Murder in Steeple Martin (Libby Sarjeant Murder Mystery Series) [Kindle Edition]

Lesley Cookman (Author)

Book Description

First in a series of British murder mysteries featuring retired middle-aged actress and sleuth, Libby Sarjeant.

Artist and ex-actress Libby Sarjeant is busy directing a play for the opening of a new theatre in her village when one of her cast is found murdered. The play, written by her friend Peter, is based on real events in his family, disturbing and mysterious, which took place in the village during the last war. As the investigation into the murder begins to uncover a tangled web of relationships in the village, it seems that the events dramatised in the play still cast a long shadow, dark enough to inspire murder.

Libby s natural nosiness soon leads her into the thick of the investigation, but is she too close to Peter s family, and in particular his cousin Ben, to be able to recognise the murderer?

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lesley started writing almost as soon as she could read, and filled many exercise books with pony stories until she was old enough to go out with boys. Since she's been grown up, following a varied career as a model, air stewardess and disc jockey, she's written short fiction and features for a variety of magazines, achieved an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Wales, taught writing for both Kent Adult Education and the WEA and edited the first Sexy Shorts collection of short stories from Accent Press in aid of the Breast Cancer Campaign. She lives on the Kent coast.

Product Details

• File Size: 658 KB
• Print Length: 352 pages
• Publisher: Accent Press Ltd (June 3, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0088OVJTQ
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #27,019 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a wonderful series of cozy mysteries. August 2, 2012

By andiesenji VINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I will begin by stating that I am a big fan of "cozy" mysteries, particularly those set in English villages and with characters who are more than two-dimensional.
I am reading the last of the series by Lesley Cookman (Libby Sarjeant Murder Mysteries) and have been totally charmed by them.
The characters are believable and have plenty of quirks and faults so they seem more like real people than most characters found in mysteries. There are plenty of funny moments but these are not what I consider "comic" mysteries.
Another thing I like is that the two main characters do not usually put themselves in peril (something I object to in many mysteries), although there have been a couple of instances where they were briefly in a sticky situation but were swiftly rescued.
Almost every mystery has a twist at the end that I did not see coming in spite of a couple of hints that when I went back and checked, I should have caught but the hints were so skillfully woven into the dialog that I missed them.
The "psychic" bits are downplayed and in several of the stories have little to do with the main story but actually with peripheral stories that turn out to be interwoven with the main plot at the end.
If you like twisty plots, with a bunch of very likeable characters, I think you will enjoy these...

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Traditional British Cozy for the 21st Century July 10, 2012

By Super-Excited Person©

Format:Kindle Edition

This book had all the makings of a traditional British cozy - a small village, a family secret, a cast of eccentric characters, and an inquisitive 'incomer'. But it was also firmly set in the 21st century, which was rather refreshing. Libby Sarjeant is the 'incomer' and she's managing the amateur production of a play written by one of the village residents and her longtime friend, Peter. When the play (which is loosely based on village history) starts stirring up long-suppressed emotions and memories, things start happening, and not in a good way.

Although Libby insists that she's only concerned with the safety of her cast and getting the prodution ready for opening night, she becomes more and more deeply involved with the secret past of several of the village's prominent families. There are flashbacks to 1943, when the original event(s) occurred, but no resolution is given until the present time. There is a fairly sizeable cast of main and secondary characters, and although most are not 2-dimensional, neither are they fully-developed. Most seem to play a sterotyped role - the gay couple, the aging rake, the playboy, the country doctor, the grande dame of the village, the snoopy incomer, etc. I felt that the story got bogged down from about 50% to maybe 75% in extraneous detail, as though the author was trying to avoid wrapping things up and ending the book. Other than that, it was a fairly good, albeit rather conventional cozy mystery.

Note on Kindle formatting: Very good. I didn't notice any issues.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Murder in a British Village-- 21st Century Mystery June 18, 2012

By Sires

Format:Kindle Edition

Libby Sarjeant's friends keep reminding her that she isn't Miss Marple, as indeed she isn't. Agatha Christie's spinster detective did not smoke, drink a bit too much at times or find a local gentleman fanciable-- at least that the reader knew. Nor is Martin Steeple much like St Mary Meade, the village where Miss Marple first plied her detective skills. However, Miss Marple would certainly recognize that the plot of this entertaining village mystery is based on old sins casting long shadows.

The problems begin when a play based on the author's family experiences as hop pickers is being rehearsed at the newly converted Oast House Theatre-- an Oast House is a building expressly built as a drying kiln for hops used in brewing. Libby is the director of the mostly amateur group. A number of minor but potentially serious accidents involving the Theatre and the crew prove grist for Libby's Sarjeant's investigative skills until there is a death and things grow very serious indeed. The police are called in and it seems that Libby's friends are all suddenly suspects.

Easily dated by internal evidence-- the smokers are awaiting with dread the July 1, 2007 ban on smoking in enclosed work places-- it's a very modern village but still has the enclosed and intimate feeling that makes village mysteries so successful.