‘A Discovery in the Cotswolds’ by Rebecca Tope

Published by Allison & Busby,
24 August 2023.
ISBN: 978-0-7490-3037-7 (HB)

Thea Osborne, ex-house sitter, is now married to undertaker Drew Slocombe inheriting two stepchildren, Timmy and Stephanie. Over Sunday lunch Thea remarks that it seems unusually quiet. Stepanie says  there is only one funeral this week’. Thea cast her mind back to how long it had been since she had taken an interest in her husband’s business. Drew explains that his ‘green’ approach to undertaking has now been overtaken by new ideas and while he was ground-breaking in the undertaking business 10 years ago the world has now changed. Thea muses that she has probably put up a very poor showing as an undertaker’s wife distancing herself from the details of the undertaking business. Thea decides she needs another house-sitting job. Drew is not that keen as he says ‘it takes you away from the bosom of your family. Stephanie doesn’t like it and the dog’s a complication’.

Reading online about some church paintings in a church in Baunton, Thea decides to visit the next day and takes Stephanie with her. There she meets up with Emmy, someone she had met on a previous house-sitting job, Emmy is now married to a local farmer Nick Weaver. They ask Thea to find their missing niece Ginny, who disappeared over a week ago.

Thea naturally agrees to help and armed with a photo of Ginny she sets off to survey the surrounding land. Although she doesn’t find Ginny, she does find the body of Alice, a woman she and Stephanie had encountered the day before when visiting the church in Baunton.

The murder investigation brings the police, and Detective Superintendent Sonia Gladwin, whom Thea has come to regard as a friend over the years that Thea has come across dead bodies in the Cotswolds villages where she had undertaken house-sitting.

But still there is no sign of the missing Ginny. During further talks with Emmy and Nick things are mentioned which neither of them seem to want to elaborate on. Nick does mention that something is missing and then clams up. Are they more interested in their missing item than the safety of Ginny.  What did she take demanded Thea?  Then Nick blurts out that his mother is in a coma following a car accident. Thea splutters, how many more secrets are there around here? 

Is the murder of Alice and the missing girl Ginny linked?

And will Drew’s business survive?  Will Thea come up with a super scheme to revitalise the undertaking business? Or will it die a sad death?

A good village mystery, that kept me guessing to the end, and one which I heartily recommend,
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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.

‘Questions For A Dead Man’ by Alex Gray

Published by Sphere,
23 February 2023.
ISBN: 978-0-7515-8330-4 (HB)

The disappearance of a prominent MSP who was promoting a campaign to legalise drugs in Scotland is referred to Detective Superintendent William Lorimer, head of the Major Incident Team in Glasgow, with a high priority tag. 

Lorimer’s relatively new friend PC Daniel Kohi is graduating from Police College. This sounds as though he is a new raw recruit, but Daniel, who was an Inspector in the Zimbabwe Police, escaped from a fire in his home which was meant to kill him. Daniel has now settled well in Scotland, following the death of his wife and son, and become friends with his elderly neighbour Netta Gordon, who is a pen friend of Daniel’s mother Janette, who still lives in Zimbabwe

Indulging in a fish supper from the local chippie, as Daniel steps out of the chippie his attention is caught by the sound of a crying baby, and investigating he discovers a baby lying in an alley beside his dead mother.

As the search for the missing MSP intensifies.  A car bomb explodes in a nearby village, and the blackened body pulled from the wreckage appears to be that of the missing MSP Robert Truesdale's. Yet there are details that don't add up, and soon Lorimer is questioning whether the victim is Robert Truesdale.  So, if this isn’t Robert Truesdale where is he?

As the investigation progresses more anomalies surface. For Daniel concerned with the death of the baby’s mother from drugs, and the infiltration of Columbian drug dealers intend on taking control of the drug criminal underworld in Glasgow, and for Lorimer seeking the truth behind the missing MSP. 

As far apart as these events may appear to be, could there be a connection?

The characters are well-fleshed out and jumping off the page to tell their story.

Then Daniel went undercover, and it was heart in the mouth, as he became embroiled in a situation, I couldn’t see him surviving. 

This is the 20th book in this highly acclaimed series, and it is good to meet up again with the Lorimers. Maggie Lorimer is still teaching as well as continuing to write children’s books. Although Maggie is secretly hoping that Bill will retire, so that they can take some time off together walking up the hills while he is still fit enough to do it. We also catch up with their friends the psychological profiler Solly Brightman and his wife Rosie. 

