Happy Publication Day! Congratulations to Katie Gayle – Kate Sidley and Gail Schimmel – on this, number seven in the Julia Bird Mystery series. Once again, we return to the Cotswold village of Berrywick, where Julia Bird thought she would retire peacefully and live a quiet country life, away from the bright lights and stresses that come with living in a city like London. However, in many ways her rural idyll has turned out to be quite different from what she expected, and even a visit to the local amateur dramatic society’s production is not without some real-life drama!
Blurb:
There’s nothing quite like a night at the theatre. But Julia Bird is expecting a night of sweeping drama, not an onstage murder!
At the end of Berrywick’s amateur theatre’s latest production, a shot rings out amongst the rapturous applause. But when Julia Bird peeks through the curtain, she sees lead actor Graham is lying still on the stage, his co-actor Oscar looking down at his prop gun in shock. She knows that Graham has been murdered, but with nearly everyone in the village helping with the play, anyone could have tampered with the props. And why was a beloved family man the target?
Graham’s wife Jane collapses in a puddle of tears as Oscar is comforted and led away from the stage. But days later when Julia spots prim and proper Jane kissing Oscar, she wonders if the grieving widow’s tears were fake. Graham served Jane divorce papers the day of the tragedy – was he killed before he could spill the beans on his wife’s affair, and sully her perfect reputation?
Meanwhile, the aptly named director, Roger Grave, wants the show to go on. The play is up for a local award, and this might just be Roger’s big break. But when failed actor Hector is not assigned the lead role he assumed he’d get, the mood among the cast quickly turns sour. Could Hector have killed Graham out of jealously for the leading role, Julia wonders?
Then another member of the crew is found dead and Julia discovers there’s a dark secret at the heart of Berrywick’s local theatre society. But who would kill to protect it? Can Julia find the murderer before it’s curtains for another victim?
My Review:
A return to Berrywick is like a visit with familiar friends. This cozy mystery series is thoroughly enjoyable and Katie Gayle artfully keep (keeps?) the pace moving in each individual book, and as the series progresses, introducing new characters, maintaining the levels of humour and ensuring that just the right amount of red herrings are strewn around the country trails and pathways.
This time around, Julia is a little more close to the murder in question than she’d like to be, as she finds herself inadvertently among the list of ‘suspects’! She and most of the Berrywick crew that we’ve come to know are attending the opening night of the local Am-Dram production. In the closing scene, when the prop gun is used to shoot one of the characters, whaddaya know … it turns out that the prop gun was swapped for a real gun and someone is now very dead! The thing is … Julia and her close friend Tabitha were in charge of the props so they were the ones who left everything in place for the performers to use on stage! Julia is understandably horrified! Who could have done such a thing? When? And most of all, the obvious question, why?
D.I. Hayley Gibson has her hands full with the investigation, but even more so trying to fend off Julia’s determination to intervene with her ‘help’ and her uncanny ability to discover relevant information ‘by accident’, and always before Hayley herself! It really is amazing who you can bump into and what you can ‘overhear’ when you drop in for a cup of tea at the local teashop, The Buttered Scone! The drama group grapples with their shocking loss and debates whether ‘the show must go on’ or be cancelled out of respect for the deceased and his family. And then there’s another murder!
It’s cozy mystery, so don’t expect blood and gore and detailed descriptions of killing methods and anything like that! Do expect lots of the minutiae of village life; little details that my seem trivial to many, but are literally life and death to the inhabitants of Berrywick and to many (non-fictional) villages across the Cotswolds.
There’s friendship, warmth, understanding (ok, also quite a bit of misunderstanding too) and sharing. There’s also Jake the lovely chocolate lab, who is maturing quite nicely and who likes to be a good example to younger dogs (who ever thought we’d see the day?!). Maybe his best friend Henny Penny has something to do with that (you’d be right if you’re thinking she’s a chicken!)
If you haven’t read one of these books, then I highly recommend them. Obviously it’s best to start at the beginning (An English Garden Murder) and work your way through, but they can all be read as standalones.
Thank you Bookouture for this Books On Tour, and thank you Katie Gayle for continuing to transport us into the heart of the gorgeous English countryside for a bit of escapism (and a murder or two, of course!)
Author Bio:
Katie Gayle is the writing partnership of best-selling South African writers, Kate Sidley and Gail Schimmel. Kate and Gail have, between them, written over ten books of various genres, but with Katie Gayle, they both made their debut in the cozy mystery genre. Both Gail and Kate live in Johannesburg, with husbands, children, dogs and cats.
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Purchase Link:
Amazon: https://geni.us/B0DGQL9HZFsocial
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