Peril in the Cotswolds

Thea Osborne #15

by Rebecca Tope

Thea Slocombe, nee Osborne, is trying to settle into normal, domestic life with Drew and his two children in Broad Campden. But in the course of an attempt to make friends locally, she finds the body of a close neighbour and suddenly feels much less settled and secure. No longer a house-sitter, she has no choice but to stay in the village and deal with whatever happens next. And doing this risks damage to her marriage.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, British Literature

286 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 24, 2017

About the author

Rebecca Tope is best known as the author of over twenty crime novels. She has also recently produced the e-book entitled 'The Indifference of Tumbleweed'. She has every intention of continuing with the murder stories, as well as a variety of other kinds of fiction.

She has experienced many different kinds of work in her time - running antenatal classes, counselling troubled couples and being an office girl for an undertaker, for example. There were also several years monitoring the output of dairy cows, as well as every sort of task associated with book publishing. In 1992, she founded Praxis Books, a small British press.

She lives surrounded by trees she has planted herself, tending her own sheep.

Reviews

[Dale Harcombe · Rating 1 out of 5]

one star.
Drew is an undertaker specialising in green burials. He and his second wife Thea and his two children Stephanie and Timmy, have recently moved to Broad Campden in the Cotswolds. Thea freely admits she has a low tolerance rate of others and doesn’t suffer fool gladly. When she meets Hilary and Graham Bunting,Thea is less than impressed with Graham who is rude and shouts all the time. When she goes back the next day to meet with Hilary as arranged she meets Rachel Ottaway, a bridge player. When there is no sign of Hilary, they let themselves into the open house looking for her. They find her naked body in the freezer. It is not the first time Thea has encountered a dead body. In her previous job as a house sitter she became involved in a couple of murders. She had hoped that was all in the past. But maybe not. Could Graham have murdered his wife? Or maybe have even committed two murders?
This was my first introduction to this author and the character of Thea. It was not an auspicious start. I did not find Thea likeable and the other characters never came across as fully developed. Not sure why I kept reading when I kept waiting for the mystery to pick up. Instead it plodded along. I started to skim. Then, when it came to the end I found nothing about it believable at all. Tossed the book down in disgust. However this author has had twenty crime novels published so maybe it is a case of the wrong book for this reader.

[writer...]

Cover and location influenced my first read of this series. Sadly, there wasn't any connection with story or characters to keep me involved.

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Number 15 in the Cotswolds cosy crime series which began as Thea Osborne's misadventures as a house sitter and has continued since she married Drew Slocombe, the amateur investigator and professional undertaker hero of another series, whereby his series merged with hers, logically as the Slocombes and Drew's two children have relocated to a house in the Cotswolds which Drew inherited from a client.

The story begins with the visit by a neighbour in the house opposite who wants Drew to tackle a couple who live up the road and are apparently disturbing things due to loud arguments. Drew declines, as he doesn't know them and doesn't want to get people's backs up, as his natural burials business, although now starting to take off, is still fairly vulnerable. Instead he encourages Thea to go along and she comes up with the pretence of wanting to start a local history society based around the area's involvement in the early 20th century Arts and Crafts movement.

She meets Hilary who is very enthusiastic about the idea, and her husband who perpetually shouts at the top of his voice and seems rather overbearing and rude. Another couple arrive for a bridge session along with a woman, Rachel Ottaway, and Hilary asks Thea to come back later that afternoon. When she does, she is confronted with a meltdown: the dog which Hilary was minding for her sister, who is dying in hospital, has run off and her husband has had a row with Rachel. Rachel has already gone to look for the dog and Thea offers to go also.

While trying to find it, she encounters a man walking his dog who seems quite amenable to taking over the search - since she has to go back and meet the children who are soon returning from school. His dog is a good tracker and is given the scent from a belt which Thea was given as a makeshift lead. The next day, Thea returns to enquire about the dog which Hilary seemed very unconcerned about - and meets Rachel on the doorstep. The woman says she has returned to patch things up, following an apologetic call from Hilary's husband - but when no one answers the door, takes it upon herself to go round the back. Thea tags along and they make a gruesome discovery in the kitchen. I won't say any more about the plot to avoid spoilers.

I had a few problems with this story sadly. One is that Thea is trying not to get involved and isn't going round asking people nosy questions as she used to do. Instead people are constantly coming to her and involving her. Yet Drew seems to be perpetually tetchy about this, even though he sent her to the house in the first place, and used to do this sort of thing himself. I recall him once going up London to interrogate someone because he was adamant that a miscarriage of justice was being done. So it is a bit hypocritical of him to react this way I feel. Possibly it is because most of the stress of the business is on his shoulders now, whereas in the past he had the dependable Maggs to rely on while he went round investigating crimes, (Maggs and her husband having taken over the original business). Thea is not suited to perform the role of an assistant undertaker by temperament and needs an outside outlet which isn't recognised by Drew until late in the story.

