Monday, November 7, 2022

Daggers at the Country Fair

Title: Daggers at the Country Fair
Author: Catherine Coles
Published: September 26, 2022 by Boldwood Books
Format: Kindle, 212 pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Martha Miller Mysteries #2

First Sentence: The bus trundled along the village lanes towards its destination.

Blurb: As a thank you for her previous brilliant crime solving, amateur sleuth, Martha Miller is guest of honour at the Winteringham Country Fair. However, this time she is looking forward to simply judging dog shows and eating cream teas rather than apprehending a killer!

And Martha is just beginning to enjoy spending quality time with Vicar Luke Walker away from the prying eyes and gossips of her own village, when disaster strikes, and the local teenage femme fatale is found stabbed to death behind the tea tent by Martha’s trusted red setter Lizzie!

But who would want to kill such a young girl and why? Someone in the village has secrets to hide and it seems Martha and Luke have another case to solve! (GoodReads)

My Opinion: Ruth? Lizzie? Which is the sister and which is the dog? Good thinking on the author’s part to put a long character list at the beginning of the book for those of us who tend to mix people, and animals, up.

Slow through the first three-quarters of the book with no spark, humor, or interesting side notes. It isn’t until the end of the book that the who-done-it starts to pique attention -- a little too late since the culprit could have only been two people, and eventually, it occurred to you that one had no motive.

I enjoyed the first book in the series, Poison at the Village Show, but this second book had me questioning if I care what is in store for Martha Miller and Vicar Luke Walker from Westleham.

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