Review: MURDER AT HAWTHORN COTTAGE, Betty Rowlands

• 
  This edition available as an e-book from Amazon on Kindle
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07DP527ZW
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bookouture (August 21, 2018)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 288 pages

Synopsis ( Amazon)

Meet Melissa: cat lover, caring mother… daring detective?

Melissa Craig is absolutely delighted with her new life in an old crumbling cottage, spending her days pruning the primroses and getting to know Binkie, the ginger cat next door. She only wishes she had made the move to the countryside sooner.

But when a knock at the door brings news of a shocking discovery, she suddenly finds herself thrown in to the middle of a baffling mystery: the bones of a young woman have been found in the woods just behind her new home.

Perhaps the little village of Upper Benbury is not as idyllic as it first seemed?

Strange phone calls in the night convince Melissa that the police are barking up completely the wrong tree, so she can’t resist doing a little digging of her own. From the bingo hall to the beauty salon and beyond, her search ruffles a few feathers and uncovers many of the village’s most scandalous secrets, but gets her no closer to finding the culprit…

The discovery of a tatty old photograph in a drawer is the final piece of the puzzle she needs, but as a newcomer in this close-knit community, does Melissa have what it takes to get to the bottom of this extraordinary murder mystery alone?

A joy to read! An absolutely unputdownable whodunnit for fans of Agatha Christie, P.D. James and Faith Martin.

This book was previously published as A Little Gentle Sleuthing (published originally in 1990).

My Take

This the first in a series originally published 1990-2004. Crime novelist Melissa Craig flees London, her agent and her over-protective lover, to take refuge in the Cotswolds and produce bestsellers in peace.

The bones of a young woman who had disappeared about two months earlier are found in the woods near Melissa's cottage and she joins with a young journalist to find out the truth behind the murder, on the pretext of researching things for her latest novel. Her journalist friend is full of ideas on how to involve Melissa more deeply in the investigation.

Her research takes her to a ladies daytime strip club, a beauty salon, and eventually to confront the murderer, although she doesn't realise until nearly too late who he is.

Whenever in doubt she thinks about what her sleuth in her books would do.

In the meantime another local is murdered, and Melissa makes friends with a vegetarian living next door.

My rating: 4.4

About the author

Betty Rowlands burst onto the crime scene in her mid sixties by winning the Sunday Express / Veuve Clicquot Crime Short Story of the Year Competition which shows it's never too late to start writing. Her success continued with her highly acclaimed Melissa Craig mysteries featuring a crime writer who solves mysteries in Gloucestershire. Her second series, The Sukey Reynolds Stories comprise of thirteen books, featuring Sukey Reynolds, a Scenes of Crime Officer who later becomes a detective. She lived in the heart of the Cotswolds, where her Melissa Craig mysteries are set, and then in Bristol which is closer to Sukey Reynolds patch, where she lived until her death on 29 July 2020, just a few months before her 97th birthday. She passed peacefully in the residential home that she called ‘home’. She will be greatly missed by her two surviving children, her four grandchildren, six great grandchildren, other family members, her friends and you, her many readers. The resurgence in interest in her Melissa Craig and Sukey Reynolds books in her last years gave her immense pleasure. She loved to receive emails from her fans knowing that her writing was being so enjoyed. Betty may no longer be with us but Melissa and Sukey are still there solving those mysteries. Keep on reading!