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Violent Seed
Family, food, and revenge—served cold in the Cotswolds
Detective Superintendent Lord Terrence Reid hopes for a quiet week with his family in
the Cotswolds while his wife, Lady Anne, restores Whitethorn Manor’s famous walled
garden. The manor’s Summer of Chefs program promises seven nights of haute cuisine
from a celebrated mystery chef, just the respite his family needs after his father’s recent
heart attack.
But when the mystery chef turns out to be his mother’s former lover—a man whose
talent for creating exquisite dishes is matched only by his appetite for cruelty—Reid
realizes his family’s invitation was no coincidence. And the chef hasn’t come to dazzle;
he’s come to settle old scores with the guests—Reid’s own parents and headstrong
sister among them.
After murder disturbs the bucolic calm of the Cotswolds, and his family members
become prime suspects, Reid must navigate a tangled web of decades-old grudges and
fresh deceits to uncover the truth before another body turns up on the deadly menu.
Detective Superintendent Lord Terrence Reid hopes for a quiet week with his family in
the Cotswolds while his wife, Lady Anne, restores Whitethorn Manor’s famous walled
garden. The manor’s Summer of Chefs program promises seven nights of haute cuisine
from a celebrated mystery chef, just the respite his family needs after his father’s recent
heart attack.
But when the mystery chef turns out to be his mother’s former lover—a man whose
talent for creating exquisite dishes is matched only by his appetite for cruelty—Reid
realizes his family’s invitation was no coincidence. And the chef hasn’t come to dazzle;
he’s come to settle old scores with the guests—Reid’s own parents and headstrong
sister among them.
After murder disturbs the bucolic calm of the Cotswolds, and his family members
become prime suspects, Reid must navigate a tangled web of decades-old grudges and
fresh deceits to uncover the truth before another body turns up on the deadly menu.
392 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 27, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 24, 2026
Kept me guessing!
This is my first book by Mary Birk, but now I need to go back to the beginning of the series and catch up. The mystery was top-notch, and the characters were engaging.
Voice performer Darren Elliker is absolute perfection! With such a huge cast of characters, I never lost my way. This narrator is a master at accents!
This is my first book by Mary Birk, but now I need to go back to the beginning of the series and catch up. The mystery was top-notch, and the characters were engaging.
Voice performer Darren Elliker is absolute perfection! With such a huge cast of characters, I never lost my way. This narrator is a master at accents!
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March 13, 2026This is Mary's 5th book and as always, they are never a disappointment in any way. Mary has a unique ability to select specific venues in each of her novels.
In Mermaids it was a forlorn romance, police executive/management tutorial, with an exceptional description of police procedures during a child abduction/kidnapping, and with tragedy, an outcome that leaves the reader made whole rather than frustrated.
In The First Cut, we got an inside view of professional gardening/landscaping/property management along with continued romance and police drama.
In Less than a Treason (with a Robert Frost quote I actually used for years teaching criminal justice classes), we are introduced to Scottish Royalty, Catholicism and those customs, family values, incredible romance once again, and the irony of betrayal, love, lust and murder in a realistic setting. Treason is arguably more of a favorite than even Mermaids in some ways that just make the reading that much more interesting as it allows the reader to go deep with self-improvement, reflection and nostalgic afterglow.
In Most Gracious Advocate, we are again given a very realistic glimpse into the darkness and evil of human trafficking. Although fiction, it is hauntingly realistic.
In Violent Seed, we are introduced to the restaurant business at an executive level along with deep answers to questions raised in previous novels. After my first retirement I was a sous chef at a local higher end restaurant for over a year until CoVid launched. I was blessed in having the opportunity to use my creative talents in many different areas. I had to test for the position and used a copy of San Diego Fish Market's Cioppino, ordered while there teaching, for my entrance entrée here in WI. The chef and I actually took first place in a competition with our cuisine. Here in this last novel, we are again given a very realistic view of good and evil in a very believable application of Mary's genre of writing. Mary, very nice work! We are again left cliff hanging however, with what happens with Meg and Sterling. But that's ok, make us suffer in rapt anticipation until your 6th Novel. Peace everyone!! Brett Heino
In Mermaids it was a forlorn romance, police executive/management tutorial, with an exceptional description of police procedures during a child abduction/kidnapping, and with tragedy, an outcome that leaves the reader made whole rather than frustrated.
In The First Cut, we got an inside view of professional gardening/landscaping/property management along with continued romance and police drama.
