Murder on a Country Walk - Katie Gayle

Julia Bird loves a walk in the countryside. There’s nothing quite like the fresh air and green rolling hills of the Cotswolds to clear your head. Unless you come across a dead body, that is…

When the local Berrywick vet, Dr Eve Davies, is found dead at the bottom of a cliff, the police believe it’s nothing more than a tragic accident, but Julia isn’t so sure. Just a few days earlier when she took her dog, Jake, to the vets, Dr Eve said she believed something awful was about to happen. It turns out she was right…

But who would want the beloved village vet dead? Was it her mother Kay, a down-and-out gambler who stands to inherit her unwedded daughter’s home? Was it her assistant Olga, who was close to getting fired? Or was it her cut-throat tennis partner Will, with whom Dr Eve had an argument shortly before she took a tumble? And who is the stranger skulking around Berrywick peering into people’s windows?

When a second body appears in the exact spot where Dr Eve was found, Julia knows it can’t be a coincidence. Both victims were pushed off the cliff, but why? Should Julia let sleeping dogs lie, or will she be like a dog with a bone to find the murderer?

A totally gripping and charming cosy mystery set in the English countryside. Fans of M.C. Beaton, Faith Martin and Betty Rowlands will love the Julia Bird Mysteries.

My Review

Somehow we're up to book six of this lovely series. I didn't realise that there had been so many, but I've been enjoying them so much that it happened without me realising.

This time Julia finds herself stumbling over a body that seems to have died an accidental death. The local vet has fallen over a small cliff and died in the process. At first it seems as though there is no foul play involved, but Julia, being Julia, she can't help but try and find out more.

I love this series. It's just the right level of gentle countryside and murder. There's also the slowly unfolding love interest storyline with local doctor Sean. In this book, Julia starts to question how they really feel about one another.

I did manage to figure our some of this mystery, although that had more to do with the why than the who it was that was actually involved until quite close to the end. I did better than Julia though, who found herself barking up the wrong tree on more than one occasion.

I really enjoy this series and I'm looking forward to more visits to Berrywick in the not-too-distant future.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and given voluntarily.

Author Bio:

Katie Gayle is the writing partnership of best-selling South African writers, Kate Sidley and Gail Schimmel. Kate and Gail have, between them, written over ten books of various genres, but with Katie Gayle, they both make their debut in the cozy mystery genre. Both Gail and Kate live in Johannesburg, with husbands, children, dogs and cats. 

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Waltz on the Big Meadow - Dorothy A. Bell

It's 1897, an abandoned wife and mother with a rebellious teenage daughter faces a dilemma: how to earn enough cash for food and upkeep, and maintain respectability? The gossips would have it that her laundry business is a sham. She's too friendly with her customers at the local bordello and the men at the logging camp. When she takes in a border, a doctor, who arrives without his bride, tongues really start to wag. There is a second chance for love, but it's fraught with obstacles and heartache.

Widowed laundress gets second chance at love and life.

My Review

What a read! I didn't really know what to expect with this one. Yes, there's romance, but that isn't really what this book is about. Or at least, it wasn't the biggest part of it for me. I love history, and books, like this one, that take you back to a particular time. I don't know a great deal about America in the late 1800s. But from the first page of this book I was there.

I think that what I loved most about this book was the women. The pages are populated with such interestingly drawn characters. Women who are finding their way in what was very much a man's world. Women who could find themselves shunned by society if they acted in the wrong way. I felt for both Odessa and her mother Irene as they tried to navigate life. Abandoned by her husband, Irene has few options open to her, but with heart and drive, she manages to make her way in life as the story unfolds.

I was gripped by this story. Grateful that life is so very different for me and my girls. As is often the case, when we think of life being simpler in the past, it often is, but at the cost of women. There is romance here, but it isn't a defining moment for Irene. She doesn't need it, as for her daughter, in many ways she would have been better off without romance.

This was a fantastic read and one that will stay with me for quite some time. 

Author Bio

Married going on sixty years, yes, to the same sweet fella. Moved, relocated at least that many times over the years, but always end up back in Oregon. I was born in Burlington, Iowa but my dad had itchy feet and moved me, my sister and mother to a small town in the Willamette Valley of Oregon when I was ten. And that's when I first met my future spouse in the sixth grade. I've been a store clerk, a meat wrapper, sausage and hamburger grinder, I've put the center stick in kites, pumped gas, and for 18 years I was an aquatic exercise instructor. Love, love working out in the water. Highly recommend a water workout. While doing all of that, I wrote, read, and wrote some more and finally, after many tries and a lot of sell-education on the craft of writing a good story, I was first published in 2014 with my first Oregon Historical fiction romance. I have had a dozen novels published with royalty paying publishers. Ten of which are no longer with a publisher, but I have the rights, and they are in e-book compatible format for any who are interested. Check me out at my blog at https://dabellm3.wordpress.com.  

Murder in the Scottish Highlands - Dee Macdonald

Majestic mountain views, whisky by the fire and… a murder to solve? 

Join Ally McKinley at her cosy little guesthouse in the Scottish Highlands as she tackles her first puzzling case!

For recently retired Ally McKinley, the tiny village of Locharran is the perfect place to open the guesthouse of her dreams in a lovingly restored old Scottish malthouse. Before long she is making friends with the locals, including Hamish Sinclair, the earl who owns the nearby castle. But things take an unexpected turn when her first paying guest, American tourist Wilbur Carrington, is found sprawled across her cobblestoned courtyard with a dagger in his back…

With the police baffled, Ally’s instincts get the better of her, and she can’t resist launching her own investigation. In no time at all she and her Labrador puppy Flora are on the case, making enquiries over tea and excellent shortbread. She finds that Wilbur, a keen amateur genealogist, was convinced that he was the rightful Earl of Locharran… Even worse, he had plans that would put many people out of their jobs and even their homes.

But which of the locals resorted to murder? The hotel owner furiously trying to save his business? Locharran Castle’s fiercely loyal housekeeper who’d do anything for the earl? Or the earl himself, whose entire way of life was threatened by what Wilbur knew?

Looking for clues, Ally finds a faded photograph in a hidden drawer in Wilbur’s room. Could this be the key to solving the mystery? But when one of her suspects dies in a suspicious accident, Ally realises that things are getting a wee bit too close for comfort… Can she uncover the truth or will a killer get off scot-free?

An utterly unputdownable new Scottish cosy mystery series from bestselling author Dee MacDonald. Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Faith Martin and Clare Chase.

My Review:

I've read all of Dee MacDonald's Kate Palmer series and really enjoyed them, so when this new series began I was keen to read it too. This time we are in the Scottish Highlands with Ally McKinley, who has moved there to open a guest house from Edinburgh after the death of her husband. She has converted an old malt house and now is looking forward to hosting her guests, unfortunately, one of her first guests turns up dead on her doorstep and she finds herself trying to get to the bottom of what happened.

I really enjoyed the new characters introduced in this book and the setting for the story. The murder itself took a little figuring out, but I think I got there just a bit before Ally. I also liked the way that her new puppy and then potential love interest were all added into the mix.

This is a good read and a strong start to a new series. I'm looking forward to hearing more from Ally soon.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and given voluntarily.

Author Bio:

Aged 18, Dee arrived in London from Scotland and typed her way round the West End for a couple of years before joining BOAC (forerunner of British Airways) in Passenger Services for 2 years and then as a stewardess for 8 years.

She has worked in Market Research, Sales and at the Thames TV Studios when they had the franchise.

Dee has since relocated to Cornwall, where she spent 10 years running B&Bs, and only began writing when she was over 70!

Married twice, she has one son and two grandsons.

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