A Bitter Feast by Deborah Crombie

A BITTER FEAST by Deborah Crombie is the latest (#18) in the Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Scotland Yard detective series by this best-selling author.  There are references to past adventures and a familiar cast of characters, but this could be read as a stand-alone mystery, too.  The story takes place primarily in Lower Slaughter, a small English village where Kincaid, James and their children have been invited to spend the weekend at a colleague’s parents’ estate. Thoughts of long walks and relaxing in the Cotswolds countryside have to wait when Kincaid is involved in a road accident where two people are found dead. It’s a bit of a mystery as to why they were together and what ties one, a celebrity chef, may have to the village, especially after it appears that he may have been poisoned. Crombie deftly introduces characters and provides some needed backstory in flashbacks as the mystery grows. She definitely evokes the natural beauty and British village life where everyone knows each other and where dogs are an essential feature, too. Viv Holland, chef at the local pub, and her staff are key characters and Crombie provides ample details about food preparation, making the meals sound so appealing. Give yourself a treat and enjoy A BITTER FEAST which received a starred review from Booklist.

Ellie and the Harpmaker by Hazel Prior

In ELLIE AND THE HARPMAKER author Hazel Prior uses alternating narrators - Ellie Jacobs, Exmoor Housewife and Dan Hollis, Exmoor Harpmaker – to tell a story of friendship and growth. In her mid-thirties, Ellie is out walking, mourning her father’s death, and reflecting on her life choices (“My dad once told me it’s not helpful pondering what might have been, because you can’t change that. You can only change what will be.”) She happens upon the Harp Barn and talented craftsman and nature lover Dan Hollis (whose behavior and literal interpretation of events is reminiscent of Don Tillman in Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Effect). Dan gives her a harp so that she can learn to play a musical instrument, but her controlling husband, Clive, insists that she return it. Ellie does, but she secretly starts taking lessons which furthers her own confusion and Clive’s jealousy. 

Throughout, Dan and Exmoor itself are steady poetic presences; Dan says, “The beeches cling onto their dry, coppery flakes of leaves and some of the oaks are snuggled in thick, yellow-green sweaters of moss. But all the other trees stand naked, the last grey tatters of leaves drifting about their ankles.” This debut novel is beautifully written; Ellie and Dan are appealing characters* finding their way, like the rest of us. *(here’s another Dan quote: “Luckily on my own birthday (the twenty-first of May) I am allowed to choose exactly what I want to do. And what I choose to do is nothing. Other people seldom take this option, so their birthdays are fraught with difficulty.”)  ELLIE AND THE HARPMAKER is a LibraryReads selection for August 2019.