Murder mysteries, who doesn’t love reading them? Trying to piece together all the clues to work out for yourself who the culprit is and the motive for murder. For Murder Press 3 is a murder mystery that will have you scratching your head as to who the murderer could be.
For Murder Press 3 by P. M. A. Hayes is the first book in a new mystery series featuring private investigator Benedict Aberthorp set in New Zealand. It is a story of jealousies, revenge and murder.
When 36 year old Francine Roydon is found stabbed to death in her garden, suspicion is cast upon her estranged husband Aldo Sherwin. Fearful that he is going to be arrested for the murder of his wife, Aldo enlists the services of Private Investigator, Benedict Aberthorp to find out who did murder his wife. This is to be Benedict’s very first murder case.
But the case isn’t very straightforward, when Benedict starts to interview people close to the murdered woman, everybody seems to be keeping things back from him and to solve the case he needs to unearth all those long buried secrets. And everybody becomes a suspect.
Will Benedict be able to uncover a murderer and their motive?
Overall, For Murder Press 3 is a murder mystery that has many layers, motives and suspects, which made it a rather slow read at times. That said, I still enjoyed the story and went back and forth deciding who the killer was and with a large pool of suspects there was a lot to choose from.
The book starts with the discovery of a dead body and an anxious phone call. The story then starts to reveal many suspects with many motives. The author, P. M. A. Hayes does a very good job of making everybody a suspect in this dark whodunnit. But with so many suspects, secrets, layers and subplots it became all a bit convoluted. With all the suspects, secrets and possible motives to keep track of, at times I lost track on what was happening within the story and had to re-read some bits, it was just a bit too intricate at times, which at times ruined the flow of the story.
Most of the characters were all pretty much unlikable with their buried secrets but were relatable with the problems they carried, and I couldn’t understand why the main suspect Aldo never sought out legal advice and the P.I. Benedict Aberthorp, who had his own issues, never spoke to police regarding the murder, any evidence or suspects.
Despite the intricate storyline (and being set in 2024 for a reason that wasn’t explained and could have been left out) I did stick with the story. Whilst I don’t think it is up there with the great murder mysteries, I did actually enjoy reading it – I don’t know if it was because there were too many suspects so that I didn’t figure out who the killer was until late in the book or maybe there were just too many suspects that I just happened to overlook the killer. Either way, I did like the way it all joined together at the end and revealed how everything was related. Although, the reason behind the title was just a bit too far out there for me in a murder mystery detective story.
Whilst I found it slow going at times (and the overuse of surnames) I did enjoy the story. It has a few twists and turns that make it interesting. For the most part, the writing was good especially the way it pulled it together all the suspects and their buried secrets to reach the conclusion.
Sadly, for me, not the greatest of stories but one I did enjoy, and I would read more in the series to see how the character of Benedict evolves.
Rating: 3.5/5
RRP: £12.99 (Paperback) / £1.99 (Kindle)
For more information, visit pmahayes.blogspot.com. Available to buy from Amazon here.
