The Murder at the Leaky Barrel

by Joshua Bejoy

#1 Instant Bestseller Halloween night . 1532, Dublin, Ireland. After a night out in a bar, Edward Brown is returning back home, where he is murdered. Five centuries later, on Halloween, he has woken up from his sleep, a thought to get revenge in his mind. He kills both Max Watson and Horace Jones, two residents of Bluebell. Edward flees, leaving no clues. The case is investigated by various agencies, all to no avail. Presently, the case is in the hands of Dublin based investigation agency, UNWWAISMC. The case is given to Maralays Hover, a detective, and Root Anderson, a forensic psychologist. Join both of them on their mysterious and perilous journey to uncover the reason for the murder and bring the unidentified person behind it to justice.

The author Joshua Bejoy is an eleven-year-old student from Pune, India. He wrote an inverted mystery, 'Murder at the Leaky Barrel' while confined to home during the lockdown. Apart from writing, he likes painting, playing the guitar, and baking.

In his own
"The rush of happiness that I experience when I write is something that I can't describe! The richness in each word is nearly equal to sinking my teeth into some rich plum cake :) Each and every creation we make can be moulded into something great, just as my poem about the process of making bread

'At first, I'm paste without a taste,
Then with a spoon, you roll me out, rather in a haste,
As you work on me, I get softer by time,
Until you set me into my mould,
And after baking, you get culinary gold!'"

260 pages, Paperback

Published June 28, 2021

Reviews

[Deepthi Narasimhaiah · Rating 5 out of 5]

All through the book I had to remind myself that it was written by an eleven-year-old boy. Because, the novel is a murder mystery set in Ireland, begins in 16th century and continues to present times. It also includes paranormal situations.

All these shows the writers imagination as well as his extensive reading habit prior to beginning of writing this novel.

Looking forward to read more from the young author in future.

[the.argumentative.bong · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brave and ambitious attempt at a murder mystery with paranormal elements by a 6th grader. I'm really impressed by the effort rather than the actual content. The book needs a whole lot of work, as regards facts, historical accuracy and edits. Hopefully in another decade, the young author will be much more successful in his endeavour.
2.75 encouraging ⭐ (rounded off)

[Anjali · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent job by a 10 year old! The plot begins as a crime thriller from the 16th century and expands to some fantasy, supernatural events in the present century. Investigative and also funny at many places.
I couldn't follow everything since it was not my cup of tea.

[Dominic · Rating 2 out of 5]

A brave and ambitious attempt at writing by the 11year old. The rating itself is only for the attempt and not for the content.

[Girish B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good attempt at writing ! 2 stars for that!

A bit of editing would have made a lot of difference to the whole narrative. Things are all over the place at times.