Adrian Magson is the author of 27 crime and spy thrillers. 'Death at the Old Asylum', the 8th title in the Inspector Lucas Rocco series set in 1960s France, currently in ebook, comes out in paperback on the 14th March via Canelo Books.
More information: https://www.adrianmagson.com/
If you like your mystery reading dotted with dubious characters in old country mansions in the Cotswolds, then celebrity TV chef, Rosemary Shrager’s debut novel produces the ideal mix.
Amateur sleuth, Prudence Bulstrode (also a celebrity TV chef), is called in to Farleigh Manor to produce a weekend shooting party’s catering after the original chef and TV celeb hired for the job, Deirdre Shaw, drops dead over the rhubarb patch in unexplained circumstances.
Farleigh Manor already has a ‘reputation’ following a supposed murder many years ago. So what’s another death between uncaring guests?
And that’s what Rosemary finds herself landed with: a bevvy of graceless, superficial and ungrateful rich types whose sole interest is bickering, drinking, emoting – in between boasting of blasting birds out of the sky to ‘eat what we kill’.
Helped by her wayward young granddaughter, Suki, press-ganged into the job to keep her out of trouble, Prudence steers a wobbly course between the guests and staff while overseeing Suki, all the while becoming suspicious about the manner of Deirdre’s death.
Liberally sprinkled with ingredients, menus, emotional outbursts, rivalries and jealousies (not all in the kitchen) this tale produces lots of atmosphere against a backdrop of old buildings, elegant gardens and olde English settings.
Spiced with humour, the engaging pair of sleuths (scatter-brained Suki is not as daft as she likes to pretend), bring this classic tale of modern murder and hot-house tension to a satisfactory conclusion.
