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MY THOUGHTS
Jan Christopher has her reservations about heading to Devon to spend Christmas with her boyfriend, Laurie Walker, and his family. What does agreeing to such a thing mean? Does it mean her relationship with Laurie is serious, and does she want that? But, it doesn’t take her long to settle into the cosy house, and she quickly becomes close with Laurie’s parents. However, there are disagreements hanging in the air, between Laurie’s family and the neighbour, both of whom insist that the other is in change of the fencing, which is on the neighbour’s land, so it cannot possibly be the Walkers who should fix it, and an old relationship comes to light, causing tension between Laurie and Jan.
However, when two pigs, rooting around in the garden in the middle of the night, and a pig’s head placed on Alf’s, Laurie’s father, compost heap unearths a bag of human remains, a mystery comes to light. There are three women who have gone missing in the town – which one could the remains belong to, and, of course, who was the murderer?
Christmas time is a magical season, full of joy and celebration. But what would happen if there was a discovered murder, and an investigation interrupts the season? This story will tell you just that. Following mainly Jan, but with a chapter from Laurie’s perspective every now and again, we see both sides of the story – a woman on the sidelines, surrounded by people she doesn’t know, in a town she is unfamiliar with, trying to celebrate Christmas with her boyfriend, and a man who is a Detective Sargent, but not in this town, and being forced to let the incompetence of the local police officers, who are used to small burglaries and dealing with drunk people, try and solve the murder.
Jan and Laurie’s relationship is a big part of this novel. There are multiple times where Jan does not know what to believe, especially so when one of Laurie’s past relationships seems to be a large topic of conversation whenever they run into the girl’s sister, for the girl Laurie dated has been missing for months. But, Jan knew nothing of this girl before, and with Laurie’s past repeatedly coming up to taunt her, she starts to realise that perhaps she does not know Laurie as she thought she did.
With three different missing women, there is certainly a lot of misdirection when it comes to finding out who the murderer is. Especially so, as the reader, when you are trying to figure it out before the characters do, as a challenge. There is one character whom everything points to them being the person responsible, but it seems almost too easy for them to be at blame. This novel will keep you guessing until the very last moment, for I must admit, I did not quite manage to figure it all out until the characters did. I did have my suspicions though!
This book is not set too long ago, in the grand scheme of things, but the 1970s was 50 years ago now, and while some things are very different, like being able to simply pick up a phone and call someone, there are other things that are not so different. Due to this, it is incredibly easy to place yourself in the story amongst the characters, and to live the mystery with them. It is not difficult to imagine the house, or the garden, and you can almost feel the atmosphere of the town through the pages.
This book is not incredibly long, at 160 pages it is much shorter than most books. However, that makes it the perfect candidate to read on a winter evening, and to really get into the mood, you should certainly sip a cup of tea while reading. This is a cosy mystery and I greatly enjoyed the mood of the book, and the author’s style of writing, so much so, that I am definitely going to be getting my hands on book 1, and reading that as well!
Helen Hollick and her family moved from north-east London in January 2013 after finding an eighteenth-century North Devon farm house through being a ‘victim’ on BBC TV’s popular Escape To The Country show. The thirteen-acre property was the first one she was shown – and it was love at first sight. She enjoys her new rural life, and has a variety of animals on the farm, including Exmoor ponies and her daughter’s string of show jumpers.
First accepted for publication by William Heinemann in 1993 – a week after her fortieth birthday – Helen then became a USA Today Bestseller with her historical novel, The Forever Queen (titled A Hollow Crown in the UK) with the sequel, Harold the King (US: I Am The Chosen King) being novels that explore the events that led to the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Her Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy is a fifth-century version of the Arthurian legend, and she also writes a pirate-based nautical adventure/fantasy series, The Sea Witch Voyages. Despite being impaired by the visual disorder of Glaucoma, she is also branching out into the quick read novella, 'Cosy Mystery' genre with the Jan Christopher Mysteries, set in the 1970s, with the first in the series, A Mirror Murder incorporating her, often hilarious, memories of working for thirteen years as a library assistant.
Her non-fiction books are Pirates: Truth and Tales and Life of A Smuggler. She also runs Discovering Diamonds, a review blog for historical fiction, a news and events blog for her village and the Community Shop, assists as ‘secretary for the day’ at her daughter’s regular showjumping shows – and occasionally gets time to write...
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Thank you for hosting today's blog tour stop!
ReplyDeleteIt's my pleasure!
DeleteThank you so much - what a smashing review! *big happy grin* - oh, and Jan says thank you too!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! I really enjoyed reading it!
DeleteAgain, Thank you SO much for hosting my Coffee Pot Book Club Tour, it was great fun _and_ I sold a few books (Bonus! LOL)
ReplyDeleteIt was a great shame that I had an Internet Outage during the last few days of the tour - my apologies for being absent those last few days (It still isn't fixed, I'm working from a not very efficient mini-hub).
Thank you again
do stay safe and well
Helen (Hollick)
A Mystery Of Murder Coffee Pot Book Club Tour