Murder at the Mill

Author/Guide: MB Shaw

Why a Booktrail?

2017: A cosy Christmas is not going to be happy for everyone!

ISBN: 978-1409171232
Genre: Cosy crime

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What you need to know before your trail

Iris is a painter with marriage troubles, who escapes to her little cottage in Hazelford in Hampshire. She’s asked by her neighbour Adriane Wetherby if she wouldn’t mind painting her novelist husband Dominic so she agrees. A nice commission and something to do is going to help during these dark days.
The Wetherby’s however prove to be much more interesting than thought and he’s too much of a character to get to know on a painting! At a Christmas party, the whole village is there and it’s a festive feast for finding out more.
Soon, though there’s something very wrong. Dominic is discovered drowned. Now Iris wants to find out more and dig further into this mystery, family and little village. When it turns out to be murder, the mystery deepens further….as do the high stakes

Locations

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Travel Guide

Hampshire – “Hazelford”

Well, if Hazelford was real, what a village it would be! Imagine going to the Wetherby’s party!

Widely regarded as the prettiest village in Hampshire, Hazelford had been used as the setting for numerous Jane Austen adaptations and ITV period dramas”

“On a clear day, you would make out the spires of Winchester Cathedral”

Mill Cottage (if the cover is anything to go by,looks very nice and cosy) apart from what happens there of course.

Oxford

Just over the Magadalen Bridge, the St Hilda’s College “Is not the most beautiful of Oxford’s colleges” but it is at the centre of a connection to Dominic. His life in this university city brings up a whole host of questions…

Edinburgh

The city where Graham lives in the novel. Not the main setting of the book but there’s the sense of the city and Graham as a result. A few streets mentioned and the fact he likes the cafe right behind the High Court that he often goes to.

Booktrailer Review

Susan: @thebooktrailer

Now this is my kind of Christmas read – not too cheesy, not too overly christmassy and some good old fashioned murder amidst the tinsel. That might sound wrong said in the wrong context of course, but in a book review this means good stuff!

Iris is a great character and there’s a lot more depth to her than you first think – going through a marriage breakup, having to solve a murder, living away in a village and then finding out all is not as it seems with her new neighbours. It’s ironic that since she’s painted the murdered man, her own star starts to shine in ways she never would have expected and this makes for interesting reading!

There’s a lot to this novel – not just your cosy crime mystery but one where Russians, wayward rural families, secrets in the attic and more scandal than you can shake a stick at.

A good bit of mystery in the vein of Agatha Raison for the Christmas season and part of a new series from the lovely Tilly Bagshawe in her new writing hat!