Mitchell & Markby 9

Ann Granger is definitely one of the best out there that pens English village cozies. This book was extremely good! One of Meredith's old friends finds herself a victim of a number of attempts on her life. She can't figure out why her when it's her husband who riles up the animal rights activists. There are some wonderful secondary characters in this book too. Old Bodicote with his pet goat Jasper, Libby the village mail deliverer, and numerous others. That is what I usually enjoy the most about these books. Yes, the mysteries are intelligent and not easily figured out; yes, Meredith and Alan are wonderful sleuths and their personal relationship helps holds these books together, but it's always the secondary characters that make my enjoyment of the book more complete. I cannot wait to read the next book in this wonderful series. ( )

Kirkus Reviews Brilliant, cranky scientist Liam Caswell and his wife Sally have moved to Oxfordshire from London, Their tiny house in the village of Castle Darcy abuts that of elderly eccentric Bodicote, who keeps goats and is far from neighborly. Not far away, however, lives Sally's longtime friend Meredith Mitchell, now on leave from her London Foreign Office job (A Candle fora Corpse, 1996, etc.). Meredith, hearing rumors in the village of something amiss at her friend's cottage, arrives there to find Sally in shock but uninjured after the explosion of a letter bomb in the morning mail. Superintendent Alan Markby, Meredith's part-time lover, is put in charge of the case, which appears to be the work of animal-rights advocates opposed to Caswell's research--the basis of the book on which he's interminably working at home. There is a local animal-welfare group headed by Yvonne Goodhusband and her unkempt son Tristan, but Markby's investigation is stymied until Bodicote is found dead in his yard, seemingly by accident, and Sally, with Meredith's timely intervention, survives an attempt on her life. Unimaginative police work in this hodge-podge of a story--burdened with an excess of goat lore, wooden dialogue, daft but dull characters, and scarcely a glimmer of suspense. A letdown from the best of the author's previous outings.
(Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 1997) ( )