Old Soldiers Never Die

Village Mysteries #1

by Margaret Mayhew

Meet the Colonel (hardly anyone calls him Hugh). He moves to a quiet country cottage in Dorset, which he’d once visited with his late wife.

He finds it easy to slip into local society and decides that Frog End’s upcoming annual fete will be the start of his mission to be a pillar of the community.

But when Lady Swynford is found dead on the night of the fete, it becomes clear that Frog End has a darker side. And as Inspector Squibb investigates the case, the Colonel finds himself more involved than he could possibly have imagined.

Discover Frog End, a beautiful English village with some dark secrets...

THE DETECTIVE
At the grand old age of 55, the Colonel had been put out to grass by the British Army. In the same year, his beloved wife, Laura, died after a long illness. He found himself facing a bleak and lonely future. There were the children, of course, but they were grown up and had busy lives of their own.

One summer, years before, he and Laura spent their leave in England, touring the West Country. They stopped at a village in Dorset called Frog End which had a spit-and-sawdust pub called the Dog and Duck. Laura had fallen in love with a stone cottage seen across the village green. She had admired the thatched roof and the pink roses round the door. Years later, after her death, the Colonel had revisited the same village alone and seen Laura’s dream cottage had aged badly and that it was up for sale. Against his better judgement, he bought it.

THE SETTING
The cottage was called Pond Cottage and the Colonel soon discovered that he had made a big mistake. The two-hundred-year-old building had deathwatch beetle, rising damp, a falling roof, rot and decay throughout. There was no heating and the wiring was a dangerous disgrace. Logs for an open fire were kept in a tin bath in the scullery and the nettle-infested lavatory was housed outside in a jungle. There was no sign of any pond.

But there were compensations: a view over the beautiful village green, clusters of other stone cottages, a Norman church built on Saxon foundations, a graveyard of ancient tombs leaning at perilous angles. And, of course, the Dog and Duck.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Cozy, Mystery Thriller, British Literature, Crime

184 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 1999

About the author

Margaret Mayhew was born in London and her earliest childhood memories were of the London Blitz. She began writing in her mid-thirties and had her first novel published in 1976. She is married to American aviation author, Philip Kaplan, and lives in Gloucestershire.

Reviews

[Phrynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in a picture perfect English village complete with thatched cottages, duck pond, cricket field and manor house, this was a very acceptable opening book for a cosy mystery series.

For a change the main character and series sleuth is a man, a retired colonel, widowed and hoping to find something to occupy his days. He starts by joining a village committee, befriending a neighbour and learning how to garden and to cook. This might have been enough but then there is a murder and he finds himself on the trail of clues.

The book was nicely written and full of interesting characters, many of whom I look forward to meeting again in the next book.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the Colonel arrived at his new home, Pond Cottage in the delightful English village of Frog End in Dorset, he once again wished his beloved wife Laura was still with him. She had died some years previously and when he’d spotted the cottage that Laura had admired when she was alive, he’d bought it. After renovations, there he was, ready to relax in the small village. The Colonel had been encouraged to retire from the British Army when he was 55 – far too soon in his opinion. His two children lived their own lives so Pond Cottage would be his salvation. Norma next door soon made herself known and she was a breath of fresh air – and the cat called Thursday, which had lived there with the previous owner, was now the Colonel’s, whether he wanted him or not…

The day of the Annual Fete was a warm and sunny one; the arrival of everyone from near and far to the Manor meant the funds raised for the church could be high. But when the owner of the manor, Lady Swynford, was found dead in the evening of that same day, the police would have their hands full. With no faith in the local constabulary, the Colonel decided to investigate on his own. But would he discover what had happened, and why?

Old Soldiers Never Die is the 1st in the Village Mysteries by Margaret Mayhew and I quite enjoyed it. While I waited for the murder to occur (around 50%) I found this to be light and entertaining, with the Colonel a perfect ‘straight as a die’ character who’ll carry this series well I should think. This is my first by this author, and I found it along the same lines as Faith Martin, whom I also enjoy. I’m looking forward to reading more by Ms Mayhew. Recommended.

[Annestasia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. The village and the people are interesting and took my a while to work out 'who done it'.

