Join Flora Steele – bookshop owner, bicycle-rider, daydreamer and amateur detective – in her quest to solve a brand-new murder mystery!
Cornwall, 1956: When Flora Steele sets off for a peaceful vacation with crime writer Jack Carrington in his little red Austin, the last thing she expects to find is a body at their pretty rental cottage!
Shocked by the discovery, inquisitive Flora joins forces with handsome Jack to find out how the poor man came to such an untimely end in the overgrown orchard of Primrose Cottage. They discover Roger Gifford was a man with plenty of friends and the villagers seem devastated by his sudden death…
So why was he murdered? And who has blood on their hands – his estranged wife Beatrice, his wayward younger brother Lionel, or the suspicious newcomer Mercy Dearlove?
The baffling case gets even more complicated when a second man is found dead and a set of puzzling clues lead them to an intriguing wartime mystery connected to Jack’s estranged father.
As old secrets emerge and Jack receives an unsettling letter, it seems the crime writer is in danger of a fate befitting his fictional characters. Will Flora be able to crack the case and save Jack? Or will this be one murder too many for Flora Steele?
I'm delighted to be part of the Murder at Primrose Cottage Books On Tour, many thanks to Merryn Allingham, Sarah Hardy and Bookouture for inviting me and for my advance digital copy of the novel, received through Netgalley.
Murder at Primrose Cottage is the third book in Merryn Allingham's delightful Flora Steele Mystery series and it sees a change of scene for Flora as she and her partner in solving crime, Jack Carrington leave Abbeymead and her bookshop, the All's Well and head to Cornwall. Jack is contracted to write a book and needs to research the area and Flora accompanies him to help out and to have a much needed break following the emotional upheaval she has experienced over the last few years. Any readers joining the series at this point are quickly brought up to speed with the key points from Flora and Jack's past and so the novel can be read as a standalone – however, I do think it's more rewarding to read the novels in order, if possible.
This is a mystery series, of course and so it's not unexpected when Flora stumbles upon the body of their Cornish landlord, Roger Gifford on their first morning in Primrose Cottage, and after her initial shock at discovering the murdered man, Flora soon has plenty of theories as to who killed him and why. The village of Treleggan is obligingly full of rumours and suppositions and with the local police apparently assuming the murderer was a random mugger, it's left to an enthusiastic Flora and a rather more circumspect Jack to investigate.
I tend to be drawn to the darker end of crime fiction and yet remain totally captivated by this cosy mystery series. This is due, in no small part to the two main characters who complement one another perfectly. Flora is the more headstrong but there are moments here where it becomes clear that her recent frightening encounters make her more anxious than she perhaps would have been in the past. Jack is understandably concerned for her safety but one of the things I most love about his character is that although he wants to protect her, he never becomes overbearing or demands that she has to fall in with his wishes. It's often quite the contrary and he ends up accepting that her hunches may well be leading somewhere – even so, they are both wrong-footed at times as they try to figure out the motive that will reveal who the murderer is. I didn't work out who the killer was this time and thought the scene where their identity finally becomes known was particularly terrific; full of tense drama and emotion, I can't help thinking it signals the beginning of a change in Flora and Jack's relationship.
Change is certainly in the air throughout the book with the new setting just one example. The beautiful scenery is described so evocatively, perfectly capturing the wild essence of Cornwall in spring as the flowers start to bloom and the sense of time is further brought to life as the storyline results in the pair looking to the past for answers. Set in 1956, it's clear that this was a time of uncertainty, with people gradually starting to embrace the future yet still often bound by old beliefs and morals (without giving too much away, I absolutely loved the inclusion of a little local witchcraft...) and of course, still affected by their wartime experiences. By the end of Murder at Primrose Cottage, we are back in Abbeymead but with Jack seemingly uncertain about his future plans and more changes afoot in the village, I can't wait to find out what intriguing mysteries await this engaging pair next – and what that means for the undeniable spark that appears to be burning ever brighter between them. Murder at Primrose Cottage is a wonderful read; packed with warmth and humour but with a very real sense of danger running throughout the story, it's also a gripping mystery. I thoroughly recommend it.
Murder at Primrose Cottage is published by Bookouture and can be purchased from Amazon, where it is also available on Kindle Unlimited.
Don't miss the rest of the blog tour, details are below.
About the Author
Merryn lives in a beautiful old town in Sussex with her husband. When she’s not writing, she tries to keep fit with adult ballet classes and plenty of walking.
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