Ali and Jayden, the Shell House Detectives are back, and this series just seems to get better.
Set in Porthpella in Cornwall where the annual Arts Trail is just starting, this year there is a featured artist, someone that Ali knew from her art school days. Then there is death, vandalism and threatening emails, the Arts Trail committee hire Ali and Jayden to find out who is responsible.
This is a well written book with suspects aplenty and full of twists, I really enjoyed reading it.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc.

I think that Emylia Hall's excellent series does not garner the attention that it deserves. I have found every title in the Shell House Detective books to be enjoyable.

The stories are set in Cornwall with the area brought to live in a way that lets me recall past time there and leaves me wishing that I could go back.

The Shell House Detectives are Ally and Jayden. Ally's husband Bill was a local police officer who has died by the time that the series begins. She becomes close to a divorced writer, Guy, in the earlier books. Jayden stands out in the community where most people are white. He is married and at the time that this story begins, his second child has just been born. As a side note, credit to the author for acknowledging how difficult the days of parenting a newborn can be. Ally and Jayden began solving cases (of course) in the first of the series.

As this story begins, an arts festival is about to start. A famous artist has returned to be the guest of honor. Interestingly, he does not seem to bring his best work. He does bring an art dealer, semi significant other who (no spoiler because it happens early in the novel), is murdered. Was she the intended victim? Will there be other deaths? Is the graffiti that is popping up related to the murder? These are just some of the questions requiring answers in the story.

There are many characters to follow. The story line is involving.

Of interest to those who have followed Ally and Gus, a man from Ally's past has arrived for the festival. Will he and Ally rekindle their relationship? What has brought him back?

This book is about 400 pages long which I loved as I was happy to remain in the company of these characters.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this book. All opinions are my onw.

Note: The e book costs under $5.00 which amazes me

Pub date: 08 April 2025

The audio book:

I toggled between reading and listening as I often do. Listening while I exercise makes the time so much more enjoyable.

The narrator here is spot on...easy to understand, able to speak in the voices of the different characters and able to bring the story to life.

Really well done!

Thanks to NetGalley and the audio publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.

I've somehow missed this series til now and I know I missed nuance and character issues that fans will appreciate in this installment but it still made a good read for a lazy afternoon. The Shell House team must quickly find the villain who murdered a gallery owner and. of course they do, with a few red herrings along the way. I liked the Porthpella setting (always like a setting in Cornwall) and the team is fun. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'll look for this series again.

Another brilliant story about the Shell House detectives! This series is getting better and better as we learn more about all the characters, their relationships and the local community. There were some interesting new characters introduced in this book so I’m looking forward to seeing how their story develops; but I’m still hoping for a happy ending for Gus! The mystery side of the story was excellently plotted as always, with plenty of twists, turns and red herrings. I love the way Emylia Hall writes crime stories in such an elegant, literary way. One of the best crime writers around today!

The Fifth novel in the Shell House series sees a killer on the loose during the village's Arts Trail festival. To complicate matters Ally's art school boyfriend returns and Hayden is dealing with the traumas of fatherhood. I love the setting, all the characters and their contribution to the storytelling.

The fifth book in the Shell House Detective series; although you don't have to have read the previous four, I'd recommend it because the series is wonderful

The annual Arts Trail hits a major snag when one of the gallery owners is found dead - and then people start getting threats and one of the artists is killed, too.

Jayden and Ally (the Shell House Detectives) are commissioned to find out who's behind the threats and the murders - and they have a vested interest, as Ally's also one of the artists.

These books get better and better - there's a lovely community feel to it, the setting's gorgeous and the characters are very relatable. Lots of good twists, and lots of emotional depth with it. Thoroughly recommended.

The Arts Trail Killer is the fifth book in Emylia Hall's Shell House Detectives series. The village of Porthpella is preparing for their annual spring tradition, the Art Trail. The celebration turns deadly when a man Is found murdered. Soon threats begin appearing and a second death occurs. The Shell House Detectives are hired to investigate the crimes by some of the artists involved in the Art Trail. Jayden and Ally square off against the police department to find the killer.

This is such an enjoyable series. The small village on the Cornish cliffs setting is wonderful and I love the community that Emylia has built. The books always have a nice mixture of Ally and Jayden's personal lives and mystery. They are a great team and I love that we have a duo that is a man and a woman that are friends and not in a relationship. The mystery had some nice twists. I can't wait to see where the story goes next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Two of my favorite things - art and mystery! This was my first Shell House Detectives book and I loved it. I wasn’t sure at first. The first few chapter which introduced the characters seemed forced and full of awkward, overly poetic expressions, but…. Once the first murder occurred and the sleuthing began I was hooked and couldn’t put it down. I loved the relationship between the two amateur detectives and how they worked together. There were lots of red herrings and side stories and I truly could not solve the multiple murders and other side mysteries until the solution was revealed. I will be looking to read the other books in this series.