[Claudette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why do authors still insist on having characters feed chocolate to dogs and cats? They can't be unaware that chocolate is poison to cats and dogs.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to circle back to read this first of the series, unsure of whether I had read it before. Initially I did read this first one partially, set it aside for some reason and then let my Kindle Unlimited lapse. But then I did remember the ending, so who knows? So...with cup of tea in hand (Stash from Portland Oregon, Licorice Spice) I felt armed and up to a re-read. What I liked was going back over the initial sentimental story of how the Colonel and his wife Laura had initially seen the cottage he ends up buying after her death and his retirement.
As I was once again introduced to his next door neighbor and her helpful hints for gardening and cooking I was satisfied that I had come back to the book. The village turns out to be not the place of dreams but rather full of nightmares. It was worth a revisit and I have no idea why I did not mark it was read previously.

Kindle Unlimited

[Sharla · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great example of the quintessential British cozy mystery. I enjoyed it enough to rush right on to the next in the series.

[Kasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this even though the crime occurs late in the book. The Colonel moves to a small village where he encounters some interesting people who have their own secrets. Inspector Squibb is an arrogant, unpleasant man, but fortunately he has only a small part to play. It is the Colonel who is the man of the hour. Well done, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

[Ram Kaushik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gentle page turner perfect for an afternoon siesta, or a flight (wait, those are obsolete.)

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

My hope of finding a new British amateur detective series to binge on was not realized! The book is full of the stock characters of the English village trope : the retired Colonel, the lady of the manor, the village doctor, the vicar, an elderly spinster of restricted means. So that was fine; the disappointment was that the author didn't do much with them. For instance, when the Colonel's son is going through a marital crisis, that's dealt with by a few sentences here and there. More than one villager is going through mental torment (guilt, anxiety over the future, unrequited love), but these emotions make brief appearances onto the page, only to be abandoned a paragraph later. One does not read village mystery novels for the deep and original psychological analyses, but still... one likes one's reading material to contain real, relatable characters.

[Kathy Penn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice change to read a cozy with a gentleman as the protagonist. The Colonel is a widower and is retired from the army. He's settled in a British village he and his wife once admired on a trip and pretty quickly becomes involved in sleuthing. He's a Gilbert & Sullivan fan, and their lyrics are peppered throughout the book.
It makes for an easy, pleasant read--a nice distraction from these distressing times. I plan to pick up the next book in the series.

[John Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several years ago I read the second of this series first, (unusual for me) but it was only a recent 'like' of my review by a friend that brought it back to mind. When I reread my notes I saw that apart from a disappointing ending, (something that my friend disagreed with me over), I would have been thinking of a 4.5 - 5 . How I had not shelved a few more of the series for later reading, I dont know, but the comments were enough to dig out the start of the series now.

The author spends over half the book setting the scene and introducing us to the Colonel (rtd.), the village life and characters. I prefer this sort of beginning which allows the reader to get to know the participants before the 'action' takes place. With a murder early on, the story is more about the police personnel and procedures whereas here, the story is rightly about the lives of the villagers.

I enjoyed the tale and felt 'at ease' with it. There were plenty of red herrings. One particularly juicy one had me hooked even though little was actually put into words. So hooked in fact, that I expected it all to be revealed in a final chapter - that alas never came.

So, no, I didnt get it right and even if I had some particular interest, I dont think that I would have got there.

[Jillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of this first-in-the-series is spent setting the scene (hopefully for the whole series). As an English village at the beginning of estate housing expansion, the characters are the standard array of a Cluedo board. The scene is set quite deftly, the characters distinguishable, the murder, when it comes, predictable, the solution suitably puzzling.

I liked the sleuth and empathised with most behaviours. The writing is competent, carrying me into the world of the narrative. I’m hoping for more of its comfortable escape in the rest of the series.

[Bob Hiscocks · Rating 5 out of 5]

English village life just as you imagine it to be. The village green, the "frog pond", village fete, the manor house and of course the murder. No village, it seems, is complete without a few suspicious deaths. It all leads to a very enjoyable read that keeps ticking along. I shall move straight on to book two with fingers crossed for more of the same.

