Death in Elysium

Jodie Welsh #1

by Judith Cutler

Introducing unconventional rector’s wife and amateur sleuth Jodie Welsh in the first of a brand-new mystery series
Highflying city career woman Jodie Welsh was prepared for a dramatic change in lifestyle when she met and married the Reverend Theo Welsh, settling down to an entirely new kind of life as the wife of a country vicar in the picturesque village of Lesser Hogben. But if she thought life as a city deal-maker was tough, nothing could have prepared her for the emotional rollercoaster of local church and village politics. As a newcomer, Jodie encounters hostility and disapproval from several of the villagers, particularly in her efforts to engage and assist Lesser Hogben’s disaffected youth.

When a local lad Jodie employed to help in her garden disappears, along with Jodie’s expensive camera, everyone around her is inclined to assume the worst. Only Jodie and the missing boy’s friend Mazza are convinced of his innocence. But Burble’s disappearance marks the start of a series of disturbing incidents which escalate in intensity – until the body shows up, and Jodie must use her well-honed negotiating and networking skills to unmask a ruthless killer.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Cozy

224 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2014

About the author

Judith Cutler was born and bred in the Midlands, and revels in using her birthplace, with its rich cultural life, as a background for her novels. After a long stint as an English lecturer at a run-down college of further education, Judith, a prize-winning short-story writer, has taught Creative Writing at Birmingham University, has run occasional writing course elsewhere (from a maximum security prison to an idyltic Greek island) and ministered to needy colleagues in her role as Secretary of the Crime Writers' Association.

Reviews

[Damaskcat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jodie Welch is a very unconventional rector's wife. She has recently married Theo in her fifties after building up a high powered career in business and then being made redundant unexpectedly. She is finding it difficult to fit in with life in the small village where she and Theo live and she is tempted to barge in and take over everything. But this would just put people's backs up and she is unconventional enough for the villagers to have difficulty accepting her.

When out running one day Jodie notices some building work going on in the middle of nowhere and decides to investigate. This leads to her uncovering, and stirring up all sorts of murder and mayhem as well as putting her young protégée Burble in deadly danger. I really enjoyed this well written and interesting start to a new mystery series. I liked both Theo and Jodie as well as her cousin Dave - a former detective - who comes to visit and remains to help with Jodie's investigations. The finale is nail bitingly tense and very well done and as I neared the end I found myself reading faster and faster just to find out what happened.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes cosy mysteries set in the English countryside. There is some bad language but it isn't overdone and it does fit the characters concerned. I loved it and I am looking forward to the next one in the series. I received a free copy of this book for review purposes from NetGalley.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I were home I probably would not have finished this book. Half the time I didn’t really know what was going on. Strangely, it was an ok book to read just before going to sleep - perhaps because it was kind of boring? And one of the worst endings I’ve encountered. Just my humble opinion…

[Judy Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you see this novel is set in Kent in the village of Lesser Hogben and features the wife of the rector you may be tempted to plunk it down in the cozy but totally predictable category. Don't make that mistake because Judith Cutler has begun a new series with a lead character that doesn't fit into any mold I've experienced before. To begin with, Jodi Welsh is a woman in her early fifties who has had a career which was both very satisfying and financially rewarding and she has just married for the first time. She and Theo have only been married for two months, after having dated "long distance" for six months, and leaving her lovely home in St. John's Wood to try to settle in the pokey house in Lesser Hogben is proving to be something of a challenge. Fitting in with the other people in the village is also proving somewhat difficult especially since Jodi tends to be especially sympathetic toward the unemployed and sometimes wayward youths who have nothing much to keep them occupied. One of those young men has been helping clear out the garden for Jodi but now she's seriously worried because Burble hasn't been seen in a few days and she thinks someone tried to run her down with their car while she was walking home one evening.

I enjoyed becoming familiar with Jodi, definitely a character of contrasts because of her previous successful life spent in London and then moving on to a life completely different in the village. The London life doesn't go away after her marriage and figures very prominently in allowing her to get away with Theo on his one day off each week. As mysterious happenings around the village begin to come faster and intrude on their personal life more and more there are fewer times to get away from it all and enjoy the luxuries of the city. Keeping her wealth and previous career private from the villagers and also keeping Theo from knowing about some of her expenditures poses some interesting situations which differ from the usual plots of just learning to get along with the members of the WI. The pace of the novel builds gradually until I found it hard to put it aside because I needed to know what was going to happen. There is a conclusion to the current mysteries, even though not every loose end is completely tied up, but not a definite resolution for the futures of Theo and Jodi. I have to confess that there were times when all the talk of Jodi's wealth became tiresome and her attitude of trying to fix every problem in the village by funding it from behind the scenes wasn't altogether realistic. I will look forward to reading the next novel in this series and hope that some of the emphasis of the story will move from her wealth to more complex mystery plotting.

