A Little Gentle Sleuthing

Very enjoyable cozy taking place in the Cotswolds. Melissa Craig is a mystery writer who leaves London for the quiet of the peaceful country. Circumstances and a murder turn her into a sleuth to solve the murder while she is writing her mystery novel. Classic village mystery and lots of fun

Melissa Craig is a crime novelist (pen name Mel Craig) with a problem - called Aubrey - a flourishing career in writing (with an amorous agent named Jack) and a desire to get away from London. Her solution is a small cootage outside a small Gloucester village - where her next door neighbour promptly discovers a dead body in the woods just across the small valley. Aubrey is a complete pain, and one has to wonder how someone with as much going for her as Melissa could ever have got caught up with such a useless lummox. Jack is now at the far end of a phone, and London is soon a distant memory. But there is that murder, and Melissa (creator of ace Scotland Yard detective, Nathan Latimer) soon finds herself helping a young local reporter to carry out an unofficial investigation - which ends in success, though only after it narrowly misses being a complete disaster. This is a terrific first novel in the Melissa Craig series, and it is a complete mystery to me that the earlier books are now, in many cases, so hard to come by. Maybe the publishers should relaunch the entire series so far to give them a fresh start? I'm now on my fifth book in the series, and they have all been of a consistently high standard so far - if you like that sort of thing. My only quibble about this particular book is that after having developed such an ingenious plot, Ms Rowlands delivers the solution somewhat like a thunderbolt out of a clear blue sky. NEVERTHELESS for all those readers who appreciate British country village-type mysteries this gets five stars without any problems at all. Highly recommended.

A successful mystery writer moves to the Cotswolds to get out of the bustle of London. Little does she know that this will put her in the middle of a real life murder mystery that she helps to solve. With the help of her quirky neighbor, Melissa stumbles on some secrets that others want to stay hidden and onto the identity of the real killer.This was a great start to the series. I enjoyed watching Melissa gain her independence from an ex-lover and learning how to do things for herself. The neighbor was a delight with her vegetarian (but not preachy), healthy lifestyle, and the next books in the series promise to show more of these great characters. Great, light reading. Enjoy!