A Harvest Murder (A Ham Hill Murder Mystery #3) by Frances Evesham
Genre: Cosy Mystery
Read: 19th June 2022
Published: 21st June 2022
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
One unexplained disappearance is strange, but two are sinister.
In Lower Hembrow, an idyllic village nestled beneath Ham Hill in Somerset, the villagers are preparing to enjoy the autumn traditions of the rural English countryside until Joe Trevillion, a curmudgeonly local farmer and the father of six children, vanishes.
When Adam Hennessy, the ex-detective proprietor of The Plough, the village's popular Inn, investigates, he finds ominous undercurrents beneath apparently harmless rumour and gossip.
Meanwhile, a vicious campaign of vindictiveness forces Adam and his three amateur sleuth friends to dig deep into the secret lives of their neighbours to expose the source of a cruel vendetta and prevent another death.
As they uncover the disturbing truth, the friends learn they must also lay their own past lives to rest before they can hope to make their dreams for the future come true.
MY THOUGHTS:
This delightful third installment in the Ham Hill mystery series set in the small community of Lower Hembrow in sleepy Somerset sees Imogen busy setting up for the Apple Day festival at the hotel, in light of the previous premises falling through, particularly after the success of the Spring Fair. With the help of the locals and the effervescent vicar, they are able to have everything in place within a week. Of course Imogen asks her artist boyfriend Dan for his help and he agrees, but on the day despite having set several alarm clocks to ensure his early arrival, he fails to show and Imogen is not best pleased.
However, unbeknownst to Imogen, when Dan was preparing to leave he discovered one of his beloved donkeys was missing and spent the next several hours searching to no avail. He arrives at the Streamside Hotel for the festivities but Imogen is angry at his tardiness yet again and refuses to listen to his excuses. Without waiting to be berated even more, Dan turns and leaves the hotel and the Apple Day festival to return to his studio some miles away.
Meanwhile, local farmer Joe Trevillian has disappeared after a row with his wife and a night of drinking at The Plough, leaving his wife and six children with a farm to run. Gossip is rife in the village as everyone has their own theories on where Joe might have run off to when he suddenly reappears at the Apple Day festivities. But before he can shed any light on where he's been he drops dead in front of Imogen. Now the gossip grapevine runs hots throughout the village with the news. But what happened to Joe Trevillian in those missing days? Could they shed any light on the reason for his sudden death?
When a post mortem reveals he had been poisoned, Adam (the owner of The Plough) and his partner Steph begin to toss ideas as to when and how the poisoning occurred...and ultimately, the question that remained. Who?
But life is far from quiet in what is thought to be a sleepy village as Dan finds himself the target of someone who appears to have it in for him. First his donkey Smash had disappeared...only to reappear a few days later with no explanation as to what occurred. Then his paintings were vandalised in a gallery and his studio is then burnt to the ground. Who has it in for him? And why?
A HARVEST MURDER is the delightful third book in this cosy mystery series where we meet up with Imogen, Adam, Dan and Steph once again, as well as all the various other locals that pop up. As with the previous mysteries, it is a very easy read involving all her characters in one way or another and engaging the reader from the start.
With a gentle pace, the reader is immersed into village life alongside the characters as the dramas inevitably unfold creating a mystery in which our sleuths cannot ignore. And there is plenty of drama, like a Midsomer Murders mystery, to keep readers entertained and the characters busy.
I liked how A HARVEST MURDER ended and I look forward to the next installment to see what's next for our our dynamic duo and their respective partners. Having enjoyed this series thus far, I have added Frances Evesham's Exham-on-Sea series to my ever growing TBR pile.
I would like to thank #FrancesEvesham, #Netgalley, #BoldwoodBooks and #RachelsRandomResources for an ARC of #AHarvestMurder in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Like many of her readers, Frances loves Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple and the grand tradition of whodunnits with intriguing puzzles to solve, villains to be brought to justice and amateur private investigators.
The Exham on Sea contemporary crime series is set in a small seaside town surrounded by the wonderful rolling hills, green levels and narrow roads of the West Country. It’s the perfect place for Frances to indulge in her obsessions with beautiful places, cake and chocolate, overgrown dogs, and aloof, self-possessed cats.
The Thatcham Hall Mysteries sprang from a life-long interest in history, especially the English Victorians. These stories are set in a 19th Century English country house, where gothic chapels, secret rooms, dusty corridors and hidden cottages provide a perfect backdrop for historical mystery romances, where determined heroines have to fight hard against the strict rules of behaviour of the day.
In my spare time, she collects poison recipes and other ways of dispatching her unfortunate victims. She also likes to cook with a glass of wine in one hand and a bunch of chillies in the other with her head full of murder ― fictional only.
Frances loves to hear from readers, so don’t be a stranger. Contact her via any of her social media links.
Social Media links:
No comments:
Post a Comment