A Cotswold Mystery [Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Rebecca Tope (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 30, 2009

Despite the catastrophic outcomes of her previous house-sitting commissions, Thea Osborne, accompanied by her trusty spaniel, Hepzie, is truly convinced nothing can go wrong on her next assignment in the charming village of Blockley. The Montgomerys have asked her to look after their house while they take a much needed holiday.

But trouble seems to follow Thea and when a body is discovered in the house next door, she finds herself in the midst of village secrets.

From mystical local legends to celebrity sightings, the erstwhile quiet area turns out to be a place of mysterious contradictions - with very sinister undertones.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

With beautiful descriptions of the countryside, this excellent thriller marks a compulsive new series of rural adventures. --Good Book Guide --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Rebecca Tope has led a varied career working as an antenatal teacher, a Relate counsellor and an assistant funeral director. She currently lives on a small holding in rural Herefordshire where she works as a milk recorder for local dairy farms. She is the author of five previous crime novels including Market for Murder and The Sting of Death. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Soundings Ltd; Unabridged edition (July 30, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140790017X
• ISBN-13: 978-1407900179
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 7.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,147,770 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good cozy mystery, October 29, 2008

By 

asassyvic "asassyvic" (Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Cotswold Mystery (Paperback)

Thea is house sitting and keeping an eye on the elderly lady next door. The elderly lady is her clients mother. Thea has a cute little dog that is a good ice breaker when she first meets the Gladys.

Thea is a little alarmed that she hardly sees the old lady. She is even more anxious when she learns that an alarm is rigged up to her part of the house. It goes off if the front door opens next door. Her clients tell her not to let the old lady out of the house, this worries Thea because she can't see any good reason to keep the old lady practically a prisoner.

Oh, for sure she takes the old lady with her to walk the dog. Turns out Gladys really has a good time walking and talks a lot, until she falls down. Gladys has a memory problem so Thea has to fit together the bits of conversations they have to solve the mystery.

This was a really good story and it moved along a good clip. I listened to the audio version and the reader Caroline Lennon was excellent. I highly recommend this book in either audio or hardcover if your looking for a British cozy mystery.

I don't recollect any hard core bad language or sex scenes so it's a good one if you don't like bad language and x-rated bits thrown in. I was sorry when this book ended and I'm hoping that audible will be getting more books by Rebecca Tope.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Long and flat, December 24, 2009

By 

Pandora (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Cotswold Mystery (Paperback)

If you like your mysteries excessively repetitive and overly long, with flat two dimensional characters and no suspense whatsoever, then this is the writer for you. Her main characters, Thea (mother) and Jessica (police newbie daughter) have a tense sniping relationship which never lets up and, ultimately, I found myself not caring two pins for either of them. Even though we are with these two characters (and a handful of others) for days (felt like years) , we learn little about who they really are as people through their dialogue (inner or outer conversation) and most of our information about ANY character is fed to us by other characters and not by figuring out how we, ourselves, feel about what is being said. This book might have worked better in first person. The writer seems limited by having to stand back, and write a third person multiple viewpoint story. If you're a good writer and can get deep inside the heads of your characters in third person, that's fine, but if you're only skimming the surface of each character, as this writer does, third person multiple viewpoint only deadens and exhausts the reader - as everyone is so flat and boring. There is also no real sense of place or setting in this story despite the importance of the "lost" villages. Thea's wandering through these "lost villages" offers little or no description to give any sort of mood, tension or sense of place to liven up the story. Settings should be full of condensed but very rich description that heightens mood and tension, especially in a mystery. We get none of that here. We could be in any small town anywhere. By page 311 of a long, long 400 page book, I finally gave up and read the last few pages. The ending was not a surprise, of course. If you want to read an intelligent and well written village-set "cosy" mystery with a strong sense of place and well-rounded strong characters, try Hazel Holt's Mrs. Mallory series. A thousand times better.