‘A Meadow Murder’ by Helen Hollick

Published by Taw River Press,
27 July 2023.
ISBN: 978-1-73927206-7 (PB)

It is summer 1972 and Jan Christopher and her fiancé, Detective Sergeant Laurie Walker, are looking forward to ten days holiday, staying with Laurie’s parents in North Devon. Jan loves Devon and gets on well with her prospective parents-in-law although she finds life in the country very different to suburban London where she was brought up by her Uncle Toby and Aunt Madge. DCI Toby Christopher is Laurie’s senior officer, and it was through this that the young couple first met. Although Laurie and Jan will be expected to help with the harvest there are many treats in store for them. Jan is especially looking forward attending her first race meeting to celebrate Laurie’s mum’s birthday and she is very happy that her beloved aunt and uncle are coming down to join them for the weekend.

When Jan and Laurie walk down to the village they encounter a group of mischievous children, led by Mary-Anne Culpin, who are hanging round looking for pranks to play. Heather, the shopkeeper, is flustered and tells them that Mrs Dorothy Clack, known locally as Dotty Dorothy, has been in the shop claiming that a scarecrow is following her around and that she has seen a leprechaun. Naturally everybody thinks that Dorothy is imagining things. While in the village shop they meet Oliver de Lainé, a once famous actor who shows off his knowledge of Shakespeare by quoting from Romeo and Juliet and is impressed when library assistant Jan completes his quote.

Despite his flamboyant attitude, de Lainé is no longer wealthy and successful and is spending the summer living in a caravan behind the village pub. As they leave, Laurie goes back into the shop to take return a child’s lost toy. Jan stands by a field admiring some beautiful horses when she hears the sound of quarrelling. Oliver de Lainé is in angry dispute with a small man wearing a green tweed jacket. As the little man walks away he barges into Jan and, rather than apologising, he shouts at her. He storms off and, as soon as Laurie returns, Jan forgets about the incident.

At the races they are introduced to Jack Woollen, the owner of the Four Horseshoes, a local yard that trains racehorses and he invites them to visit his yard, which is a special treat for Jan and her aunt, who both love horses and are keen riders. Jack Woollen’s horses do not do well in the races, in fact they do surprisingly badly, but Jan doesn’t back any of them because she recognises the jockey as the unpleasant Irishman she had encountered in the village and discovers that his name is Ruairi O’Connor.

The next morning Laurie’s parents’ household is disturbed at five-thirty in the morning by frantic banging on the door. When they open it they discover Dorothy Clack who hysterically informs them that, when she was returning from a night of badger watching, she discovered a leprechaun dead in the woods. Knowing that Laurie is a police officer, she had run straight to his parents’ house. Laurie, his father and DCI Christopher go to investigate but when they return it is to say that they cannot find any sign of a body. Jan thinks she can deduce the identity of the leprechaun, whom she assumes was drunk rather than dead, but the police officers in her family tell her that she is making too many assumptions. Everyone dismisses Dorothy’s report as imagination or misinterpretation but, later that day, a dead body is discovered in the meadow.

Unfortunately, the visiting detectives are not allowed to investigate and the local officer who is in charge of the investigation is DS Frobisher, an incompetent, arrogant officer who is jealous of Laurie and will do anything to spite him. This incompetence has dire effects when the violence continues and escalates, and it is evident that there is a ruthless killer at work in the quiet countryside.

A Meadow Murder is the fourth book in the series featuring Jan Christopher and her family and friends. It is a delightful, nostalgic series with several engaging returning characters, especially the main protagonist, Jan. This is an entertaining, gentle cosy crime, a thoroughly enjoyable read, which I recommend.
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Reviewer: Carol Westron

Helen Hollick is a British author of historical fiction. She is the author of the Arthurian trilogy, The Pendragon's Banner (3 books) and more recently two murder mysteries featuring library assistant Jan Christopher and her detective boyfriend, Laurie Walker.

https://www.helenhollick.net/

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 5 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
http://carolwestron.blogspot.co.uk/
To read a review of Carol latest book The Curse of the Concrete Griffin  
click on the title.