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Wednesday, 22 November 2017

‘The Prime of Ms Dolly Greene’ by E.V. Harte



Published by Constable,
7 September 2017.
ISBN: 978-1-47212-424-1

When Dolly Greene and her husband divorced she needed a new way to make a living and turned to her main skill and solace, her ability to read tarot cards.

Dolly lives down a bike track in the aptly named Tinderbox Lane in South West London. She has a tiny, one-bedroomed cottage that she shares with her twenty-two-year-old daughter, Pippa, a student who has recently broken up with her boyfriend.

When Dolly conducts tarot card readings at home she uses the broom cupboard in order to have privacy and focus on her readings, although she also does some readings for groups. In this way Dolly manages to scrape a living. Despite her hand-to-mouth existence, Dolly is warm and optimistic and enjoys her life.

The book opens with Dolly and a new client, Nikki, seated in the broom cupboard. Dolly’s usual patter is disrupted by a vision of Nikki’s face, battered and bloodstained. A few days later a woman’s body is washed up near Chiswick Bridge and Dolly is convinced that the victim is Nikki.

Dolly is well aware that the police are unlikely to take seriously information gained by reading tarot cards and she tries to discover the truth herself. As she does so, she is drawn into the lives of her neighbours, a group of idiosyncratic people, many of whom have secrets of their own. Dolly is particularly drawn to her next-door-neighbour, the Caribbean born, womanising, larger-than-life Maurice.

Dolly’s personal prospects for prosperity and happiness start to improve, but then death strikes in Tinderbox Lane and Dolly’s determination to discover the truth places her own life in danger.

The Prime of Ms Dolly Greene is the first book in a new series featuring the ‘tarot detective.’ It is a lively and amusing book, based on an unusual premise and filled with eccentric, larger-than-life characters. Dolly is an engaging and delightful protagonist and it is a very enjoyable read.
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Reviewer: Carol Westron

EV Harte is an author and Tarot reader. The Prime of Ms Dolly Greene is the first in EV Harte's Tarot Detective series. The second will be out May 2018.








Author Pic by Panda La Terriere


Carol Westron is a successful short story writer and a Creative Writing teacher.  She is the moderator for the cosy/historical crime panel, The Deadly Dames.  Her crime novels are set both in contemporary and Victorian times.  The Terminal Velocity of Cats is the first in her Scene of Crimes novels, was published July 2013. Her latest book The Fragility of Poppies was published 10 June 2016.

Read a review of Carol’s latest book
The Fragility of Poppies

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