Changelings (Castlemere Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Jo Bannister (Author)

Book Description

Series: Castlemere Mysteries | Publication Date: November 4, 2000

The town of Castlemere is under siege. Someone is making very dangerous-and convincing-threats to destroy the city if it doesn't come up with a ransom of one million pounds. Now time is Castlemere's enemy-it seems the town's bells are tolling not for the passage of time but of people.

With the casualty rate rising, the pressure is on Detective Superintendent Frank Shapiro to catch the blackmailing killer. But the mastermind slips through his fingers just as these precious hours slip through Castlemere's. Along with her professional troubles, Detective Inspector Liz Graham finds she has problems of her own. Panic in the town is at the boiling point when someone suggests her gentle art teacher husband is to blame, and her world begins to crumble. To make matters worse, her sergeant, Cal Donovan, disappears from his autumnal cruise into the watery wastes of the Castlemere Levels. Cal's deserted boat has been located near the tine village of East Beekham, a flyspeck on the map where no one is quite what he seems.

Then again, since the gentle have turned violent and the peaceful turned accusatory, nothing in the entire region is what it seems...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Bannister's seventh superior police procedural set in the town of Castlemere (The Hireling's Tale, etc.), Det. Insp. Liz Graham and Supt. Frank Shapiro must scramble to identify a psychopath whose alarming hoaxesDtainting a yogurt container and a school water supply with jellyDindicate how easily he could do real harm to the entire community. Then a young man turns up at the local hospital with what appears to be cholera, contracted from a bottle of contaminated cough syrup. Frightened townsfolk start to panic. Meanwhile, Det. Sgt. Cal Donovan is on forced holiday, exploring local waterways in his houseboat with his dog and battling a nasty cold. When he disappears, his co-workers fear that he, too, has been infected with cholera. Instead, he has sought refuge in the little village of East Beckham, a community that had fought for its survival from a similar threat years earlierDand that is highly suspicious of outsiders, including Donovan. In this crowded ensemble, the author skillfully delineates the main characters: Shapiro through his wit, Graham through her ambition and drive and the loner Donovan through his captivation with a small, odd child. Lovers of police procedurals will appreciate the good detective work that relies on intellect as much as muscle power. A simple, atmospheric jacket design offers a perfect complement to the text. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Jo Bannister was born in Lancashire, England, and now lives in Northern Ireland. She left school at sixteen to write for her local newspaper, leaving as editor in 1988 with several awards in journalism. Changelings is the seventh in her Castlemere Mystery series.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books (November 4, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312265670
• ISBN-13: 978-0312265670
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,404,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Series Around, July 19, 2001

By 

P. Bigelow (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Changelings (Castlemere Mysteries) (Hardcover)

In this 7th outing, the town of Castlemere is being attacked, but no one knows why. Threats are being made that the perp will do great harm to the populace and Liz Grahame, the DI, must find out who it is before he/she makes good on the threats. In the meantime, Donovan is off recuperating from wounds suffered in the previous outing.

This is one of the best British procedurals around. It is best to start with the first entry so you can see the characters develop over the years. Bannister is an excellent writer, the plots are complex without being obtuse, and Bannister has the reader present as each new piece of evidence is put into mix.

If the series has a flaw, it is the subplots featuring Donovan that the author has begun putting into each book. While the circumstances change, the result is the same - Donovan is the unwitting hero.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Castlemere mystery, October 20, 2000

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Changelings (Castlemere Mysteries) (Hardcover)

The timing of the first incident in the American supermarket in Castlemere, England could not have been better planned. Since Detective Sergeant Cal Donovan is on leave recovering from a bullet wound and a nasty cold, he takes his narrowboat Tara and goes off on one of his watery holidays. Superintendent Frank Shapiro also recovering from a bullet has just returned to the desk, but is not cleared for any other duty. That leaves Detective Inspector Liz Graham as the sole field operator of the successful trio.

The supermarket occurrence involved the threat of poisoning yoghurt. The tampering of the high school showers follows the food incident. Though seemingly harmless pranks, the Castlemere police take it very seriously especially when a woman's hands are burned by baby powder. The supermarket head office sends Mitchell Tyler to help the police stop a devious criminal. The brass calls Donovan back to duty to assist with a town on the verge of uncontrollable panic and hysteria, but the law enforcement official apparently is dead.

CHANGELINGS is the seventh delightful appearance of the Castlemere trio. This book is an exciting police procedural that focuses on the conflict between "punish the guilty" vs. "protect the innocent." The story line provides a great understanding of the prime players so that series fans learn more about their heroes while new readers gain insight into the various character traits of the threesome. The plot succeeds because the maniacal thug feels genuine and his actions plausible (think the Tokyo subway a few years ago). Jo Bannister continues to expertly write tales that are some of the sub-genre's best novels.

Harriet Klausner

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another interesting procedural from Jo Bannister, January 30, 2005

By 

Kaye Barlow (Vancouver Island, Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Changelings (Castlemere Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I discovered the mystery writer, Jo Bannister, just recently and am in the process of working my way through the series.
The Changelings was written in 2000 and is quite a nice addition to the series.
The only criticism I have is that the sub plot involving Sergeant Cal Donovan seems somewhat contrived and a little hard to believe. My sense is that the main story could not be fleshed out enough to make a decent sized novel.
The meat of the book is concerned with the threat of a blackmailer who is threatening to poison an unspecified product unless the town of Castlemere pays a ransom of one million dollars. His opening moves are caustic soda in baby powder and cholera in cough medicine. Neither do any fatal harm but the threat appears to be that if the ransom is not paid, the moves will become deadly. Interesting but as I said above, the story on its own would probably be more suitable as a novella.
Still an interesting read. Bannister is an excellent writer who breathes life into her characters and the town of Castlemere. All in all, as another reviewer stated, this is a superior series. I would concur with that assessment.