[Deb Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

There isn't much here to sink one's teeth into, at least from this reader's point of view. Formulaic characters made it feel to me as if the author simply inserted names into basic characters types and went from there, although not very far.

[Michele bookloverforever · Rating 4 out of 5]

British cozy mystery. I enjoyed the characters

[Elainebowden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful

A really good read the characters are really well written and enjoyable to read , you want to read on to find out more about the characters ,I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys cosy mystery stories.

[Eirlys · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Good Read

An enjoyable story set in an English village, where everyone knew each other. The characters were interesting and convincing as suspects in a murder. I liked following the clues, but still didn't have the answer to the guilty party.

[Anne Roscoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kind of book

Worthy of five stars as the characters and storyline are exactly what I enjoy reading. Interesting plot and good explanation of discovering the murderer.

[LeAnne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back to the current time. A good start for this series....read it in 24 hours. Starting Book 2 soon.

[Yvette · Rating 3 out of 5]

a quick fun read! i love cosy mysteries, and i've found that it's usually the village characters that keep me reading.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Retired Colonel moves to Frogs End after he is forced into retirement. Not long after he moves in there is a mysterious death and the police want to blame him for it. On the order of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, he quietly asks questions until the real truth is brought to light. I will definitely be reading more by this author

[Lina Hansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the sort of cozy mystery that - should set the precedent for all cozy mysteries. A British village. An amateur sleuth - who sort of falls into sleuthing. A Cat. A thatched cottage. A life gone by.
And a body.
I truly enjoyed this, not only because it was written in another time, where nobody had to deliver the corpse at the end of the first chapter, where nobody worried how the first 50 pages were written.
Somebody just wrote, created characters and a fictional world.
The Colonel (nobody calls him Hugh, and I'm not surprised. Watta name) settles at the end of his life (in his mid sixties. Cor blimey, do we really trash our seniors like that?) in a small village, in the house his wife, dead now, loved when they visited ages ago.
He wants to die, really.
Instead, he get a cat, a pond in his garden, a nosy neighbour, and a mystery.
And none of this is exciting, thrilling, or whatever.
It's just a jolly good book

[Christine Goodnough · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story of the village and its various characters as a whole as it is a mystery. Kind of a Miss Read meets Hercule Poirot story. In fact the setting reminds me quite much of "Thrush Green."
When Colonel Hugh takes mandatory retirement --"put out to grass"--and then his wife passes away, he's at loose ends for some years. Finally he recalls the small Dorset village they liked so well during a previous holiday and, somewhat impusively, he purchases a cottage there. He's soon meeting his neighbours and gets roped into a few community affairs, which is how he meets the snooty Lady Ursula and picks up on village currents.
Few people like her, but what it the real reason why someone sneaked into the house and did her in on the day of the fete? The writer, with her compelling writing style, turns rather mundane village affairs into an interesting story with believable plot twists, and keeps you guessing right to the end whodunit.

[Eugene · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Read the hardcover edition by Servern House, interlibrary loan)
Well, who’da thunk it? Happened across #4 at the library, and being an afficionado of “English village mysteries,” I took it home and read it. No great shakes, I thought, but since I’d already requested this first in the series by interlibrary loan (from Utah, no less!), I felt compelled to read it.
Herein we find the origins of the Colonel and his band of locals, most especially his neighbor Naomi Grimshaw, a real hoot. As with the other volume, the mystery, if such it be, is of the thinnest atmosphere, but I somehow found myself falling under the spell of the Dorset milieu. How the Colonel solved the murder is still a wonder to me, but the story is what matters; I enjoyed it and I must say, I’m now likely to read more in the series.

[Cathy Johnston · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you have NOTHING else to read...

This is an adequate book for about the 8th grade reader. And if you’re sitting at the beach, or in your garden on vacation, it’s fine. But, this is not a book that will tax your powers of observation, or your ability to be a sleuth. I’m not even really sure why some of the characters are there. So, overall, I’m just going to say Meh...and go find something else to read.

