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Product Description
Product Description
After three catastrophic house sitting commissions, filled with murder and intrigue, the Montgomery house in Blockley seems like a welcome break for fearless Thea and her trusty spaniel Hephzibah. The opportunity to explore the lost Cotswold villages, with only the minor hindrance of checking up on the client's mother, in the adjoining house, promises to be the perfect get away. But Granny Gladys Gardener, with her conveniently erratic memory and series of ailments that disappear as quickly as they arrive, is a force to be reckoned and is soon arousing Thea's suspicion. After all, why do the Montgomery's lock her connecting door to the house? And why do they set an alarm that goes off every time Granny goes out?
Thea's concerns, however, soon turn to something more sinister when the arrival of her daughter, trainee police woman Jessica, prompts the discovery of a body. Slowly the secrets of Blockley begin to unravel themselves to the Osborne women, but nothing in the village is quite what it seems. Up against the clock to try and solve another murder, with the added complications of her elderly charge, her daughter's career troubles and her deepening relationship with DI Phil Hollis, Thea is beginning to feel well and truly lost in the Cotswolds.
Thea's concerns, however, soon turn to something more sinister when the arrival of her daughter, trainee police woman Jessica, prompts the discovery of a body. Slowly the secrets of Blockley begin to unravel themselves to the Osborne women, but nothing in the village is quite what it seems. Up against the clock to try and solve another murder, with the added complications of her elderly charge, her daughter's career troubles and her deepening relationship with DI Phil Hollis, Thea is beginning to feel well and truly lost in the Cotswolds.
About the Author
REBECCA TOPE is the author of fourteen previous crime novels. Most of her varied experiences and activities find their way into her books, sooner or later. For example, bee-keeping, milk recording, spinning, arguing, undertaking and gardening. She is also currently the membership secretary of the Crime Writers' Association. Author's website www.rebeccatope.com
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Flat and overly long,
By Pandora (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Cotswold Mystery (Paperback)
If you like your mysteries excessively repetitive and overly long, with flat two dimensional characters and no suspense whatsoever, then this is the writer for you. Her main characters, Thea (mother) and Jessica (police newbie daughter) have a tense sniping relationship which rarely lets up and, ultimately, I found myself not caring two pins for either of them. Even though we are with these two characters (and a handful of others)for days (felt like years), we learn little about who they really are as people through their dialogue (inner OR outer musings) and most of our information about ANY character is fed to us by other characters and not by figuring out how we, ourselves, feel about what is being said. This book might have worked better in first person. The writer seems limited by deciding to stand back, and write a third person multiple viewpoint story. If you're a good writer and can get deep inside the heads of your characters in third person, that's fine, but if you're only skimming the surface of each character, as this writer does, third person multiple viewpoint only deadens and exhausts the reader - as everyone is so flat and boring. There is also no real sense of place or setting in this story, despite the importance of the "lost" villages. Thea's wandering through these lost villages offers little in the way of mood, tension or sense of place. Settings should be full of condensed but very rich description that heightens mood and tension, especially in a mystery. We could be in any small town anywhere. By page 311 of a long, long 400 page book, I finally gave up and read the last few pages. The ending was not a surprise, of course. This writer needs a strong editor as there are glimmers of decent writing in all that "stuff". If you want to read an intelligent and well written village-set "cosy" mystery with a strong sense of place and well-rounded strong characters, try Hazel Holt's Mrs. Mallory series. A hundred times better.
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Disappointing Entry in This Intriguing Series,
By
This review is from: The Cotswold Mystery (Paperback)
"A Cotswold Mystery" is the fourth in Rebecca Tope's series of novels set in Cotswold villages, and to my mind thus far the weakest. Our heroine, 42-year-old house-sitter Thea, is once again staying at the home of a couple while they go off to India; in this instance, the house has an attached cottage in which Gladys, the mother of one of the couple, lives. Gladys is 92 and getting forgetful and perhaps a bit demented - unless that's just an act, of course. Thea is wondering about her relationship with Chief Superintendent Phil Hollis, which has been going on for 8 months now but which is still not very well defined. She has her daughter, Jessica, come to stay with her during part of her assignment, and Jessica has her own troubles, including an incident during her police probationary training for which she expects at the very least a severe reprimand. When Jessica finds the murdered body of next-door neighbour Julian Jolly, there seems to be little interest on the part of the villagers or the police in bringing the culprit to light, not least because everyone is pretty sure that Gladys did it and besides, nobody liked the old curmudgeon anyway. That leaves it up to Thea and Jessica to work it out on their own, while trying to resolve their own troubles and keep an eye on the old lady.... Once again the author does a good job of bringing the beautiful settings to life in this novel, and some of the characters are quite interesting, in particular Gladys. But the portrayal of the other villagers seems quite one-dimensional, and I was extremely disappointed in the revelation of the murderer, a character who doesn't even show up until the final pages of the book. I'll continue reading the series (at any rate, I already own two more of the books), but this one did little to further my liking for it. Disappointing.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
2.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews) 16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good cozy mystery,
By asassyvic "asassyvic" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Cotswold Mystery (Paperback)
Thea is house sitting and keeping an eye on the elderly lady next door. The elderly lady is her clients mother. Thea has a cute little dog that is a good ice breaker when she first meets the Gladys.Thea is a little alarmed that she hardly sees the old lady. She is even more anxious when she learns that an alarm is rigged up to her part of the house. It goes off if the front door opens next door. Her clients tell her not to let the old lady out of the house, this worries Thea because she can't see any good reason to keep the old lady practically a prisoner. Oh, for sure she takes the old lady with her to walk the dog. Turns out Gladys really has a good time walking and talks a lot, until she falls down. Gladys has a memory problem so Thea has to fit together the bits of conversations they have to solve the mystery. This was a really good story and it moved along a good clip. I listened to the audio version and the reader Caroline Lennon was excellent. I highly recommend this book in either audio or hardcover if your looking for a British cozy mystery. I don't recollect any hard core bad language or sex scenes so it's a good one if you don't like bad language and x-rated bits thrown in. I was sorry when this book ended and I'm hoping that audible will be getting more books by Rebecca Tope. 6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Long and flat,
By Pandora - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Cotswold Mystery (Paperback)
If you like your mysteries excessively repetitive and overly long, with flat two dimensional characters and no suspense whatsoever, then this is the writer for you. Her main characters, Thea (mother) and Jessica (police newbie daughter) have a tense sniping relationship which never lets up and, ultimately, I found myself not caring two pins for either of them. Even though we are with these two characters (and a handful of others) for days (felt like years) , we learn little about who they really are as people through their dialogue (inner or outer conversation) and most of our information about ANY character is fed to us by other characters and not by figuring out how we, ourselves, feel about what is being said. This book might have worked better in first person. The writer seems limited by having to stand back, and write a third person multiple viewpoint story. If you're a good writer and can get deep inside the heads of your characters in third person, that's fine, but if you're only skimming the surface of each character, as this writer does, third person multiple viewpoint only deadens and exhausts the reader - as everyone is so flat and boring. There is also no real sense of place or setting in this story despite the importance of the "lost" villages. Thea's wandering through these "lost villages" offers little or no description to give any sort of mood, tension or sense of place to liven up the story. Settings should be full of condensed but very rich description that heightens mood and tension, especially in a mystery. We get none of that here. We could be in any small town anywhere. By page 311 of a long, long 400 page book, I finally gave up and read the last few pages. The ending was not a surprise, of course. If you want to read an intelligent and well written village-set "cosy" mystery with a strong sense of place and well-rounded strong characters, try Hazel Holt's Mrs. Mallory series. A thousand times better.
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