Blog Tour #BookReview ~ Daggers at the Country Fair (Martha Miller Mysteries) by @catherinecoles @rararesources #CosyMurderMystery @BoldwoodBooks #TuesdayBookBlog

It’s my pleasure to share my review for Catherine Coles’ newly released book, Daggers at the Country Fair, courtesy of Rachel’s Random Resources.

My Thoughts

The second in the Martha Miller Mystery series sees Martha’s fame spreading, after solving a murder in her village a couple of months earlier, with an invitation to open the Country Fair in the neighbouring village of Winteringham. Despite being slightly baffled as to why she had been selected as guest of honour, Martha accepted and travelled to the village with her sister, Ruby and her friend, the handsome vicar, Luke Walker. The vicar of Winteringham was an old friend of Luke’s and he was glad of the opportunity to visit.

Usually, the local gentry were asked to open village events. I was just a housewife from a small village. Who was I to open an event half the country would travel to attend.

All was going well at the fair until Martha, alerted by her dog that something was amiss, discovered a body behind the tea tent. The victim, Helen, was the niece of Luke’s friend. Martha didn’t need too much persuading before they began to investigate. There are multiple suspects – Helen was a popular girl with the male population of the village – and several red herrings, which did keep me guessing. It also begs the question how well does one know those classed as friends, and to what lengths people would go to for something they wanted desperately.

This series is set just after WWII so attitudes and societal issues of the period need to be taken into consideration. There’s a definite spark between Luke and Martha but Martha is an abandoned wife and even if she was divorced a relationship between the two of them wouldn’t be tolerated by the church.

Luke looked at me in a way I found disconcerting. It was a strange sort of mix between the way a parent looks fondly at a child, and a sad resignation. I wasn’t nearly brave enough to ask him why he looked at me that way — that would be a conversation that would not only stray towards inappropriate, but the answer was likely to be one I didn’t want to hear.

I enjoyed the story, although perhaps not quite as much as book one, and wasn’t expecting it to end as it did. The main characters are engaging and well fleshed out. Martha has really come out of her shell since she was forced by previous events to interact with her neighbours. With rumours flying around the village about her husband and where he might be, she had kept very much to herself. I’m intrigued to find out how the Martha/Luke/Stan storyline will be resolved.

Winteringham Village 1947

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!

Let the investigation commence!

Purchase Link – https://amzn.to/39FO4RF

Catherine Coles writes bestselling cosy mysteries set in the English countryside. Her extremely popular Tommy & Evelyn Christie series is based in North Yorkshire in the 1920’s and Catherine herself lives in Hull with her family and two spoiled dogs.

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