‘Trouble in the Cotswolds’ by Rebecca Tope.

Published by Allison and Busby,
20 March 2014.
ISBN: 978-0-7490-1443-8

House-sitter Thea Osborne is all set for a quiet Christmas house-sitting for the Shepherds in the village of Stanton.  All her duties are, apart from her mere presence being to ward off burglars, to walk Blondie the great Dane and feed, water and let out to play – the rats.  Sounds pretty simply, well apart from the rats!

Her employers have hardy left when a funeral cortège  appears.  Thea discovers that the funeral is of a local businessman, but oddly that one half of the funeral is taking place at the home of his wife and the other half at the home of his mistress – next door to Thea.

Settling in for Christmas Thea finds herself with a tickly throat, but we all know that feeling, soon it is a fully fledged sore  throat and ‘flu.  In the circumstances it would be simple for Thea to take to her bed and hunker down with a few lem-sips.  But circumstances dictate otherwise.

Soon Thea despite her ‘flu is in the thick of it. Local man Dennis Ireland seems to be a staunch ally but is he?  With yet another dead body on her doorstep, Thea knows not which way to turn.  Even the unexpected presence of Drew doesn’t help. Thea questions everything and nothing seems right. 

I so greatly enjoy this series and I felt for Thea trying to battle along with the ‘flu and hoping that someone could just take it away and make it all right, but life isn’t like that – as Thea discovers.  Terrific entry in this series. One that kept me guessing to the end. No change there. Highly recommended.

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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

Rebecca Tope is the author of three popular murder mystery series, featuring Den Cooper, Devon police detective, Drew Slocombe, Undertaker, and Thea Osborne, house sitter in the Cotswolds. Rebecca grew up on farms, first in Cheshire then in Devon, and now lives in rural Herefordshire on a smallholding situated close to the beautiful Black Mountains.

Besides "ghost writer" of the novels based on the ITV series Rosemary and Thyme. Rebecca is also the proprietor of a small press - Praxis Books. This was established in 1992

www.rebeccatope.com