The Grasmere Grudge: The engrossing English cozy crime series

Lake District #8

by Rebecca Tope

Soon after proposing marriage to Simmy Brown, Christopher Henderson finds the body of his friend Jonathan, an antiques dealer, strangled in Grasmere. Simmy's friends, amateur detectives Ben and Bonny, discover that Jonathan had many enemies, and investigate whether her new fiance could be involved.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime

299 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 21, 2019

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 2 out of 5]

After a sunny holiday together Chris Henderson and Simmy Brown come back to earth with a thud. Chris finds the body of his friend Jonathon and falls under police suspicion. Simmy Brown, real name Persimmon, finds herself once again involved in a murder looking for the culprit. Meanwhile, through an out of area floral delivery, she has met a young woman and her baby. Can Simmy hlp her? With the aid of her friends and amateur detectives, Ben and Bonnie, Simmy finds a few people who may have wanted Jonathon dead. And what is wrong with Chris? Could he have something to hide? What is he not telling her?
I started this book expecting a good cosy. The name of the main character , Persimmon, is a turnoff. No wonder she shortened it to Simmy. And nothing about book , not the characters, the setting which is not portrayed clearly, or the plot really engaged me. It all felt rather ho hum and when the culprit is revealed it still felt that way.
Maybe it is me after having previously read a brilliant book that then coloured my view and left me less enthused about this book. Others may enjoy it but I found it just an okay read .

[Claire Hackeson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was disappointed with this book. It is the first one I've read of the Lake District Mystery series and whilst in part it may be my fault starting on the 8th book in a series, I do love the Lakes and Grasmere especially so I was hoping for a good read. I found the characters annoying, frustrating and unlikeable. The language seemed old fashioned and quite 'Famous Five'. Whilst plenty of Lake District places are mentioned - Grasmere, Bowness, Windermere - the main character seems to just drive from place to place and the settings are not explored or given the detail they deserve . Grasmere is a beautiful village with lots of potential for a novel but unfortunately this doesn't do it justice.

[Ana Alonso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm i liked following the characters lives in the Lake District but the murder side of things and a lot of the story being around auctioning wasn’t super exciting. But oh well still enjoyed reading.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Rebecca Tope's series, in fact I've read all the books in The Cotswolds, The West Country and The Lake District. As with any series it's the characters that are the most important. The plots are a secondary feature; well they are for me anyway. At the beginning of this story the main character Simmy is contemplating marriage. I wonder if any other readers were rather hoping she wouldn't! When I read the first in the series I loved the idea of an independent florist in a small tourist town taking on the role of amateur detective with the developing help of two local teenagers; the florist's assistant and her boyfriend. As with all series police or detective stories you have to suspend disbelief. If you didn't there wouldn't be many rural villages or urban cities in the UK, with anyone left alive as so many authors over the past decades, from Agatha Christie to Colin Dexter, have pushed the bounds of probability. So with disbelief suspended Ms. Tope makes her characters believable and more importantly, the crimes they investigate are believable too. As in many of her books the reader doesn't always get to know what happens to the perpetrators but that doesn't spoil the story. As with her other stories time moves on, characters develop, life gets in the way. By the end of the book the stage is set for the next installment; for which much thanks and happy anticipation.

[David Harley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the local colour Rebecca Tope brings to the Lake District series. However the plot in Grasmere Grudge is diificult to comprehend and doesnt hold up too well.
The main characters Simmie, Bonnie and Ben are on form but without giving too much away - the main suspects are sketchy and under developed
Nevertheless it was an enjoyable read - Even though the murderers motives were a bit difficult to grasp!

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was good although it took a while to get into .

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A return to a favorite series. I really enjoy the main character, Persimmon (Simmy) Brown and the mysteries themselves are really quite good.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a strange little book.

[Phil · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh dear... I first encountered Rebecca Tope's writing in her Cotswold series, but stopped reading those books after becoming too enraged by her main character's selfish and childish behaviour. When I tried reading the Ambleside Alibi, I was pleasantly surprised, and have enjoyed every book since, although I did feel that in the last book, The Staveley Suspect, the series was starting to go downhill. But The Grasmere Grudge is terrible!

