Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 978-0-7490-8095-2
Pages: - 285pp
Genre: - Cosy crime
Location:- S W England
How I came across it: - Author recommended by Nan
Rating: - ***** *
One sentence summary:- Amateur sleuth Shiela Malory is visited by her boring second cousin as part of his genealogical research but when he is found dead it seems his research may have upset someone.
Describe the plot without giving anything away:-
Shiela Malory is visited by her boring second cousin, Bernard Prior, as part of his genealogical research but when he is found dead it seems his research may have upset someone. Shiela, noted for her tenacity in looking into suspicious deaths leaves no branch of the family undisturbed in her efforts to find out what exactly happened on the night Bernard died.
General comments:-
This is the second Hazel Holt ‘Shiela Malory’ story I have tried. The first – “A Time to Die” - I slated but perhaps I should have given it more of a chance. Certainly this one was quite enjoyable though I guessed the guilty party fairly early on. I'm not sure I shall bother with any more though. There are too many better cosy crime stories out there.
HAZEL HOLT was born in 1928 in Birmingham. She studied at Newnham College, Cambridge, and went on to work at the International African Institute in London, where she became acquainted with the novelist Barbara Pym, whose biography she later wrote. Holt wrote her first novel in her sixties, and is a leading crime novelist. She is best known for her "Sheila Malory" series. Her son is the novelist Tom Holt.
I'll give it a miss, then not one of my genres...but l keep saying l'll give this Green dragon//hornets nest woman trilogy a go!!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you didn't enjoy it. Maybe it's could be classed as chick lit...I love her stuff. As you say, the plots are sometimes a bit thin -- in one she had the villain dash out into the street and get hit with a bus! But what I like about Hazel Holt's books are the characters. I have a friend whose mother is exactly like Rosemary's mother. And I like the cosy little bits of stuff about her cats and dogs and daily life. Anyway I find her books soothing. But you're probably right, and I can't imagine the English Robin sitting still long enough to read one! But hey -- different strokes, right?
ReplyDeleteCanadian Chickadee