I received an ARC of this novel through NetGalley. The opinions expressed are my own.

[Cathy Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have long been a fan of Judith Cutler's writing-- especially her Fran Harman novels-- so I was very happy to see this first book in a new series. Once again the author has created a character that lives and breathes on the page. Jodie has a tendency to hold her husband's first wife up as a paragon-- whether she should or not-- but her heart is in the right place. Her husband works incredibly hard for the people of his parish, and Jodie makes it one of her primary goals to ensure that he has time away from people who seem to believe that he should be at their beck and call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Where she most comes into difficulties is in the world of finance. She's worked hard for years to be able to afford nice things, and she'd love to just throw money at all the problems of the parish and the village, but her husband won't allow her to. What's wonderful is to watch this woman in action. She may say she's not a delegator, but she certainly knows how to marshal the troops, think on her feet, and come up with beautifully creative solutions to some of the problems in Lesser Hogben. Yes, once again Judith Cutler gives the reader a wonderful sense of being in the midst of ordinary people getting on with their lives.

The mystery is slow to develop. There's no hint of danger, just a whiff of things not being as they should be, until halfway through the book, when Burble (her young gardener) disappears. Too many of the villagers have Burble marked down as a "bad sort," and I enjoyed watching Jodie stick to her conviction that something was wrong and work hard to find the young man-- even to the point of having a policeman friend (who just so happens to have ties to the aforementioned Fran Harman) to help her with her investigation.

It's worth reading Judith Cutler's mysteries solely for the wonderful characters she creates, but when I factor in her settings, her writing style, and her story lines... well, what can I say? I'll always come back for more. I'm really looking forward to reading Jodie's next adventure amongst those villagers of Lesser Hogben!

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book in a new crime series featuring Jodie Welsh. Jodie is an interesting main character – a high powered businesswoman who was made redundant and now finds herself married to Theo, a widowed rector in a rural parish. Trying to bake cupcakes for the WI or take notes for the parish meetings are not exactly the height of excitement and, although Jodie loves Theo dearly, she slightly resents that she cannot use her money to improve their rather uncomfortable house in Lesser Hogben and feels she is often compared to Theo’s first wife, Merry. However, Jodie tries her best to help Theo and be involved in the community. One day, whilst out running, she comes across a large building site deep in the countryside and nobody seems to know what is happening there, or who is responsible. Her questions about the site will soon put both her and young Burble, an unemployed youth she gives odd jobs to, in danger.

Although this is described as a ‘cosy’ mystery, this is not just a beautiful, picturesque rural setting. Jodie is constantly being sniped at for her belief in helping the young people in the village find work. Along with Burble, she also becomes involved with a young man called Mazza and his sister Sian. This is real village life; lack of work, often poor housing, crime and intolerance are all explored. Jodie tries to make suggestions to keep the few village amenities going, but many locals feel she is either interfering or that the young people she is trying to help are involved in minor thefts around the village. As well as Jodie, the other characters work well. Jodie’s cousin Dave is a former DCI and the local villagers help flesh out the storyline. What begins as a gentle, typical mystery story, gradually becomes a fast moving plot with an exciting ending. I look forward to reading on in this series and thought it an excellent start. Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, for review.

[Miki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Take a deep breath before reading this. The author has a firm belief in keeping things moving at a breakneck pace, and it gets tiring trying to keep up. The main character is not - thank goodness! - the stereotypical nosy type who thinks she knows best in any situation, instead she's actually rather likable. However, the writing starts off fast, and only gets faster. There is no down time for description - you learn of a lot of plot points after the fact. The ending was wrapped up in about 2 pages, and the book was done! So was I...I felt as if I'd run a race with a MUCH faster partner!

