Peg Cochran throws you right into the mystery with a bang-up first chapter. There is a knock on the door and a woman, disheveled and stunned, claims someone is trying to kill her. She is taken back the next morning to her family home, and it is apparent that her Sister is dead and has been for several days. The writing is smooth and continuous allowing us to catch up with the back history of Monica and Greg. They are living in a small cottage owned by Monica until they build their own House and start a family.
The background is scrumptious. We have a baking area and a store which means lot of recipes and food...the air is filled with all those goodies. I love anything with cranberries so there is no problem with that. The atmosphere is icy and snowy, with winter days and a shivery, continuous, mystery. Red herrings are folded into the story as neatly as a recipe. In fact, I highly recommend you get a cup of tea and a muffin and read this on an evening you can pretend you are next to a roaring fire. This book has everything...likeable characters, mystery and great food.
Blurb:
On a night of heavy snow and bitter cold, newlyweds Monica and Greg are
comfortably nestled before a warm fire when they’re roused by a
late-night knock at the door. Surprised to find a troubled and confused
woman on the doorstep, Monica is even more shocked when the woman
vacantly utters that someone is trying to kill her. Sensing distress but
not danger, Monica decides to help this mysterious woman, but her
clouded recollections yield little—until she dredges up memories of her
sister and a nearby home, where they find the woman’s sister, dead.
Unable
to deny her own curiosity or the woman’s request for help, Monica
begins digging into the suspicious death, only to discover a murky
family history of valuable land, a bullying brother, an unscrupulous
real estate developer, and endless rumors of good deeds met with bad
blood. And when the trail of the killer begins to turn cold, Monica
realizes that while the family wants to bury their sister, someone is
out to bury the clues—and if Monica’s not careful, to bury her as well .
. .
Includes tasty recipes!
This is a little different from the Inspector Littlejohn series that I love. It is an earlier book of Bellairs, first published under the name Turmoil in Zion, 1943. However, it still has the flair toward unusual names and the tendency to allow us to peek into English village life during the war years. Bellairs will always be one of my favorite Writers from the period because of his characters and the satire he sprinkles generously throughout the plot.
Start with another Bellairs though if this is your first read with the Author. I found the Story enjoyable but different from his later work. Still, a good "who dunnit" and much better than many of today's mysteries which is why I enjoy Bellairs. This Mystery is worth having in your collection as one of his stand-alone works.
Blurb:
On a joyous afternoon filled with tea and cake, something strange
happens at Zion Chapel’s Anniversary Tea Party. The infamous Alderman
Harbuttle is behaving uncharacteristically playful – laughing with the
assembly, singing rhymes, and leading people in a rousing game of
Follow-My-Leader throughout the chapel’s winding halls.
But his
jubilee is cut short when the revellers find the Alderman’s murdered
body in the dark recesses of the chapel, a bread knife buried to the
hilt in his chest.
Superintendent Nankivell of the local police
force takes up the case, and his investigation quickly stirs up sinister
secrets lurking within the walls of Zion Chapel. His suspect list soon
proves massive, as he learns there are many people who would be happier
without the sanctimonious Alderman Harbuttle around…
