SYNOPSIS
When Sam Dee moves to the beautiful Wiltshire village of Bishop’s Well, he expects a quiet life of country walks and pub lunches. OK, so his new neighbour, Maggie Kaye, is a little peculiar, but she’s very nice – and his old pal Richard Rita lives just down the road.
But when Richard throws one of his famous parties, things take a sinister turn. Sam, Maggie and the rest of the guests are dumbfounded when Richard falls down dead. A horrible tragedy – or a cunningly planned murder?
With a village full of suspects – and plenty of dark secrets – just who exactly would want to bump off their host? Is there a connection to another mysterious death, nearly twenty years before?
Armed with her local knowledge, Maggie – with Sam’s reluctant but indispensable help – is soon on the case.
But when the body count starts to rise, Will sleepy Bishops Well ever be the same again?
MY REVIEW
This is book one in a new series, set in the made up town of Bishop’s well, Wiltshire, never to be called a village, or you may get lynched by the locals who are very proud and protective of their little market town. It’s here we get to meet lots of the locals of which there are quite a few, some quite eccentric, as the series progresses I’m assuming we will get to know them all better. There are a few laugh out loud moments within the story.
This is an entertaining cozy mystery read, although at times that took a bit of a backseat as we seem to be learning more about the town, the scenes are being set, I think maybe in the next book there will be less of that and more sticking to the main story, I found some of those bits a little slow going, but that is just me personally.
There is a bit of paranormal things involved as one of the main characters Maggie sees things, she knows that Sam her neighbour’s wife had passed away as she sees her visiting and watching Sam. Maggie sees it as a gift stemming from something that happened to her earlier in her life which gave her this ability.
When everyone is gathered at Richard Ruta’s party the last thing they expected would be for him to drop down dead in front of them, just before it had happened he had had a tin of red paint thrown over him, and had been accused of murder by Dan Nolan, the death had happened years earlier and was that of Leila Nolan. Maggie could see Leila’s apparition, near the pool, she had sat watching in case she got any clue as to what had happened to Leila all those years ago, but Maggie knew those sort of things never happened with her apparitions.
There wasn’t a shortage of suspects in Richards murder ex wives were in attendance, as well as his current wife who had just written a tell all book, although Richard appeared ok with that.
The main characters are Maggie Kaye and Samuel (Sam) Dee. They had become neighbours a couple of months ago, Maggie had a large home owned originally by her grandparents she had divided the house in half and Sam had purchased it. He had moved to Bishops Well after retiring from his law practise in London, moving away to somewhere where he wasn’t constantly reminded of his late wife, Alice, who he is still mourning. Sam had been friends with Richard for many years, he liked knowing he had a friend in town, he wasn’t really ready for socialising, but when Richard asked him to his party the invite said to take a plus one, this is when Sam decided to ask his neighbour Maggie if she would go with him. Maggie is quite a character , she is a spinster, a busybody, a part time school teacher, a gardener, she likes her wine possibly a little too much!, she is slightly heavier than she would like to be, and of course she sees dead people.
It’s Maggie and Sam that start looking into Richards death a little more, well it’s more Maggie pushing it than Sam, curiosity getting the better of her. But then there is a second murder in the village. Could the two murders be connected? Is the killer a local? Or is it someone from out of town?
This is a great start to a new series, the characters are believable, relatable, they are older characters. I enjoyed the book, but I did find it a little slow for me personally as I do like a faster paced read. There are plenty of red herrings to keep you guessing. I did guess who the killer was fairly early in but I didn’t know what the motive was. For some reason I just didn’t connect with Maggie and Sam, I’m not sure why but I look forward to the next book to see if they grab me a bit more. It may have been that I found there to be a lot of setting up of the town and lots of descriptions, with the next book now we know about the place the focus will hopefully be more on what happens. However, I have no doubt that this will appeal to lots of people who love their cozy mysteries.
I would like to thank @AccentPress and @rararesources for my ARC of this book and for my spot on the blogtour. All opinions are my own. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anna Legat is a Wiltshire-based author, best known for her DI Gillian Marsh murder mystery series. A globe-trotter and Jack-of-all-trades, Anna has been an attorney, legal adviser, a silver-service waitress, a school teacher and a librarian. She read law at the University of South Africa and Warsaw University, then gained teaching qualifications in New Zealand. She has lived in far-flung places all over the world where she delighted in people-watching and collecting precious life experiences for her stories. Anna writes, reads, lives and breathes books and can no longer tell the difference between fact and fiction.
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