A Cotswold Killing by
Rebecca Tope
hbk out June 04
Published by Allison Busby
at £18.99
Since house sitting became widespread, it has sparked the imagination of several
crime novelists, including Peter Lovesey and Morag Joss. It is easy to see why: the
sitter embarks for a while on an unfamiliar existence and participates in someone
else's way of life. Now Rebecca Tope has begun a new series with a novel featuring
widowed Thea Osborne, who house-sits in a pleasant village, Duntisbourne Abbots,
but soon comes across a human body, half-submerged in a pool. The strength of the
book lies in its setting is the Cotswolds, also used to good effect by Ann Granger;
Tope depicts the rural way of life with genuine affection. There is passing mention in
the text of Miss Marple and Sherlock Holmes, but unravelling the murder plot is
evidently of secondary importance to the author and the culprit barely features in the
story until it is more than half way through. Despite her occasional mood swings,
though, Thea is an amiable woman, a dog-loving Scrabble addict, and there are the
first tentative stirrings of romance as she gets to know Harry Richmond.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
A Cotswold Killing by
Rebecca Tope
