‘Death on Dartmoor Edge’ by Stephanie Austin.

Published by Alison & Busby,
19 September 2024. 
ISBN: 978-0-7490-3118-3 (HB)

Juno Browne works hard at her businesses.  She has a small business doing housework, dog walking and providing home help care.  She also owns Old Nick’s, the Ashburton antiques shop which she inherited from its former owner. 

One day, having had to close the shop because of lack of staff, she arrives from her domestic duties to find it open and on entering she recognises the voice of her friend Elizabeth.  Elizabeth is talking with a man called Colin, who appears to be trying to blackmail her.  Colin leaves and Elizabeth explains that she is being pursued for money her dead husband had stolen.  Colin works in a local retirement home, Moorland View, in which her sister is a resident and Elizabeth had been traced via that contact.  Juno’s natural inclination to investigate is aroused and she’s happy to use her amateur detective skills.  Then, on a visit Ricky and Morris, friends who run a theatrical costume hire business, she helps unpack some of the returned clothing hampers. They quickly notice a strong smell of whisky coming from one hamper.  Here they discover Freddy, the actor son of one of Ricky’s friends, and he is in trouble (hence the hamper and whisky).  He unwisely accepted the offer of a substantial amount of money for a small job – he was to make a few changes to his part in a play, being given the change of script on a weekly basis.  Apart from really annoying his fellow actors, things had suddenly become dangerous, and he had fled.

So, Juno now has two investigations to consider.  But the the discovery of Colin’s dead body makes things very serious indeed and the police become interested in Juno’s activities.

This is the eighth of the Devon Mysteries, so Juno’s character and lifestyle are well-established.  The story is well plotted, and her friends and colleagues fit neatly into the action, providing colour and contrast.  It blends the exciting and dangerous world of the amateur detective with the quieter, more structured life that Juno usually enjoys.  The book works as a stand-alone, and the reader can quickly slip into the flow of Juno’s life, but it’s always fun to find a new series to read from the beginning.
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Reviewer: Jo Hesslewood
Other books by this author:  Dead in Devon, Dead on Dartmoor, From Devon with Death, The Dartmoor Murders, A Devon Night’s Death, Death Comes to Dartmoor, A Devon Midwinter Murder.  

Stephanie Austin has enjoyed a varied career, working as an artist and an antiques trader, but also for the Devon Schools Library Service. When not writing she is actively involved in amateur theatre as a director and actor and attempts to be a competent gardener and cook. She lives in Devon.

Jo Hesslewood.  Crime fiction has been my favourite reading material since as a teenager I first spotted Agatha Christie on the library bookshelves.  For twenty-five years the commute to and from London provided plenty of reading time.  I am fortunate to live in Cambridge, where my local crime fiction book club, Crimecrackers, meets at Heffers Bookshop .  I enjoy attending crime fiction events and currently organise events for the Margery Allingham Society.