There is no real plot. Simmy's fiance is supposedly suspected of murdering his friend, but this doesn't really ring true, as apart from one round of questioning immediately after the body is discovered, the police pretty much ignore him. Poor Chris has not only just discovered the dead body of one friend, he has recently lost both his parents and has another friend dying in hospital. Enough to make anyone feel bad, yet when he appears withdrawn and stressed, Simmy criticises him and even wonders if his attitude means he's guilty of the murder. Yet her only doubts over their engagement are due to her wondering if she'll still want to be married to him if he can't give her children!

Most of the book consists either of Simmy & Chris having repetitive discussions about their future, Simmy driving around the Lake District on random errands or Simmy, Ben & Bonnie having equally repetitive discussions about the murder. Throughout, Simmy remains smugly self-absorbed and self-congratulatory, while being critical of everyone else.

None of the main characters contribute anything useful to the investigation - the murderer (who was blatantly obvious from first appearance) is caught by the police 'off stage', and we end up with a trite 'happy ending' for Simmy and Chris. Although bearing in mind Simmy's constant criticism of Chris, the way she continuously nags and corrects him (at one point, the most positive thing she can say about him is that he is 'amenable to correction'), I don't give much for their chances of a happy marriage. I can't help hoping that Chris will come to his senses and run while he can!

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a cosy mystery perfectly fine to get out of the library and while away the commute, and I quite enjoyed it.
But:
The ending felt rushed and wasn’t very clear.
There was a bit too much harking back to previous novels with the same characters and it added nothing to the book, just confusion.
There were lots of descriptions of driving between towns in the Lake District and how long that would take, as though the author is trying to pass an exam for the AA or the tourist board. With the odd dig at inadequate public transport.
The main characters got engaged despite barely being bothered to spend any time together and clearly not enjoying it when they did, sniping and criticising all the time. Getting married when you’ve only stayed once at his home and you both have single beds?! It was oddly old fashioned (this and a forty year old woman who has her own business but relies on a teenage boy to look things up in the internet - I genuinely had to check the book wasn’t written in the 90s but no it was first published in 2019).
Lastly the language and writing was strangely simplistic, like it was aimed at children although it clearly isn’t. Occasionally it describes things like a science fiction novel describes technology that doesn’t really exist so it needs explaining; “Simmy took her mobile phone out of her bag and switched it on. There were two text messages…”
So I probably won’t bother with other books in this series/by this author.

[Hailstones · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another unconvincing but very good little story concerning Simmy and her team of amateur sleuths.
Apart from the inconsistencies (which this writer is at least humble enough to acknowledge) the plot starts with Simmy and her chap Christopher returning from a week's holiday when he receives a call from a colleague. The mess of connections and events then begins. Christopher is a suspect and are the team really out to help him prove his innocence or are they doing what they like to do, i.e. get involved in things they really ought not to. Local knowledge and knowing people alone does not make a good detective after all, it's much more complicated than that.
Regardless, I keep finding these books in the library and in charity shops and for a good little distraction, they are fun to read and I take my hat off to Rebecca Tope for keeping us entertained.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ve read all the Lake District series and enjoyed them. However I think this book lost it’s way slightly. It contradicts itself and is all over the place. All the characters were annoying and selfish and if this was the first book I probably wouldn’t carry on the series.

[Laura Greaves · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible. A pretty boring read. I gave up half way through

[Barbara Ford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow to start, but soon picked its pace. I would be happy to read more of Rebecca Pope's novels.

[Leeanne McHarg · Rating 3 out of 5]

More murder and mayhem in the Lake District with the familiar trio of Simmy, Ben, and Bonnie doing their own brand of detective work. This time the stakes are higher, with Simmy’s new fiancé Chris caught up in the murder investigation, adding an extra layer of tension and confusion to the proceedings.

I really enjoyed this story, although I found myself frustrated at times—mainly because Simmy has a terrible habit of turning off her mobile phone! Why does she do this? She runs a business! And of course, every emergency that arises seems to happen at the exact moment no one can reach her.

Aside from that ongoing quirk, the author beautifully brings the village of Grasmere to life, inviting readers to soak up the atmosphere and charm of the area. We also get deeper insight into Simmy’s inner world and how she feels about everything unfolding around her.

And the ending? A lovely surprise that left me keen to pick up the next book in the series!

