A convalescent home seems an unlikely setting for illegal goings-on but that’s exactly the location of Murder at Elm House by Helena Dixon. This, the sixth of the 1930s Miss Underhay cosy mysteries, starts immediately where the previous book, Murder in the Belltower, ended. Kitty Underhay and her beau, private detective Captain Matthew Bryant, are reluctant visitors to the nursing home in Torquay, sent there by Kitty’s grandmother to visit her friend Mrs Craven. This indomitable lady, who has been involved in some of Kitty’s previous detectoring, is recovering at Elm House after an operation. But she insists something is ‘not quite right.’ Strange noises in the night, people appearing and disappearing, and deaths. Not the usual sort of deaths expected in a convalescent home. After the death of another patient, one of the nurses asks Kitty to meet her the next day at a tea room in Torquay to discuss the happenings, but that night Nurse Hibbert falls from the roof and dies.
Long-running story threads are picked up again in Murder at Elm House. Kitty and Matt’s romance advances slowly and satisfactorily and she is now having driving lessons in her small red Morris Tourer. But all is not happy. The man she suspects of murdering her mother Elowed in 1916 has been seen in Dartmouth, and she has received an anonymous threatening note.
The threat level in this book is the highest yet, with fights and also guns making an appearance. Despite being banned by her grandmother from visiting Elm House, Kitty is not one to sit quietly by while others solve crime. Murder at Elm House combines two crime stories; the deaths and strange events at the nursing home, and the longer-running story of Ezekiel Hammett and his attempts to silence Kitty once and for all.
I raced through this book, finishing it in 24 hours. The stakes are higher, the risks are riskier. What’s going to happen in the next instalment of the Miss Underhay mysteries? This book has more of danger and a darker tone. The cast of characters is satisfyingly familiar with the addition of two younger members who get involved in the action. Dolly Miller – younger sister of Alice, housemaid at the Dolphin – has just started a new job at Elm House, and taxi driver and Kitty’s driving instructor Robert Potter. Both prove themselves worthy of surveillance, lock-breaking and being in the right place at the right time.
An easy-to-read series. Opening a new book feels like slipping on a comfortable pair of slippers and settling down with a mug of cocoa. Excellent.

Here are my reviews of other books in the series:-
MURDER AT THE DOLPHIN HOTEL #1MISSUNDERHAY
MURDER AT ENDERLEY HALL #2MISSUNDERHAY
MURDER AT THE PLAYHOUSE #3MISSUNDERHAY
MURDER ON THE DANCE FLOOR #4MISSUNDERHAY
MURDER IN THE BELLTOWER #5MISSUNDERHAY

If you like this, try:-
‘The Art of the Imperfect’ by Kate Evans #1ScarboroughMysteries
‘The Various Haunts of Men’ by Susan Hill #1SimonSerrailler
‘The Silent Twin’ by Caroline Mitchell #3JenniferKnight

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview MURDER AT ELM HOUSE by Helena Dixon @NellDixon https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7NX via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-