‘The Dacre Dilemma’ by Rebecca Tope

Published by Allison & Busby,
19 June 2025.
ISBN: 978-0-7490-3267-8 (HB)

Simmy is pregnant and trying to juggle arranging childcare for her two-year old son Robin and running her florist shop in Windermere. The last thing she needs right now is to get dragged into a murder investigation. She has no choice. She and Eleanor Pagett were the ones who discovered the body covered in blood in the churchyard in the small village of Dacre.

It doesn’t help her state of mind when Simmy’s mother is involved in a car accident and is taken to hospital in Carlisle. Her father is in no fit state to drive all that way on a daily basis and moves in with Simmy and her family.

Her husband Christopher, Ben who helps out in Christopher’s auction house and Simmy’s assistant in the flower shop Bonnie are all keen to help in the investigation. The team have worked with DI Moxon in the past helping to solve puzzling cases. There are plenty of suspects to consider and Simmy finds herself alone in feeling that Eleanor is hiding something.

This is the fifteenth in Rebecca Tope’s highly engaging Lake District Series and it’s always a pleasure to meet up with the large cast of fully rounded characters who continue to develop in each new story. Newcomers to this series will have no difficulty in getting to grips with these engaging individuals.

A Rebecca Tope novel, be it one of her Lake District, Cotswold or West Country Mysteries is a guarantee of a complex, page turning plot that will keep the reader guessing until the last page.

A thoroughly enjoyable read which I heartily recommend.
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Reviewer: Judith Cranswick  

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

Judith Cranswick was born and brought up in Norwich. Apart from writing, Judith’s great passions are travel and history. Both have influenced her two series of mystery novels. Tour Manager, Fiona Mason takes coach parties throughout Europe, and historian Aunt Jessica is the guest lecturer accompanying tour groups visiting more exotic destinations aided by her nephew Harry. Her published novels also include several award-winning standalone psychological thrillers. She wrote her first novel (now languishing in the back of a drawer somewhere) when her two children were toddlers, but there was little time for writing when she returned to her teaching career. Now retired, she is able to indulge her love of writing and has begun a life of crime! ‘Writers are told to write what they know about, but I can assure you, I've never committed a murder. I'm an ex-convent school headmistress for goodness sake!’
Her most recent book is Journey To Casablanca

http://judithcranswick.co.uk/