Narrated by Stephen Armstrong.
Released 1st January 2022 by Isis Publishing Ltd. Published by Red Dog Press.
From the cover:
Wedding bells are chiming in the idyllic, coastal town of Stonebridge. For Sam and Emily, it should be the happiest day of their lives. But, on the morning of the ceremony, the best man is found dead. The police quickly write his death off as a tragic accident, but something doesn’t seem right to wedding guest and groomsman, Adam Whyte.
Armed with an encyclopedic, but ultimately ridiculous knowledge of television detective shows and an unwarranted confidence in his own abilities, Adam and his best friend (and willing Watson) Colin, set out to uncover what actually happened to Daniel Costello.
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Welcome to Stonebridge, a small town on the north coast of Northern Ireland. For the most part, this is a quiet place, full of ordinary citizens going about their daily business, but things are about to take a turn...
The wedding of local couple Sam and Emily is due to take place this weekend, in the grounds of a swanky cliff-top hotel, and the guests are gathering to celebrate the nuptials. Before the ceremony gets underway a disturbing event almost brings the festivities to a halt, when the best man Daniel Costello is found dead in his room. The wedding hangs in the balance, but once the police pronounce that Daniel's death is simply the result of over-indulgence in the freely flowing alcoholic beverages available at the largess of the bride's father, Sam and Emily decide to carry on as if nothing has happened - substituting Daniel for Sam's twin brother, who everyone thought would be his choice as best man in the first place.
For groomsman Adam Whyte something is fishy about the whole affair, so he recruits his best friend and fellow wedding guest Colin McLaughlin to help him to look into Daniel's death. Armed with the knowledge they have accrued from watching hours of detective shows, the pair set about questioning the wedding guests, and sifting through the evidence. What they find has them convinced that there is more going on here than meets the eye, and they will not rest until justice has been done - even if they didn't like the victim all that much...
The Curious Dispatch of Daniel Costello is the first book in the Stonebridge Mysteries series, featuring amateur sleuths Adam Whyte and his bestie Colin McLaughlin, who consider themselves expert solvers of crime, having binge-watched hours of detective shows together. In true classic murder-mystery style everyone has something to confess, whether it's related to incident in hand or not, and it's great fun being along for the ride as they go about trying to discover the truth behind Daniel's death, uncovering the clues without the benefit of access to any kind of forensic evidence, or the authority to make the other guests answer their questions. This makes what follows highly entertaining as they work entirely on their gut instinct, employing the skills of observation and deduction they have learnt from their tv heroes.
The story is narrated by Stephen Armstrong, who handles all the characters well and nicely plays up the interactions between Adam and Colin, particularly the bickering that comes with any long-standing friendship, so you warm to them very quickly and really want them to succeed.
I don't think I have listened to anything quite like this before. Chris McDonald brings something fresh and charming to the mystery genre here, working in a gritty, contemporary angle to what is essentially nostalgic cosy crime with his grown-up version of The Hardy Boys (you can tell he was a big fan as a child!). The story is very relatable to the 'binge-watch' generation, moving along at a cracking pace, while still having everything traditional fans of the genre know and love, and although short-and-sweet, covers all the bases before it arriving at a very satisfying conclusion.
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this crime caper and cannot wait to see what Adam and Colin get up to next!
The Curious Dispatch of Daniel Costello is available to buy now from your favourite book retailer in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.
Thank you to Isis Audio for sending me an audio copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Danielle Price of the Reading Closet for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
Originally hailing from the north coast of Northern Ireland and now residing in South Manchester, Chris McDonald has always been a reader. At primary school, The Hardy Boys inspired his love of adventure, before his reading world was opened up by Chuck Palahniuk and the gritty world of crime. He's a fan of 5-a-side football, has an eclectic taste in music ranging from Damien Rice to Slayer and loves dogs.
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