A High Mortality of Doves
On Tuesday 15 November over fifty people descended on Simply Books, an award-winning independent bookshop in Bramhall, to celebrate the launch of Kate Ellis’s new novel A High Mortality of Doves. It was a particularly exciting event for Kate because A High Mortality of Doves, hopefully the first in a trilogy, is a new venture for the author of the well-known Wesley Peterson series.
Set in 1919 in the aftermath of the WWI, A High Mortality of Doves tells the story of a series of bizarre deaths in a small Derbyshire village and it has been described as ‘a powerful story of loss, malice and deception’, ‘a splendidly macabre thriller’ and ‘an instant classic’. At the launch Kate spoke about why it was a book she just had to write and how she went about researching a subject she found both fascinating and deeply moving. She also read out two letters she’d found amongst family papers that described her own grandfather’s ordeal in the trenches, a discovery that added a personal poignancy to the research process.
After a short reading, everybody retired upstairs to celebrate in the usual crime-writing way with wine and chat. Kate was joined not only by friends, family and enthusiastic readers, but by three of her fellow Murder Squad members, Martin Edwards, Margaret Murphy and Chris Simms. A good time was had by all and A High Mortality of Doves was given a wonderful send-off.
