Category Archives: Fiction

Blurb 

Enjoy a visit to the idyllic Cotswolds where the blackberry jam is delicious, the pumpkins are ripe and a killer is plotting death.

Vivian Plover is an unlikely murderer but needs must. If her bumbling husband is ever going to reach the exalted office of Lord-Lieutenant, Vivian, in sensible shoes, twin set and pearls has some murderous work to do. She is beset by challenges, from her godson’s fake fiancée to Dee’s meddling.

With the worthies of Little Warthing falling foul of accidents, can Dee FitzMorris thwart her scheme or will she find herself yet another victim?

Rarely has murder been so amusing.

Indulge in this quirky and humorous cosy crime novel that will keep you entertained from start to finish. Set in modern-day England, amidst the charming British Cotswold countryside, “Season for Murder” delivers a captivating blend of mystery and comedy. With its light-hearted atmosphere and engaging whodunit plot, this British detective series is a must-read for fans of cosy crime murder mysteries.

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My Review

I was supposed to review this book for the blog tour but I couldn’t write a positive review. I was feeling very unhappy with this book, but I’ve decided to try to write a constructive review and post it now that the tour is over. I’m also not going to tag the author, because I don’t want to upset anyone.

So, here are my problems:

• It’s all tell, no show. 
• The characters are caricatures. I don’t need to read all their inane thoughts. 
• There’s no mystery, the murderer tells the reader when, how, and why they did it. 
• The main character isn’t really made clear until a few chapters in. 
• The author keeps jumping from head-to-head. 
• It feels like the author read about NPD and decided to make their murderer a caricature of someone with NPD and loudly signal it with one of the minor characters studying narcissistic personality disorder for university. 
• I got bored, but pushed through in the hopes it’d improve. It didn’t
• The thing is, if it was better written, it’d be a really good mystery. People in a Cotswolds village mysteriously almost dying, clearly murder attempts, but unsuccessful. 

I had so many questions:

• Who is the main character meant to be?
  • Is it the older woman who does taekwondo and is involved in her community. She, her daughter, and her granddaughter could have been the main investigators, helped by two admiring police officers, but they aren’t. 
  • Or is it the young couple in a ‘fake couple becomes a real couple through surviving overbearing relatives and murder attempts’ narrative, but they aren’t.
  • Or it could even have been told exclusively from the villain’s perspective, but it isn’t. 

It could have been a sensitive exploration of childhood trauma, the changing nature of wealth and country life, and village pettiness. But it’s heavy-handed, unsubtle, and not funny. I think it’s supposed to be funny, but I could be wrong. 

I do feel sorry for the murderer’s husband, but he needed bringing into the story more, and some of the side characters have an outsized position in the plot, but their scenes barely add to the narrative. There are clearly difficulties in the marriage of one couple, but it doesn’t seem important to the plot, for example. 

I tried to find something positive, but even the complicated relationship between Emily and Tristan, which could have been a driving force for emotion and comedy in the plot, isn’t engaging. The inclusion of an Italian family, a disabled side character and a gay couple in a long-term relationship feel shoved in for ‘diversity’, rather than being a solid part of the plot. The author treats their ‘differences’ from the majority of the characters as something that needs to be mentioned repeatedly, rather than just a thing that is. 
 
It’s like the author wrote down the village gossip and threw in a murdering posh woman and gave her NPD as the cause, to produce a cosy mystery novel. And it doesn’t work like that in fiction! 

I know there will be readers who love the POV shifting and seeing the day to day lives and thoughts of the characters, but my head is loud enough without adding fictional characters thoughts to the jumble,  and it slows down the story and confuses the plot. 

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Okay, I failed at writing a constructive review. I tried. It’s up to you though, if you enjoy cosy crime/slice of village life fiction, borrow a copy from the library and see how you feel. I understand there are two other books in the series.

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Talking of libraries, when you borrow a book from the library the author gets a small payment. Twice a year, the ALCS collects and distributes payments to authors, writers, and, journalists. I get about £100 a year from ALCS payments; it’s a life saver. Support your local library – they’re one of the few third spaces left where you can just go and hang out, use a computer, read a book, get help. They also support authors.