Cleverly constructed, and intensely exciting with a nail biting ending this tightly plotted story is a gripping read and keeps the reader guessing to the end, and is highly recommended
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Reviewer: Lizzie Sirett

Alex Gray was born 27 May 1950, Glasgow.  She was brought up in the Craigbank area of Glasgow and attended Hutchesons' Grammar School. She studied English and Philosophy at Strathclyde University and worked for a period in the Department of Health & Social Security before training as an English teacher.  In 1976 she lived in Rhodesia for three months, during which time she got married, and she and her husband returned to Scotland. She continued teaching until the 1990s, when she gave the profession up and began to write full-time. Alex is a member of the Femmes Fatales crime writing trio, together with Alanna Knight and Lin Anderson. Her novels are all set around Glasgow and featuring the character of Detective Superintendent Lorimer and his psychological profiler Solomon Brightman.

www.alex-gray.com/‎

‘After Death’ by Dean Koontz

Published by Thomas & Mercer,
18 July 2023.
ISBN: 978-1-66250046- 6(HB)

Michael Mace is a man on a mission.  He is not sure exactly where it is going to take him nor what he will be required to do.  If he gets it wrong all hell could break loose, literally…

A few days ago, Michael had been working as security chief for the so called Beautification Project.  Shelby Shrewsbury, senior biological scientist on the project and his best friend, had asked Michael to take the role because he was feeling increasingly uneasy with the cutting edge enterprise.  Under the guise of cosmetic testing, the research was looking at “nanomachines and archaea” and Shelby was concerned that the findings posed a threat to humanity.  The last time Michael had met with Shelby, the brilliant but painfully shy physicist was grappling with a far more pleasant conundrum; he had fallen in love with Nina Dozier but was too timid to ask her out on a date.  Before Shelby could pluck up the courage for that conversation, though, a devastating event killed Shelby and Michael along with the other fifty-three people working in his lab.  A temporary mortuary was erected, and the affected areas were quarantined for safety and security.  Then, inside the morgue, nanotechnology takes over and things become weird... 

Michael is resurrected and discovers he possesses “uncanny powers” that enable him to inhabit computer programs and manipulate A.I.  He follows a prompting that leads him to the gang-ridden neighbourhood where Nina and her teenage son John have made their home.  John’s father, Aleem, had abandoned both his unborn baby and Nina when he discovered that she was pregnant.  Now, Aleem has decided he wants his son to become a member of his gang.  He pays Nina a visit that is as unwelcome as it is unexpected.  Knowing he will be back to claim John, she is terrified, but Michael walks into her dilemma, driven by an inner belief that John is crucial to ensure the salvation of humankind.  He cannot forget what Sheldon said during their last meeting when he described John as a boy who “could be the hope of the world…”. 

Michael, Nina and John prepare to leave town and foil Aleem’s designs for his son, pursued by the gangsters.  A life and death chase ensues, but the low-life criminals are not the only ones hunting their unfortunate prey.  Durand Calaphas is a dazzling but amoral genius who works for the U.S. government’s Internal Security Agency (ISA).  He needs to eliminate Michael and those in his care, to ensure that no one finds out exactly what was being developed by the Beautification Project.  The born-again security specialist will need to call upon his newly acquired gifts and overcome his peace-loving non-violent disposition if he is going to be able to thwart these formidable adversaries. 

I loved this novel.  It writhes with suspense and tension as it describes a world in which new technology is a tool for evil and exploited by underworld thugs as well as government sanctioned enforcers.  Societal breakdown and governmental corruption are key themes in the novel as criminals and the state use disinformation to control people.  Koontz continues his wonderful habit of inserting literary allusions into his books; in this story he also threads the tender love shared between a good man and woman and a mother and her son.

Exhilarating, emotional and germane, After Death is thought-provoking as well as entertaining.  A brilliant read!
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Reviewer: Dot Marshall-Gent

Dean Koontz is acknowledged as "America's most popular suspense novelist" nd as one of today's most celebrated and successful writers, Dean Koontz has earned the devotion of millions of readers around the world and the praise of critics everywhere for tales of character, mystery, and adventure that strike to the core of what it means to be human. Dean Koontz lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda.

Dot Marshall-Gent worked in the emergency services for twenty years first as a police officer, then as a paramedic and finally as a fire control officer before graduating from King’s College, London as a teacher of English in her mid-forties.  She completed a M.A. in Special and Inclusive Education at the Institute of Education, London and now teaches part-time and writes mainly about educational issues.  Dot sings jazz and country music and plays guitar, banjo and piano as well as being addicted to reading mystery and crime fiction.  

‘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.