The other is that things seemed a bit slow. I did work out eventually near the end of the book who was responsible, although not the motive, so I can't fault that aspect of the book. But there does seem to be a lot of going back and forth over the same ground. The female detective makes a couple of cameo appearances but isn't strongly characterised this time around and her reliance on Thea makes her seem a bit feeble. There are red herrings about certain characters who behave suspiciously, but there isn't really any tension or threat to Thea herself, and I think there were opportunities to create that. So not my favourite of the series and I can only really award it an OK 2 star rating.

[Rog Harrison · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the third book which I have read in this series. Thea is no longer a house sitter but has married Drew Slocombe and is now living in a small village with him and his two young children. I have no idea what Thea sees in Slocombe as he comes across to me as a fairly unpleasant character. The characters in the village are all caricatures and the mystery is that Thea and another woman find a dead body in a freezer. The story plods on and at the end Thea figures out what had happened. I found the story boring and pointless and do not intend to read any more of the author's books.

[Kate Hopkins · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Note to self - do not read any more books by this author. I really wanted to like this because I live round the corner but the characters are just SO irritating, especially the main one, Thea. I wanted to slap her...instead I slammed the book shut and wrote this.

[Shirley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very easy read, set in the Cotswold. This story was not short of descriptive scenery. As the reader we meet the Slocombe family Thea who is a ex house sitter, part-time amateur detective. She has recently married Drew who is a Undertaker and his two children.
So the story gets under way where Thea decides she would like to get involved more in village life. She calls on her neighbors Hilary and Graham Bunting. They are looking after her sisters dog while her sister is currently very ill in the local hospice. Graham shouts a lot which is a little off putting for Thea.
While looking the dog who had taken the opportunity to escape into the countryside. So Thea and the Buntings bridge playing friend went looking for the dog. After some time had lapsed they returned to the house to discover Hilary in the freezer very much dead. Police were called and the search went on for the village murder.
Although the subject isn't necessary a light subject this story was a light easy to read book and didn't take long at all

[Jane Shand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thea struggled a bit in this one. Digging into the past of murder suspects and asking awkward questions was so much easier when she was just there to house sit. But now she lives in the village where it happened. She would like to make friends and help grow her husband’s business. And he really isn’t that keen in her getting involved. But it is who she is. I preferred this series in the earlier books and before her time with Drew, but still an enjoyable read. I had worked out the twist before Thea and the police did. It was fairly obvious unfortunately. But it didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the last quarter of the book. On to the next one…

[Nicholas George · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the plus side, we have an engaging protagonist/narrator in Thea Slocombe, inquisitive and bright, starting a new life with undertaker husband Drew and his two kids in a rural Cotswold village. There are pleasant scenes of local country life. But the mysterious death at the heart of this tale isn't quite gripping enough, and the surrounding suspects a pretty dreary lot. It serves its function and moves along nicely, but it's no classic.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting descriptions of the Cotswolds we visited on a hiking trip: the villages, villagers, countryside. Not so interesting and somewhat annoying were the repetitive and annoying neurotic repetition of the main character's thoughts. Won't seek out any of the author's other Cotswolds novels.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as previous ones.

[Jacque · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great start to a new theme. Excellent! It will be interesting to see what Thea does next. I like her strength and self determination.

[Caroline Ingvaldsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the fifteenth in the Cotswold Mysteries series, Thea Osborne, now Slocombe, solves yet another mysterious death.

[JenniferB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good example in the series, now with Thea and Drew more together.

[Corinne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dull

[Cordelia]

As ever I thoroughly enjoyed this.

[Nick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh dear!

[Vanessa Boyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading one of these books is just good for my soul, they remind me of my late mum and I feel closer to her when I read them. Thea you are hilarious and intelligent.

[Maggie Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable easy read but it lacks the intrigue and knots in your stomach of a deeply engaging mystery.

[Theresa Dudley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like wading through mud

[Mary Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do not like the two main characters of this series.

[Pam Clifford · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd enjoyed previous books in this series but the main character, Thea, was grating on my nerves and I didn't finish it.

[Hayley R · Rating 3 out of 5]

With the house sitting over, how will Thea keep finding bodies? Now married to Drew and just settling into a new family life, Thea manages to become embroiled in yet another death.

[Lou · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book, kept me reading and was easy enough to get through and enjoy. Enjoyed reading about the Cotswolds. First book to get me into a mystery type murder investigation genre.

[Kate]

"Thea Slocombe, formerly Osborne, is trying to settle into normal family life with Drew and his two children in the village of Broad Campden. But any sense of cozy domesticity is shattered when Thea finds the body of a neighbor. No longer a house-sitter, Thea has no choice but to stay in the village and deal with whatever happens next, even when this risks damage to her marriage.

"Unconvinced that the swift conclusion made about the death by the police is the right one, Thea is compelled to follow her nature and investigate herself. But what repercussions might there be for her, Drew and those with whom they share this corner of the Cotswolds?
~~front flap

[Susan]

I found this book dull as ditchwater! The only thing I liked about this book was the flowers on the front cover.