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| About the Book |
A Body by the Henhouse
The time for celebrations is over…
Jude Gray’s farm is going from strength to strength, and even though her grumpy neighbour has concerns about the new campsite in the lower field, she is undeterred.
When a hen party arrives for a weekend away, she does her best to cater for their celebrations. But with a sheep needing urgent care – an accidental mishap or something more nefarious? – she finds herself consulting the group, which coincidentally contains four vets.
When one of the hens goes missing, it becomes clear there are more sinister forces at play, and someone is targeting her farm. With the help of close friend Detective Inspector Binnie Khatri, Jude once again dons her amateur sleuthing hat.
They uncover a web of deceit, affairs and rivalries, but will they find the perpetrator before events turn murderous?
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Author Bio –
Kate Wells is the author of a number of well-reviewed books for children, and is now writing a new cosy crime series set in the Malvern hills, inspired by the farm where she grew up.
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| my thoughts |
This is the first of the Malvern Farm series that I have read - there have previously been two more. As a standalone it was easy to follow the story and get to know the main characters, with enough back story to piece together the previous episodes.
Jude Gray is a widow, trying to keep her farm running efficiently after the death of her husband, with the aid of some loyal friends and workers, all of whom came across as good, likeable characters. I live within a North Devon farming community and my daughter's partner is a local farmer, so I was very much interested in the farm-side of the story, which came across as an interesting sub-plot and was accurately written.
Jude, as with many farmers, is struggling to keep going so expands into running a campsite business, complete with pre-erected tents and a shepherds hut all with mod-cons. The next group of visitors are due to arrive, a hen party, celebrating the future wedding of one of their group. The women are vets, which is presumably why the location of a farm was selected for their short holiday.
Things start to go awry when an unpleasant neighbour of Jude's starts making a nuisance of himself, the farm animals seem at risk, and trouble starts brewing among the camping guests. Then, of course, there is a murder...
I liked the main farm characters very much, but found it difficult at first to remember who was who among the campers, but maybe this was because I didn't particularly like any of them. Some of the plot, I thought, was a little contrived but this is fine for a light read, cosy mystery.
Working out 'Whodidit' was kept as a surprise, with the red herrings adequately pointing to assumed suspects.
A good, entertaining read.
**** 4 stars
*** ***
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