I really wanted to enjoy this book but unfortunately I didn't. I really enjoyed reading about Hawkshead and the places in it because it matched up to how I recall when I used to holiday there however once the nostalgia had worn off this book seriously had its flaws.

She currently writes two distinct crime series - set in the Cotswolds, and the Lake District. She also has historicasl fiction available as ebooks only. Rebecca Tope is a British author who writes mainly in the Mystery and Thriller genres. She has written four successful murder mystery series’ and also some ghost stories. Rebecca is known is known to have penned down a few famous fictional characters such as Den Cooper, a Devon police detective, Thea Osborne, a house sitter in Cotswold, Drew Slocombe, former nurse, etc. She is also a journalist by profession. Rebecca Tope was born on January 1, 1948 in the Midlands and was raised in Chesire. Later, she moved to Devon along with her family full of farmers by profession. She had some extreme experiences during her farming days, which inspired her to write her first novel titled ‘A Dirty Death’. In this novel, she has very well depicted the cruelty, the frustration of idyllic summer days, harvesting teamwork, delights of staying among young animals and death based on her experiences. Rebecca grew up on farms in the 1950s and 60s, and then went to Swansea University, where she did a BA in English and Philosophy. She had poems and short stories published in small magazines from that time on, but it was only after marrying, producing four children and working at a succession of part-time jobs that she got published with her first crime novel, A DIRTY DEATH. This book is based on childhood memories of farming life. The thrill of publication was slightly marred by the fact that the cow on the cover was a Friesian and not a Jersey. Rebecca still worries that people think she can't tell the difference... Rebecca Tope was born on 2 October 1948, in Worcestershire, and has lived in many parts of England since then. She has nearly 40 crime novels in print, published by Allison & Busby. Her two main series are set in the Cotswolds and the Lake District, both featuring amateur female detectives. Some readers did not like the lead, they felt she was not interesting; and the other characters were stiff and had no emotion at all. The readers did not feel as if they really knew these characters, or if they really wanted to get to know them. Nothing in the book, say these people, drew them in the book keeping them wanting to read the book. Some of the readers did not like the people who were family members of the couple that was getting married, how they would summon Simmy just to ramble on and on and not really get to the point of why they summoned her.

Publication Order of Thea Osborne Books

Longlisted for Crimefest "Sounds of Crime longlist – unabridged" for A Grave in the Cotswolds (read by Caroline Lennon) [17] Three novelisations of Rosemary and Thyme, credited to ITV series creator Brian Eastman, which were published in Britain by Allison and Busby and in Australia by Hardie Grant Books: Fiction Review: Sting of Death by Rebecca Tope, Author Minotaur Books…". Archived from the original on 1 February 2013. We then have the story....oh great. The plot was extremely slow, none of the characters really seemed to want to actively do anything regarding the disappearance of their 'friend', there was only one character who did go and search for them (coincidentally my favourite of all the characters just purely because she did something) and contributed to the plot at all. There were talks of a game which didn't really seem to amount to anything. The police were pretty much useless (which I think is highly unlikely given the circumstances but ok).

Longlisted for Crimefest (International Crime Fiction Convention) "Sounds of Crime (unabridged)" for Blood in the Cotswolds (read by Caroline Lennon) [15]Some found the book to be a little drawn out, making the ending come a lot later than they thought it should. Some found the book to have a shallow story and dull characters. Some felt that the book features characters with odd names to try to stand out, as nothing else that Tope writes about does stand out. It all just sort of fades away almost minutes after they are done reading it. They also found some of the events to not be very realistic either. Quite a bit of this book is told from Bonnie's POV which is a bit jarring, but certainly a way of getting to see the younger characters interact and what their feelings and attitudes are concerning Simmy. This was a cosy mystery perfectly fine to get out of the library and while away the commute, and I quite enjoyed it. The Tree of Death (published in 2005, based on the final episode of Series 1) Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749081409

Oh dear... I first encountered Rebecca Tope's writing in her Cotswold series, but stopped reading those books after becoming too enraged by her main character's selfish and childish behaviour. When I tried reading the Ambleside Alibi, I was pleasantly surprised, and have enjoyed every book since, although I did feel that in the last book, The Staveley Suspect, the series was starting to go downhill. But The Grasmere Grudge is terrible! I travel whenever possible, with France and Greece firm favourites. Plus America, Australia, Argentina...places with wide open roads and easy driving. Someone mentioned about Simmy's deceased baby Edith being mentioned constantly. I guess that these books cover a period of about 10 months, so it would be understandable to mention it at the most once in each book. The competitions are all announced now. See https://www.myfanwycook.com/writing-competitions-for-the-sabine-baring-gould-celebrations-in-2024-fiction-and-poetry/ I have four children and fivegrandchildren. Coming from large famiies on both sides, I have relatives everywhere, and have been enjoying reading old letters and diaries, family trees and memoirs, prompted by the acqusition of a mass of material when my mother died.Author oftwo majormurder mystery series, featuringThea Osborne, house sitter in the Cotswolds andPersimmon Brown, Lake District florist. Also "ghost writer" of the novels based on the ITV series Rosemary and Thyme. Seven earlier titles (known as the Westcountry mysteries) feature Drew Slocombe, undertaker (who turns up again in the Cotswolds) and Den Cooper, police officer. These titles are to be reissued by Joffe Books as ebooks, summer 2022.