6 March 2023. (Kindle).
Published 23 March 2023.
ISBN: 978-0-85730-543-5 (PB)
When Emily worked all through the Covid lock-down but, just as life is beginning to return to normal, her boss is forced to make cutbacks and makes her redundant. At first Emily is not concerned because she’d already considered making a change. However, a week after she loses her job, her boyfriend, Ben, announces that he is leaving and moves out of their shared flat in London. Emily is devastated and her confidence is badly damaged, She is also worried about how she can afford to pay the rent now she is jobless and alone. She is afraid that it will be necessary to return to her parents’ home. Although she loves her parents, she dreads the thought of living with them because her mother is always certain she knows best and holds the old-fashioned belief that her daughters need to be married in order to be secure and settled for life. Emily’s mother had always been charmed by Ben and Emily knows she will blame her for the break-up and urge her to try and get Ben back. Because of this, Emily wishes to keep the news of Ben’s departure from her parents for as long as possible, but she does confide in her older sister when Susie phones her. Susie has never liked Ben and upsets Emily by showing how pleased she is that he is out of Emily’s life.
After a depressing day, job hunting, Emily is surprised to receive a letter asking her to contact a firm of solicitors. When she does she is told that her Great Aunt Lorna has died, following a fall, and Lorna’s will names Emily as her sole heir and her inheritance includes a cottage in a village in Wiltshire. Emily has not seen her great aunt since she was a small child, and this stroke of good fortune comes as a total surprise. Only one stipulation in the will worries her: Emily must care for any pets that her great aunt had owned. Emily has not had to look after any pets before but if she fails to comply with this she will lose her inheritance.
Emily goes to visit the village of Ashton Mead. She finds the cottage delightful, although in need of a thorough cleaning, and the village small and friendly. Rather than selling the cottage and using the proceeds to pay her rent for the London flat, Emily decides to live in the cottage. She is relieved that the only pet in evidence is a goldfish, which she feels she can deal with. However, a couple of weeks later, an elderly woman arrives with a small white and brown puppy and tells Emily that she had been a friend of her great aunt and had taken Lorna’s dog, Poppy, home to stay with her and her sister until Lorna’s heir arrived and had a chance to settle down. Emily is horrified at the responsibility that is so suddenly thrust upon her but she knows she has to keep Poppy if she wants to retain possession of her inheritance.
Soon Emily comes to love Poppy as much as she loves her new home. She settles into the village, makes friends and gets a job as a waitress at the village tea shop. Most of the villagers are welcoming, especially Hannah, who owns the tea shop, and Hannah’s friend, Toby, but Emily’s next-door neighbour, Alice, is initially reserved to the point of rudeness. Emily feels sorry for Alice, who is obviously lonely and missing her daughter, Sophie, who has gone away to travel round the world. Although Alice remains easily offended, after a while, she invites Emily into her to house listen to the letters she has received from Sophie, although this invitation does not extend to Poppy, who appears to dislike Alice as much as Alice does the usually friendly little dog.
Two things mar Emily’s pleasure in her new home. One is her mother’s disapproval of her decision to remain in the village and her refusal to beseech Ben to come back to her, but Emily is used to being the focus of her mother’s displeasure and accepts her complaints philosophically. The other problem is more serious and one that Emily does not feel she can ignore. She discovers her great aunt’s diary, which contains guarded references that lead Emily to believe that Lorna suspected that someone in the village had done something very wrong. Emily puts this information together with the fact that Lorna’s death had been caused by injuries sustained when she fell down the stairs in her cottage and believes it is possible that Lorna had been pushed, which means she had been murdered. As this suspicion grows in Emily’s mind she knows she owes it to her great aunt to discover the truth, even though her new friends dismiss her tentatively expressed fears, telling her that she has an over-active imagination.
When different people in the village tell her very different things, Emily does not know who she can trust and pushes away those who might have made good allies. Although she is distracted by Ben’s sudden reappearance in her life, she continues to investigate, oblivious to the fact that those who provoke the attention of a murderer place themselves in deadly danger.
Barking Up the Right Tree is the first in a cosy crime series featuring Emily, Poppy
and the other residents of the village of Ashton Mead. It has a delightful
village setting and some lively, likeable characters, notably the adorable
Poppy, who effortlessly steals every scene in which she appears. This is a contemporary
novel that has the atmosphere of classic cosy crime and one of the most
delightful canine characters in crime fiction.
-----
Reviewer: Carol Westron
Leigh Russell studied at the University of Kent gaining a Master’s degree in English and American literature. Formerly a secondary school English teacher, with the success of her Geraldine Steel series, Leigh now writes full-time. Her debut novel, Cut Short, was published in 2009 by No Exit Press in the UK, followed by Road Closed, Dead End, Death Bed, Stop Dead, Fatal Act and Killer Plan, all featuring detective Geraldine Steel, and Murder Ring will be published in 2016. Leigh also writes a spinoff series for Geraldine's sergeant, Ian Peterson. Cold Sacrifice, Race to Death and Blood Axe. Leigh recently signed a three-book deal with Thomas and Mercer for a new series featuring Lucy Hall. Leigh Russell is married with two daughters and lives in Middlesex.
Carol Westron is a successful author and a Creative Writing teacher. Her crime novels are set both in contemporary and Victorian times. Her first book The Terminal Velocity of Cats was published in 2013. Since then, she has since written 6 further mysteries. Carol recently gave an interview to Mystery People. To read the interview click on the link below.
https://promotingcrime.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/carol-westron.html www.carolwestron.com
To read a review of Carol latest book click
on the title
The Curse of the Concrete Griffin
No comments:
Post a Comment