- This edition read on Kindle (Amazon)
- ASIN : B0DFQ67QTQ
- Publisher : Joffe Books crime thriller, mystery and suspense (August 29, 2024)
- Print length : 263 pages
- Please note this book was first published in 2015 as An Unholy Mess under Faith Martin’s pen name Joyce Cato.
Synopsis (Amazon)
Meet Monica Noble: the vicar’s wife with a taste for solving crimes.
IN A QUIET COTSWOLD VILLAGE ALL HELL IS ABOUT TO BREAK LOOSE.
Monica Noble is throwing a party to welcome the village’s new residents. The guests include celebrity chef Sean and his wife Margaret. Also on the list are an Oxford university professor, a 40-something divorcée, and the owner of a chain of gyms.
Then as the drinks are flowing, a shotgun blast rings out. One of the guests is found dead.
DCI Dury and Sergeant Jim Greer are soon on the scene and discover that the victim had many enemies. Almost all the guests harbour secrets and motives for murder. Even Monica’s daughter comes under suspicion.
When another villager is strangled to death nearly a week later, the stakes are raised.
Can Monica help the local detectives save her daughter and solve the murders before anyone else pays the ultimate price?
This is the first of a series of enjoyable murder mysteries with great characters and baffling crimes which will keep you gripped till the final page.
MEET THE AMATEUR SLEUTH
Monica Noble was widowed young, leaving her to raise her feisty daughter on her own. That is, until she met and fell in love with Graham Noble, a country vicar (pastor), who enticed her to leave her high-flying job in advertising in the city and move to the Cotswold countryside. There she found bucolic life very pleasant indeed — until murder started to rear its ugly head. And she discovered, to everyone's surprise, that she had a flair for solving the most unholy of crimes.
My Take
There is quite a bit of "introduction to the series and main characters" stuff in this first novel, to the point where I got wishing the author would just get on with the story. There were a couple of red herrings that led me to thinking the plot lines would turn out a little differently. Anyhow in the long run it all came together quite nicely. I'm not sure if I will continue reading the series though, although there are only 3 of them.
My rating: 4.4
I've also read some of the Hillary Greene series
- 4.5, MURDER ON THE OXFORD CANAL #1
- 4.5, MURDER OF THE BRIDE #2
- 4.5, MURDER AT THE UNIVERSITY #3
- 4.5, MURDER IN THE VILLAGE #4
- 4.6, MURDER IN THE FAMILY #5
- 4.5, MURDER AT HOME #6
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