[Gretchen Bernet-Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice cosy mystery with good characters and strong sense of place but it just didn't grab my interest enough. I found the writing style too solid with too many explanations opening each chapter before the action, e.g. in chapter six did I really need to know all that? It livens up a bit when young Burble arrives to hack at invasive brambles and Jodie explains the new church website "His interest was clearly waning, and why not?" which is how I felt. A respectable read for the aficionados of the genre.

[Kathryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just couldn't finish this. Almost from the very beginning I detested Jodie Welsh and the vicar was such a drip I couldn't work out why anyone (particularly someone like Jodie) would up sticks and go and live in the back of beyond in a hovel for the sake of being married to him. So I'm not sure what did happen in the end, but I certainly won't lose any sleep over it.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read, Jodi is a Rector’s wife getting used to a very different lifestyle, when she gets caught up in a dangerous mystery that puts her life in danger.

[Shana · Rating 2 out of 5]

didn't finish; character development was static

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this 'cosy crime' novel on holiday...in airports, on planes and it was ideal requiring little concentration and being totally predictable.

[Jan Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. The ending was rather short though, I wanted to know more.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I totally enjoyed this book, particularly the character of Jodie as she adapts to her new life. Once a hard working executive, now made "redundant" (you have the love the English turn of phrase) yet still able to do well as a computer consultant, she chucks it all for love. A few months in, she is still adapting to married live with a widowed clergyman, living with the memory of the first wife (and her house and kitchen and even her catch-all drawer of stuff), and trying to walk the fine line of being a pastor's wife. All are new and strange to Jodie. Add to this a mystery discovered on her daily run and subsequent attacks on her and others in her village.

Suddenly this bucolic look at English village life becomes an intense look at modern crimes. Eventually it all comes down to money, the driving force behind most people's facades. Those who look the guiltiest are revealed to be the most dependable and vice versus. Neither a simple village nor a church community are ever free from the sin of doing whatever is necessary to succeed, however that term is personally defined.

In the end, the culprit(s) aren't as surprising as the murder victim. That was a shocker and, alas, I cannot say more without ruining the mystery. Most of all this is a cracking story and I look forward to more adventures with Jodie as she continues to meld her old and new life, wherever she and Theo end up.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many years ago, Joan Coggan wrote a few books about a hapless social butterfly who married a vicar and found herself out of her depth, but all too ready to solve any crimes in their little village. The modern equivalent is Jodie, who is a middle-aged and very high powered executive, who falls in love with widowed Theo and goes to live in a tiny village in Kent, where her style and her money are more likely to rouse antagonism than respect. She also tries to help some underprivileged kids, only to find that the village has more sinister doings than anyone realizes.

[April · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an oddball little mystery about a rich older woman who has married a gorgeous poor vicar. As she tries to adjust to living a parish life with him in a tiny backwards village, she befriens the poor youth, who are, to a one, completely unbelievably sweet and discriminated against by the evil, conservative villagers. They are quite likable, just not very realistic, as is the idea that Jodie can just come in and use her businesswoman principles to save the day in the village, and use her "Monopoly money" whenever she is tired of living in a poor way.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of Judith Cutler's books that I have experienced (as I listened to the audiobook, rather than reading). I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading more by her. Sadly, as far as I know, this is the only one about this particular character.

I particularly enjoyed the main character's relationship with the teenagers/young adults in the book, as she made friends with some of them, and I found that something that I really responded to.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Initially, the book gives a credible description of what it is like to be a rector's wife and living in a small English village.
As the book progresses, it moves more into the realms of fantasy and it is difficult to imagine a rector's wife acting as a sleuth. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book and might read more from this author.

[Cynthia Grove · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Objectively I would only give it four stars - well-written, great characters, interesting plot. Subjectively though, definitely a five. I loved the scenario, set in a village in Kent, centred around the new wife of the rector, and dealing with the problems of rural churches and the shenanigans of the parish church council. Just my cuppa.

[Nidofito · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite finding both Jodie and her husband nice characters I found the book boring that had too much information with too little time given to let it all sink in. I skimmed most of it just to see who the culprit was.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Happened on this by chance

I loved it. I hope the author bases another book on this character and her friends in the same location.

[Michael Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

First in new series. Set in England. Good characters. Strong plot and well developed to make sense.

[Brenda Freeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looking forward to more in this series by Judith Cutler.

[Lesley Shears · Rating 3 out of 5]

Judith Cutler is always good value, whichever one of her series you read.