[Karen J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever but hardly cozy!

What keeps me interested in this author is that there is a good deal of nastiness in her mind. None of her characters are completely attractive and it keeps every scene edgy. The tensions build to multip!e mini-crescendos and it does get confusing until the end when everything makes sense. The theme of rescue dogs is very current among with some cultural relevanciex. The theme of auction dodginess is enduring and universal. There is one dialogue habit that I really find annoying and that is the expression "shut up." We were never allowed to say it in my family so it jumps out at me and I wonder why this author is permitted to put it in the mouths of her heroines.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the idea of the series set in the Lake District, but found this one disappointing. The premise is always plausible, that Simmy, a florist, finds herself mixed up in tragedies. Her fiance discovers a friend of his dead, murdered, but is reluctant to tell all he knows. This book jarred with me because Chris, Simmy's fiance, appeared to be such a wet blanket about everything. I wanted him to pull himself together and be more'worthy' of kind hearted Simmy. Somehow their relationship seems forced and rather reminiscent of the relationship between Thea and Drew in Rebecca Tope's Cotswold murder series, which also never felt 'right'.

[Robert Burgon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I made two errors in choosing to read this book. I didn't notice the blurb on the back cover which talked about it being for fans of cosy crime (which I am not). Secondly, I didn't spot that this is volume 8 in the Lake District Mysteries series. With some series, it doesn't matter too much whether you start from the beginning. That is not the case here. When Ben and Bonnie are first mentioned, I had no idea who they were or what they were going to do and there were several references throughout the book to events which had clearly occurred in previous books (but which the author did not go on to explain). I will look more carefully at the backs of books in future.

[Helen Birkbeck · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-developed plot with the usual interesting characters and great descriptions of Lakeland. Simmy still seems a bit passive sometimes and her relationship with Ben and Bonnie a bit unlikely, though they are great characters.

The weakest relationship seemed to be between her and her fiance, though I have missed earlier books in which he was introduced so they might explain it better.

The unravelling of the murder at the end was, as in previous stories, rather too brief and not that exciting after such a good build-up.

[Krystal Edwards · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate writing bad reviews, but this has to be the slowest, most non happening book I’ve ever read. The story was non existent and what story there was, was slow and mostly pointless. Read as a standalone which I wouldn’t recommend as lots of references to past books with no real help to understand them unless you had read them.
If it wasn’t for the fact I can’t stop reading a book once I’ve started, i’d have given up. Sorry to say I won’t be reading anymore from series.

[Jane Shand · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven’t read a Rebecca Tope for a while and just fancied a Lake District Mystery. Sometimes Simmy Brown annoyed me in previous books, but she was on good form this book. I can’t remember what I thought of her boyfriend in the last book, and not sure what I think of him now! Some of the connections I had made myself, though I had no idea how or why, they led to a murder. The pace gradually picked up as the book went on and it was hard to put down. An enjoyable read.

[Gilly G · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first book in this cosy crime series. I was glad to find I didn't need to have read the others, just dropped straight into what was going on. Love the characters and setting and the homely, community vibe was right up my street - will definitely read the others. Recommended - particularly for those who love the Lake District.

[Tracy Masters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok I think

I like the characters.
Mystery ? Im not sure there is one. Its almost as if Rebecca writes about the characters intil reaching a certain word count then a simple solution 🤔

[Alison · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found it difficult to get through this book - the plot was boring and most of the characters are unlikeable. The main character is especially irritating, appearing to be constantly confused, busy or a terrible girlfriend. The denouement was poorly executed.

[Matilda Stannard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is largely implausible, chaotic and a bit nonsensical but it was good fun and kept me entertained without too much mental exertion which is just what I needed. It's pressingly written and everyone is pretty likeable so I have no complaints and will definitely read more in this series.

[june marks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flowers a great story enjoyed it very much, thought the killer was the one picked but was wrong would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good crime story.

[Caroline Ingvaldsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sixth Lake District Mystery is another appealing cozy starring intrepid florist Persimmon Brown supported by her quirky sidekicks and auctioneer fiance.

[Crazychic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy read, happy ending, enjoyed it but not the most gripping read

[Martin Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice cosy murder whodunnit

[Susan Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series of books. It is so sad when I finish a book and have to wait for the next one in the series.