[Michael Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first in the author’s “Village Mysteries” series, now up to six episodes. It qualifies as a “cozy,” but with a bit of a twist, as the character who does most of the detecting is a retired army colonel (first name Hugh, last name never mentioned), who is at loose ends and very bored since the death of his wife a decade before. There isn’t much a military career trains you for in modern civilian Britain, and after most of a lifetime abroad, he doesn’t have a real home, either. And London is much too expensive for his pension, so he finally throws up his hands and buys a rather run-down thatched cottage in the village of Frog’s End somewhere in the southeast.

His neighbors supply the usual variety of types, including a retired major whose wife ignores his predilection for chasing the local women, the young rector whose wife is in a wheelchair, a spinster who runs a riding stable that’s about to fail, a very forthright woman next door who is a talented gardener and who urges Hugh to take it up himself as therapy, and several others. And then there’s the aging Lady Swynford, whose late husband's family have been the local lords of the manor for centuries, though she herself was a showgirl until she captured the attentions of Sir Roger. Nevertheless, she’s “more royal than the royals” and everyone else in town loathes her. And she has a daughter who has given up her corporate job and come back home to look after her since her recent stroke, though she has other reasons for escaping the city.

The author takes her time setting things up and letting you get to know the cast of characters before one of them dies suddenly, and (of course) it turns out to be murder. And the colonel, who has been trying conscientiously to involve himself in local affairs, starts thinking about things himself, especially because he was one of the first on the scene and after being annoyed by the rather smarmy local detective inspector. Mayhew follows the expected formulas, but does it in a more modern fashion than Agatha Christie. The result is very readable and if the amateur British detective with an interesting personality and history is your thing, I recommend you give it a try.

[Hope · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

The Colonel has retired to the sleepy village of Frog’s End. He still misses his wife ten years after her death and his thoughts of her make the story more endearing than your average mystery. The book is sprinkled with gardening tips and references to literature: Gaskell, Hardy, the Brontës, George Eliot, major British poets and even a nod to Beatrix Potter.

The first half of the book builds up to the murder, describing the villagers and their possible motives for doing away with the victim. I chose the person least likely to be the killer and began looking for clues pointing to her guilt. But Mayhew tricked me. The real murderer was even less likely. I’m still trying to decide if she tricked me fairly (according to Knox’s ten commandments of detective fiction), but I have to admit I enjoyed the surprise.

There was a little too much swearing for “Old Soldiers” to be a true cozy read, but the characters were well-drawn and and I enjoyed spending time with them. I also found it interesting that although several characters have lost their faith in God due to their suffering, the words to several hymns are scattered throughout the narrative.

[Carol Mello · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of a series and very enjoyable

I am always on the lookout for new authors of series to try (new to me, not necessarily newly published). Margaret Mayhew published this mystery sometime in the 1990s. It is a great start to this series.

We get to know most of the villagers involved in this Dorset village quite well. Hugh is a dear man, as another character says of him, a real gentleman. Because Inspector Squibb is upsetting so many people and getting no where, Hugh challenges himself to solve the murder of Lady Swynford himself before Inspector Squibb does. Only one person he talked to figured out what Hugh was up to, but let Hugh get on with it.

I will be sad when I finish this series because after just one book I have become quite fond of Hugh, amateur detective, and many of the other village characters.

I will probably reread this book again to pick up all the excellent gardening tips Hugh receives from villagers.

(I missed the vital clue from the day of the fete. I hope you catch if you decide to read this book.)

[Robert Crouch · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first novel in the series begins like a traditional murder mystery, introducing the various characters in the village of Frog End in Dorset and their relationships. It’s clear from the outset that Lady Swynford is not well liked in the village for a variety of reasons. When she’s found dead on the day of the annual village fete she’s hosting, the suspects and their motives have already been introduced. It’s now up to the unusually named Inspector Squibb to solve the case.

Or not, as this is a cosy mystery. In steps Frog End’s newest resident, known as the Colonel, to do some sleuthing.

Though not a huge fan of the slow build up, the characters are so sympathetically drawn and memorable, I was engaged and drawn into their lives from the outset. The gentle pace and village gossip, combined with the unearthing of secrets, were intriguing and perfectly pitched to make this a thoroughly enjoyable whodunit I can heartily recommend.

I’m looking forward to reading the next novel in the series to see where the author takes me.