Death Comes to Bishops Well (The Shires Mysteries #1) by Anna Legat
Genre: Cosy Mystery, Crime fiction, Paranormal
Read: 29th August 2021
Published: 26th August 2021
★ 1 star
DESCRIPTION:
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?
MY REVIEW:
I have found cosy mysteries to be a little hit and miss and as much as I have enjoyed some of them immensely, there are other that I have not done so much. Unfortunately DEATH COMES TO BISHOPS WELL is one of them. I wanted to like and I had anticipated it to be an intriguing tale set in the bustling market town of Bishops Well.
The story, when it begins, is Samuel Dee being back-slapped in a pub by his old friend Richard Ruta who thus far has invited Sam to his upcoming 68th birthday party which he proclaims will be his last...not for any other reason than he has decided to stop celebrating them after this bash. However, his words may have been something of a premonition because this is indeed Richard's final birthday bash as well as being his final birthday. For the man drops dead during a speech at the dinner table. I had a sense of deja vu of Agatha Christie's "Sparkling Cyanide" during that scene...although with the addition of the expletives that were absent in Ms Christie's work.
So Sam, a retired barrister from London, had moved to Bishops Well and purchase the second half of Priest's Hole, a former vicarage dating back to the 19th century from Maggie Kaye who resides in the other half. Maggie is a spinster of sorts though of indeterminate age. I thought her to be in her 50s maybe but then her parents turn up at Richard's birthday bash also which leaves me wondering how old she actually is.
Needless to say, Maggie and Sam team up to investigate the death of Richard, or rather, interfere with the police investigation into their friend's death. Maggie particularly continues to ask questions and making something of a nuisance of herself. But when there is a second murder, they begin to wonder who in their little village is murderer?
Unfortunately I didn't see it too far into the book before I gave up. I wanted to like it but I jus couldn't. And when Maggie's "sixth sense" began appearing - first in the form of Sam's dead wife Alice, then a young woman who had died eighteen years before in Richard's pool and then she even saw Richard leave his body and calmly strut away leaving his guests in pandemonium - I just rolled my eyes. I'm sorry but paranormal just doesn't do it for me. I have read some paranormal books which were cleverly done but not generally my thing. But this just didn't have a place in a story that was meant to be a cosy mystery. Added to that, there was no mention in the book description of there being any paranormal aspect otherwise I would never have picked it up.
I say cosy mystery...but the language and sex scenes plus the whole seeing the dead thing just didn't gel with the cosy mystery genre. I gave up before anything else happened and left everyone in a tizz. I don't even know, nor do I care, who the murderer was.
DEATH COMES TO BISHOPS WELL may be for some but it wasn't for me.
I would like to thank #AnnaLegat, #Netgalley and #AccentPress for an ARC of #DeathComesToBishopsWell in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Social Media links:
No comments:
Post a Comment