‘The Askham Accusation’ by Rebecca Tope

Published by Allison & Busby,
19 January 2023.
ISBN: 978-0-7490-2971-5 (HB)

Florist Simmy Brown is now married to her childhood sweetheart Christopher Henderson, and they have a son Robin.

Attending the funeral of Humphrey Craig who had done a lot of work on their house in Hartsop, Simmy visits the grave admiring the flowers with her florist’s eye. While doing so she meets two women: Lindsay Wilson, an academic writing a thesis on Charles Dickens, and ninety-year-old matriarch Pauline Parsons.

Then twenty-four hours later Detective Inspector Moxon, with whom Simmy, Bonnie and Ben have an odd sort of working relationship, owing to having assisted him on earlier investigations, turns up to question her about the death of Mrs Parsons found dead on Askham Fell. It is clear that Moxon is uncomfortable with this, but why is Moxon asking her about it. Because we have an eyewitness, that when she was last seen you were with her, is his reply.

Knowing that that this can't be true, Simmy attempts to speak with her accuser who blanks her, and then tries other avenues, but to no avail. It appears she has been judged guilty already by the village of Askham.  Eventually the only recourse she has is to find the killer herself.

I found this one of the most fascinating in this series. Usually, Simmy and her two teenage pals Ben, the boy genius, and Bonnie his girlfriend are on hand to help in an investigation, but this time it is different, this time Simmy is the one in the frame.

This was a turnaround for this series, and one I wasn’t expecting, and how was Simmy going to extract herself out of this one?

I have loved all the books in this series and this was another fascinating mystery, a real puzzle. Highly recommended.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Sirett

Rebecca Tope is the author of four popular murder mystery series, featuring Den Cooper, Devon police detective, Drew Slocombe, Undertaker, Thea Osborne, house sitter in the Cotswolds, and more recently Persimmon (Simmy) Brown, a florist. 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