THE CROAKING RAVEN by Guy Hale (Bullington Press)

Rating: ***

AWKWARD, isn’t it, when you’re trying to write a cosy murder mystery and all you can hear is Midsomer Murders and Endeavour on the telly in the front room. Guy Hale, author of the earlier Comeback Trail trilogy, would surely recognise the dilemma.

His latest outing finds young, idealistic, DC Toby Marlowe starting his dream detective job in 1970s Stratford-upon-Avon. He’s a drama graduate and glad to have escaped big city Birmingham (Brummies please note: you don’t come out of this well!).

Paired with tough as boots veteran copper DS Fred Williams – very much the Thursday to his Morse – the pair find themselves on the trail of a serial killer who seems to be basing his spree on the plot of Hamlet.

That’s not a spoiler, by the way, it’s there upfront in the book jacket blurb.

The characters are well drawn, punnily named (I’m looking at you, Dame Suzy Tench!); the politically incorrect era is correctly captured, and the humour irreverent; the sense of place is perfect – I live just down the road from Stratford and enjoyed tracing the killer’s progress in a town I know well.

Chief Inspector Barnaby would surely love to get his teeth into the plot, which mirrors Midsomer at its barmy best, with bonus Bard quotations galore, but there’s a downside. As the killer’s accomplice muses: “For good or bad, the play must run its course, the ending had yet to be written”.

And so it proves, alas. After building up the story for 300-plus pages, Hale puts his pen down and leaves us with a cliffhanger, doubtless to be addressed in his next book.

A long-term story arc over a series is fine, but each separate part should offer a satisfying conclusion. I enjoyed this Raven’s croak, but exited, stage left, a little frustrated.

Read more: My favourites reads of the year – 2024

• I’ve started writing occasional guest reviews for the popular One Girl And Her Book bookstagram blog, and will repost them here as and when.