The Whitby Murders (A Yorkshire Murder Mystery) J. Ellis (distant reading TXT) 📖

rolled her eyes. ‘There’s a lot of stuff in there too. Clearly a terrible egomania where the needs of his unappreciated genius are paramount, self-delusion about his talent and a measure of psychopathy in the lack of empathy with others, even his own friends. I don’t envy my colleagues in forensic psychology trying to untangle that lot.’

‘No.’ Oldroyd took another sip of his wine. ‘You know, I often find myself comparing a dramatic case like this to a Shakespeare play. We were definitely near the world of Macbeth in this one: the great themes of loyalty and betrayal acted out in a dark, violent atmosphere of witches, vampires and general ghoulishness, even if the witches and so on were people dressed up and not real as in the play.’

‘But not everyone is evil in that play, are they? Isn’t there some light at the end?’

‘Yes, there is hope in the loyalty of Banquo and later on in the young Malcolm. He brings the possibility of renewal.’

‘And that’s what will happen with Louise and the others who suffered. In time they will experience renewal too.’

‘I think you’re right,’ said Oldroyd, who suddenly felt optimistic about the future as he poured them both another glass of wine.

But on the instant, came the sweep and flash of Jonathan’s great knife. I shrieked as I saw it shear through the throat; whilst at the same time Mr Morris’s bowie knife plunged into the heart.

It was like a miracle; but before our very eyes, and almost in the drawing of a breath, the whole body crumbled into dust and passed from our sight.

From Mina Harker’s Journal in Dracula

This ae nighte, this ae nighte,

Every nighte and alle,

Fire, fleet and candle light,

And Christe receive thy saule.

From the Lyke Wake Dirge

Acknowledgments

I continue to find help, inspiration and encouragement from the Otley Writers’ Group and from my family and friends.

The twice-yearly Whitby Goth Weekend is a fascinating event. I would like to thank the organisers and all the people who put such effort and imagination into their amazing costumes!

Bram Stoker visited Whitby in the summer of 1890. He found the name Dracula in a book in the Whitby Subscription Library and decided to set a substantial part of the story in the town. His account of Dracula’s arrival in Whitby is based on a real event when a ship ran aground in the harbour and it was discovered that very few of the crew remained alive. Some rescue workers reported seeing a black dog jump off the ship and run up the 199 steps to the abbey.

Edvard Munch painted six versions of ‘Love and Pain’, sometimes called ‘Vampire’, between 1893 and 1895. One version is missing.

West Riding Police is a fictional force based on the old riding boundary. Harrogate was part of the old West Riding, although it is in today’s North Yorkshire.

About the Author

John R. Ellis has lived in Yorkshire for most of his life and has spent many years exploring Yorkshire’s diverse landscapes, history, language and communities. He recently retired after a career in teaching, mostly in further education in the Leeds area. In addition to the Yorkshire Murder Mystery series, he writes poetry, ghost stories and biography. He has completed a screenplay about the last years of the poet Edward Thomas and a work of faction about the extraordinary life of his Irish mother-in-law. He is currently working on his memoirs of growing up in a working-class area of Huddersfield in the 1950s and 1960s.

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