Sister Agnes, Nora Breen never takes for granted the freedom of once again ‘being at large in the world.’ She lives with a ‘jumble’ of eccentric characters at Gulls Nest, a once grand place but now an ageing and rather shabby boarding house on the seafront at Gore-on-Sea.

On one of her customary shoreline walks on a brilliant December morning, Nora is interrupted by the arrival of a young police constable who tells her she has been summoned to accompany her new ‘partner’ in crime, Detective Inspector Hilary Rideout, at the home of Doreen Chimes, Gore-on-Sea’s resident psychic who settled in the town last summer after a run of sell-out stage shows.

Mrs Chimes would like to report the theft of a valuable trinket and has personally invited Rideout to that evening’s private séance… sessions always held for just five selected people. After 30 years of ‘pondering the afterlife,’ Nora regards summoning spirits and conversing with the dead as ‘claptrap’ but the inspector is lured in by her promises of messages for the afterlife.

It’s an invitation he will regret accepting when the evening ends in a suspiciously spooky murder. And in the coming days, more of those who attended the séance find themselves in mortal peril. Can Nora figure out who – or what – is behind these spectral killings before Rideout himself falls victim to a ghostly murderer?

In a fast-moving story, which sees the very down-to-earth Nora harnessed into a local reporter job to help probe the murderous goings-on in the spirit world, the body count rises as fast as the frissons of tensions and teasing which disconcertingly pass between our former nun and the good inspector.

And once again, the enchantingly inquisitive and intelligent Nora steals the show as she continues rediscovering a world far removed from the whitewashed corridors of a Carmelite monastery and finally finds an outlet for her renowned powers of intuition and what some might call, her nosiness.

Kidd is a supreme author who bestows only the very best character studies on each and every one of her unique cast, employing her extraordinary ability to sum up a persona in the fewest perfectly chosen words, and setting a scene with her trademark precision.

And yet, brimful as it is of dazzling writing, perfect plotting and laugh-out-loud dialogue, Murder at the Spirit Lounge also provides an exquisite snapshot of a nation still emerging from the ravages of war, a place where memories of loss are still raw and the scars of ex-servicemen like Hilary Rideout are just the physical ‘hurts’ that people can see.

Expect plot twists, red herrings galore, the welcome emergence of a delightful detective ‘odd couple’ who would slot perfectly into a Sunday night cosy crime TV series… and enjoy the anticipation of Nora’s return in A Pot of Poison!
(Faber & Faber, hardback, £16.99)