Looking for a brilliant best-selling murder mystery with a feisty female detective? Then meet DI Hillary Greene, a policewoman struggling to save her career and catch criminals. I didn’t find Harry particularly convincing as a former DI. Running an investigative team requires strength of character and a certain forcefulness and he’s rather passive as a personality. Belinda is more recognisable as forceful, bossy woman used to getting her own way. If there had been real chemistry between them it would have livened up the read, but it never gets there with a few musings and some lame jokes being the sum total. Belinda wasn’t a character I took to at all; and many of the plot details too, seemed a bit strange/unconvincing—for instance, why Belinda would decide to investigate a case simply because she found a body, rather than leave it to the police didn’t make much sense—agreed it was a person she knew, and a matter she was interested in, but even if she had started taking an interest because of her brother’s possible involvement, I’d have been more convinced, but that comes after. Then there were other little things like how both Belinda and Harry go poking around even in the police’s presence, or Harry’s being at a loss for explanations when a person is hurt because he’s only dealt with dead bodies—I mean he was a police detective not a coroner (also if this last instance was meant to be humorous, it didn’t really come across as that). Then Belinda is supposed to be an investor and businesswoman, and yet when Harry tries to use his whiteboard to chalk out the case, she sees it as something to laugh at than a methodical way of looking at things. Also the dognappers marking houses where they planned to strike didn’t seem a mystery at all—fairly clear from the start. Regrettably, the writing too was not to my liking.

Morris said he did have sex with Mandy and asked for money for the chain, but only to affirm his innocence rather than hide his guilt. At the time, he was a father to two daughters, and was living with his girlfriend, and didn't want to be found out as a cheater. He also wanted a similar chain to evade suspicion that the one at the crime scene was his. Both of Harry and Belinda's lives change when a murder occurs in their village. They team up not just to solve that murder, but to solve the case of the missing dogs. There's not only a murderer in town, but also a dog-napper. The first book in the Belinda Penshurst Cozy mystery series is set in a small British country town. One murder and the missing dogs make two people decided to solve the mysteries until they could continue quiet living in Little Challham. Well, that is what will happen, more murders and missing dogs! I would like to thank Netgalley and Joffe Books for a review copy of Murder in the Village, the fourth novel to feature DI Hillary Greene of Thames Valley Police. I really couldn't get into this book and I don't even have the energy to rehash the plot in my own retelling of it because there doesn't seem much point.

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I received a review copy of this novel directly from the author and publisher Joffe Books. I have voluntarily chosen to review the book, and the gifting in no way determines my review/rating, which reflects my honest opinion. The Murder at the Vicarage was released by HarperCollins as a graphic novel adaptation on 20 May 2008, adapted and illustrated by "Norma" (Norbert Morandière) ( ISBN 0-00-727460-2). This was translated from the edition first published in France by Emmanuel Proust éditions in 2005 under the title of L'Affaire Prothéroe. This case has been looked at and looked at and looked at and explored, and I'm puzzled that people can't see Morris for what he is," he said. "Everyone wants to be an armchair detective but they don't know the facts." Why do people believe David 'Dai' Morris is innocent? Martyn Lloyd-Evans, senior investigating officer of the investigation, tells Murder In The Valleys he has "no doubt in his mind" about Morris being the killer. I absolutely adored this book!… Could easily see myself wandering round the streets of Little Challham in my head… Well-planted red herrings and a great plot… Delightful.’ NetGalley reviewer

The plot is relatively simple, two amateurs running around asking questions to find a murderer and break up a dog napping ring. The method isn’t really my thing, as it seems to get bogged down in minutiae and circular thinking. In short, it takes a long time to get a result and I found the journey to that result a bit boring. Murder in the Village sees our regular cast of characters thrown off-kilter by the plots interesting little twists. Whilst I have enjoyed the previous three books in the series, I felt there was a greater maturity to this one that indicates Faith Martin's growing confidence in her characters and their stories. The location: the picturesque village of Lower Heyford, set in North Oxfordshire's Cherwell Valley, nestles close to the Cotswolds, an area of outstanding natural beauty. Farming country, the village has been in existence in one form or another for over a thousand years, providing a natural 'ford' for oxen over the river since medieval times. A mix of thatched and old stone and slate cottages, it is home to local families and rich 'incomers' alike. It's proximity by train to both London and Birmingham make it a very desirable place to live indeed, and both the Oxford canal and the river Cherwell run close to it, making it haven for walkers, boaters and wildlife.Christie herself later wrote: "Reading Murder at the Vicarage now, I am not so pleased with it as I was at the time. It has, I think, far too many characters, and too many sub-plots. But at any rate the main plot is sound." [10] Allusions in other novels [ edit ] His rapidly changing story put him in poor favour with the jury, who saw the discussion at the pub and the chain as evidence of his guilt. The ending wraps up all loose ends. Lettice reveals that Mrs Lestrange is her mother, Colonel Protheroe's first wife, who is terminally ill; Lettice destroyed the portrait of Lestrange in Protheroe's house so the police would not suspect her. The two depart so that Lestrange can spend her last days travelling the world. Miss Cram is revealed to have known nothing about the false Dr Stone's plot, and Griselda and Dennis confess to having threatened Mrs Price Ridley as a practical joke. Griselda reveals that she is pregnant, which Miss Marple deduced. In this episode, a local man running for election as an MP is murdered in his home while his wife was out playing bridge with friends. With no DNA or other clues at the scene, Hilary and her team have to look closely at his political opponents and others who disliked him but the case is going slowly. Hillary is also keeping a wary eye on their new super, Jerome Raleigh. She’s puzzled about why he transferred from the Met and when something unplanned happens on a drug raid she is even more suspicious of him and decides to take a deeper look at his past. This story starts with the eponymous “Murder in the Village” - I think the original title of By a Narrow Majority is better- of a prospective Tory candidate, who is almost forgotten for the rest of the book. The bulk of the story is then taken up with a drugs raid gone bad and the ramifications from said raid. I thought the resolution of both the murder and drugs raid a bit trite but preferable to an open ending which is really annoying.