Category: Mystery

Blog Tour – Death Comes To Bishop’s Well by Anna Legat

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Contemporary, MysteryLeave a comment
Publication Date: August 26, 2021

Death Comes to Bishops Well

When Sam Dee moves to the beautiful Wiltshire village of Bishops Well, he expects a quiet life of country walks and pub lunches. OK, so his new neighbour, Maggie Kaye, is a little peculiar, but she’s very nice – and his old pal Richard Ruta lives just down the road.

But when Richard throws one of his famous parties, things take a sinister turn. Sam, Maggie and the rest of the guests are dumbfounded when Richard falls down dead. A horrible tragedy – or a cunningly planned murder?

With a village full of suspects – and plenty of dark secrets – just who exactly would want to bump off their host? Is there a connection to another mysterious death, nearly twenty years before?

Armed with her local knowledge, Maggie – with Sam’s reluctant but indispensable help – is soon on the case. But when the body count starts to rise, will sleepy Bishops Well ever be the same again?

Purchase Links

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Comes-Bishops-Well-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B093XV385N

US – https://www.amazon.com/Death-Comes-Bishops-Well-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B093XV385N

Author Bio:

Anna Legat is a Wiltshire-based author, best known for her DI Gillian Marsh murder mystery series. Murder isn’t the only thing on her mind. She dabbles in a wide variety of genres, ranging from dark humorous comedy, through magic realism to dystopian. A globe-trotter and Jack-of-all-trades, Anna has been an attorney, legal adviser, a silver-service waitress, a school teacher and a librarian. She has lived in far-flung places all over the world where she delighted in people-watching and collecting precious life experiences for her stories. Anna writes, reads, lives and breathes books and can no longer tell the difference between fact and fiction.

Social Media Links – Anna’s News, Rumours and Scandalous Revelations at https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/j6b7k1
To find out more: https://annalegat.com/
Follow Anna on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LegatWriter
Join Anna on Facebook: www.facebook.com/AnnaLegatAuthor/

Barbara’s Review

Bishops Well is a quaint market town populated by some eccentric citizens. The author does an excellent job of painting a picture of Bishops Well for us, as well as fleshing out each of the citizens as they are introduced. Several of those citizens are directly involved in our murder investigation, and, of course, we learn a whole lot more about them. Actually, we have two murders to solve – are they related?

Our main characters are Maggie Kaye and Samuel (Sam) Dee who became neighbors a few months ago when Maggie divided her grandparent’s large home in two and sold one half of it to Sam who was moving to Bishops Well from London. Both characters are middle-aged and generally pretty staid. Maggie is a spinster; a busybody; a part-time school teacher; a bit larger and jigglier than she’d like; an avid gardener; and perhaps, an alcoholic given the amount of alcohol she consumes in this story. Sam is a recent widower who is still in deep mourning for his wife. He decided to retire from his law practice and move from London because he needed to be someplace where he wasn’t constantly reminded of his wife, Alice. Oh – by the way – did I mention Maggie sees dead people? Well, she does. They don’t communicate with each other in any way, but she sees them nonetheless. She even sees Sam’s dead wife.

One of the residents of Bishops Well is the famed movie director Richard Ruta and his current (third) wife Penny. Richard and Sam have been friends for a great many years, so it is nice to have a friend within the town. Sam still isn’t really ready for socializing, but Richard insists that Sam attend his sixty-eighth birthday party. Since Richard also insists on him bringing a plus-one, Sam invites his neighbor to attend with him. Little do they know that Richard will be dead before the night is over – and right before their eyes.

Maggie and Sam (particularly Maggie) can’t seem to keep their curiosity under control and are constantly butting in and asking questions. Then, there is a second murder. Someone in their village must be a murderer – or is it someone from the village?

I liked that the characters in this book were older, but, overall, it just wasn’t an exciting read, nor was it fast-paced. There were lots of red herrings and lots of people with motives for wanting to commit the murders, so you could be guessing until the end – but it isn’t likely. You’ll probably figure out who it was very early on, but you won’t know the full why of it until the end when it is revealed. I wasn’t particularly enamored with nor excited about either of the lead characters. I will probably read the next title in the series, At Death’s Door, and see where things go from there.

Forgotten In Death by JD Robb

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Futuristic, Mystery2 Comments

Barbara’s Rating:  5 of 5 Stars

Series: In Death #53

Publication Date: 9/7/21

Period:  Future New York – May of 2061

Number of Pages:  384

I absolutely LOVE this series and this book is an outstanding addition to it.  We’re at book 53 and I truly hope we have another 53 books to go!  The writing is exceptional, the mysteries are plausible, and – goodness – the imagination it must take to come up with the very credible and believable inventions they have in the future.  It just boggles the mind.  Then, there are the characters – Roarke, the mysterious Irish billionaire; Lieutenant Eve Dallas, the New York City cop with a dark past (who just happens to be Roarke’s wife); Detective Peabody, the New Ager who is Eve’s partner and protégé; and a plethora of other supporting characters with whom you’ll wish to become friends. 

As May of 2061 is rapidly heading into June, Lieutenant Eve Dallas catches a call as she is heading to work during the early hours of the morning.  A witness has discovered a body in a dumpster at a construction site.  It appears that Eve’s first task of the day will be to climb into a construction dumpster, look for evidence, and remove the lifeless body of a woman.  Eve takes her job very seriously and this woman now belongs to her – she’ll find justice for this victim – just as she finds justice for all of her victims.

Eve has hardly gotten the rest of her team to the scene when she is approached by a young woman who insists Eve come with her to another construction site just a couple of blocks away.  It seems Eve has yet another case because the construction crew has found two sets of remains.  These are not fresh bodies, but skeletal remains of a woman and child – or a woman and an unborn fetus. 

When, a few days later, Eve finds yet another body – this one dying just as Eve finds him – she has to wonder if there is any way these four deaths can be related.  Surely not, because the remains at the second construction site have been there for close to 40 years.  There are some tenuous threads between the construction sites, but not the people.  Well, supposedly not the people because there is no clue who the woman and child are.

As Eve, Peabody, Roarke and the rest of the crew work through the clues, we meet some of the most self-centered, narcissistic, malignant, weak-willed suspects you can imagine.  Weeding through them and figuring out who among them is a killer will put Eve and her crew to the test. 

I can highly recommend this book!  The writing is exceptional, the characters are outstanding, the mystery will test your skills, and the solutions will have you doing a standing ovation for Eve and the crew.  Have you ever raised a fist and shouted “YES!” in a crowded waiting room?  Well, you might be in danger of doing that as Eve and the crew begins to solve the cases and bring the culprit(s) to justice.  Oh! Yes!  It is good.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.