Bunburry: Episode 4-6

Bunburry #4-6

by Helena Marchmont

Miss Marple meets Oscar Wilde in this new series of cosy mysteries set in the picturesque Cotswolds village of Bunburry. Here, fudge-making and quaffing real ale in the local pub are matched by an undercurrent of passion, jealousy, hatred and murder - laced with a welcome dose of humour.

This compilation contains episodes 4-6.

DEATH OF A LADIES' MAN

The summer tourist season is in full swing. Among the visitors is Mario Bellini, a gelateria owner with film-star good looks, who is considering opening an ice-cream parlour in Bunburry. But shortly after his arrival, he is found dead - a tragic accident, or something more sinister?

DROP DEAD, GORGEOUS

Deb's Beauty Salon becomes the last resting place for merry widow and property magnate Eve Mosby, whose passions include haute couture and a young lover. Plenty of people disliked Mrs Mosby, but enough to kill her?

MURDER IN HIGH PLACES

Oscar will brave the Cotswolds for the first time! Alfie has tried for months to convince his best friend to visit him - but when a glamorous High Society Party in honour of celebrated actor Dorian Stevens is announced, Oscar just can't resist. He is - after all - Dorian's greatest fan and can't wait to meet his hero. But the evening at the lovely Saville mansion takes a murderous turn...

Genres: Mystery, Audiobook, Cozy, British Literature

303 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 21, 2020

About the author

Helena Marchmont is a pseudonym of Olga Wojtas, who was born and brought up in Edinburgh. She was encouraged to write by an inspirational English teacher, Iona M. Cameron. Olga won a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award in 2015, has had more than 30 short stories published in magazines and anthologies and recently published her first mystery Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Golden Samovar.

Reviews

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helena Marchmont, you are so frustrating! Your Bunburry mysteries are some of the most uneven mysteries I’ve ever read. And I’m including the Stephanie Plum series, which went completely to pot with Notorious Nineteen. With all cozy mysteries, the reader has to suspend some disbelief. Let’s face it: I believe the last real murder in Oxford, England, was in 1991, but that doesn’t keep Chief Inspector Morse from constantly having to solve fictional ones.

However, some Burburry books prove impossibly implausible. I would never have even read No. 6, Murder in High Places (review here) — that’s how terrible No. 5, Drop Dead, Gorgeous, was. I only read Murder in High Places because I bought the three-book Audible set Bunburry 4–6, even thought I liked No. 4, Death of a Ladies’ Man (review here). I had already decided that Helena Marchmont (pseudonym for the Scottish writer Olga Wojtas) was going from bad to worse and that I was totally done with her.

But then Marchmont delivered a pretty clever novel as the sixth in the series, one that ends at a cliff hanger to boot. I had my reading life so tidied up! Now, even though I’m cross with myself, I’m going to have to continue with the seventh in the series, Sweet Revenge. I’m going to forgive Marchmont, but it will be a while. So, the three books rated one decent, one complete disappointment, and a pretty good one; that sounds like three stars to me.

[Pat Hathaway · Rating 5 out of 5]

More great cozy mystery stories

Wow! These Bunburry stories just get better and better. The books are quite short, more like novellas, but so far I have enjoyed all of them. I can't wait to read the next compilation.

[Heidi Nibbelink · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh no, I'm reading more Bunburry!

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened on Audible.