In Less than a Treason (with a Robert Frost quote I actually used for years teaching criminal justice classes), we are introduced to Scottish Royalty, Catholicism and those customs, family values, incredible romance once again, and the irony of betrayal, love, lust and murder in a realistic setting. Treason is arguably more of a favorite than even Mermaids in some ways that just make the reading that much more interesting as it allows the reader to go deep with self-improvement, reflection and nostalgic afterglow.
In Most Gracious Advocate, we are again given a very realistic glimpse into the darkness and evil of human trafficking. Although fiction, it is hauntingly realistic.
In Violent Seed, we are introduced to the restaurant business at an executive level along with deep answers to questions raised in previous novels. After my first retirement I was a sous chef at a local higher end restaurant for over a year until CoVid launched. I was blessed in having the opportunity to use my creative talents in many different areas. I had to test for the position and used a copy of San Diego Fish Market's Cioppino, ordered while there teaching, for my entrance entrée here in WI. The chef and I actually took first place in a competition with our cuisine. Here in this last novel, we are again given a very realistic view of good and evil in a very believable application of Mary's genre of writing. Mary, very nice work! We are again left cliff hanging however, with what happens with Meg and Sterling. But that's ok, make us suffer in rapt anticipation until your 6th Novel. Peace everyone!! Brett Heino
October 16, 2025
Lord Terrence Reid, his wife Anne, and his parents are among the guests at a magnificent Cotswold estate for a televised “Summer of Chef’s” week. They, along with other guests, are there to enjoy excellent food, but one person is there to stir up old grudges and restart his career. After that person is found shot to death, Lord Reid learns that nearly everyone has a reason to kill the man. He's stumped when both his parents and sister confess to the murder in this beautifully written mystery about gardens, celebrity chefs, and the complications of family. https://newbooksnetwork.com/mary-birk...
October 16, 2025
Relationships old and new—many of them toxic—kept me enthralled by Violent Seed as much as its whodunit aspect. I was especially interested in the passionate, stressful marriage of main character Lord Terrence Reid, a detective superintendent, and his wife, Lady Anne. A real pleasure is the setting in England’s Cotswolds where Anne is restoring a mansion’s gardens during a dead-serious, elite culinary competition. This fifth book in Birk’s series can be read as a standalone, but I wish I had started with book one and followed the couple’s story since the beginning. No problem though; I immediately bought Mermaids of Bodega Bay and only put it down briefly to write this review!
October 8, 2025
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Birk immerses the reader in this tale of revenge by weaving together a cast of characters that spring to life on the page with a delightful setting in the Cotswolds, focusing on a historic garden project, food and cooking, family dynamics, mystery and mayhem. Readers who love Martin Walker’s books featuring Chief of Police Bruno and French countryside cuisine will love this book. I highly recommend it.
December 17, 2025
Riveting!
Oh, what a tangled web! Very complicated, but fascinating read; I loved the characters and the references to food and gardening. So interesting!
Oh, what a tangled web! Very complicated, but fascinating read; I loved the characters and the references to food and gardening. So interesting!
October 21, 2025
The Violent Seed Yields Murder and Mayhem in the Cotswold Countryside
This book starts by taking the reader into the bucolic English countryside as friends and family gather at the Reid estate, where Lord Terrence Reid, soon to be head of M-15, the UK intelligence agency, and his lovely master gardener wife Lady Anne, prepare for a week of food and festivities as the summer closes. This all-star foodie event is being recorded for a popular HGTV-type television series.
The Reid family is struggling to balance two demanding careers with being parents to and 8-month-old with another on the way. Piling on the challenges, Terrence’s father struggles to recover from a heart attack, his mother is sexually assaulted by an insane chef/former lover, his sister is estranged and heading into a disastrous relationship, and then there’s the murder. And almost everyone has motivation to do in the victim.
This book keeps you riveted all the way. And the descriptions of the food is brilliantly scrumptious. You’ll wish a cookbook went along with the family drama and murder mystery.
This book starts by taking the reader into the bucolic English countryside as friends and family gather at the Reid estate, where Lord Terrence Reid, soon to be head of M-15, the UK intelligence agency, and his lovely master gardener wife Lady Anne, prepare for a week of food and festivities as the summer closes. This all-star foodie event is being recorded for a popular HGTV-type television series.
The Reid family is struggling to balance two demanding careers with being parents to and 8-month-old with another on the way. Piling on the challenges, Terrence’s father struggles to recover from a heart attack, his mother is sexually assaulted by an insane chef/former lover, his sister is estranged and heading into a disastrous relationship, and then there’s the murder. And almost everyone has motivation to do in the victim.
This book keeps you riveted all the way. And the descriptions of the food is brilliantly scrumptious. You’ll wish a cookbook went along with the family drama and murder mystery.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews