Death in the Village
Kindle Edition, 326 pages
Published September 30th 2019 by Bookouture (first published April 1st 2011)
Goodreads synopsis:
This book was previously published as Miss Minchin Dies.
In the sleepy village of Over Hampton lies a small cottage with a picture-perfect garden… but inside the ivy-covered walls a woman is dead on the bathroom floor.
The warm summer weather is giving Sukey Reynolds a chance to enjoy the stunning English countryside around her new home. She has met a handsome local journalist, and there might be a new romance on the cards.
Everything is quiet at work too. So when the village doctor calls, saying he is sure there is something fishy about one of his patients’ deaths, Sukey follows up his claims. Well-liked and kindly Adelaide Minchin was found by her milkman, and appears to have died in a fall. Sukey can find no evidence to the contrary, but promises the doctor she will keep his theory in mind.
Meanwhile, the police force is suddenly very busy after two young girls go missing in the very same village. It’s all hands on deck to bring them home safely, but as Sukey investigates the last place the girls were seen, she realises it was very close to Adelaide’s cottage… Is it possible that the cases are linked?
Sukey’s colleagues are not convinced by her hunch, so she does some sleuthing in her spare time, determined to prove them wrong. In the close-knit village she has no shortage of possible suspects: was it the benevolent builders, the frazzled new father or the muddled milkman…? And can she find the real culprit, and bring the girls back home, before any more innocent lives are lost?
***
4.5 Stars
This is the eleventh book in the Sukey Reynolds mystery series by Betty Reynolds. The book was previously titled Miss Minchin Dies.
I guess I would call this a police procedural/detective fiction genre type of book. It is in the same vein as Midsomer Murders and features a cast set in England. The main character is a Detective Constable named Sukey Reynolds. She has just met a handsome journalist named Harry who is quite a handy ally in this book and does a lot of the information searches that she should probably doing on her own. But I like having him around so I will tolerate that little niggle.
A lady has died in her home discovered by the milkman. Everyone thinks this is just an average accidental death but the local doctor seems to have other ideas. He calls in the SID to investigate. Sukey is paired with a number of different people during the course of the book which keeps this mystery interesting. It is a long and winding path to find the killer and the details are discovered bit by bit. And what looked like a simple death has turned into a massive undertaking none of them were expecting.
This really kept me guessing and by the end I really had no clue. I loved watching the clues as they were uncovered and particulary liked the new budding relationship between Sukey and Harry. I kind of got the feeling the boss in charge might have been a bit sweet on Sukey but I have not read other books in this series so I look forward to seeing what develops in this world.
If you love a great police procedural, definitely check this one out. You won’t be disappointed!
I received this as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) in return for an honest review. I thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this title.
No comments:
Post a Comment