Blog Tour
for
AN ENGLISH GARDEN MURDER
Book: An English Garden Murder
Series: Julia Bird (Book 1)
Publication Day: 05 May 2022
Meet Julia Bird: recently single, reluctantly retired, and…
an amateur sleuth?
Julia Bird has left London for a fresh start in a picturesque Cotswolds
village, and the rustic charm and cosy fireplaces of her little cottage are
everything she’d hoped for. But when she tears down the old garden shed to make
way for a chicken coop, she unearths much more than she’d bargained for… the
body of a young woman, apparently buried for decades, thrusting Julia into a
baffling mystery.
With only one copper on the case in Berrywick, Julia decides to solve the who
and whodunnit herself, taking her wayward puppy Jake along for the
ride. And so begins a whirlwind tour of the village – from the dotty
90-year-old to the delightful doctor and the village gardener, it seems
everyone has something to hide.
Soon, Julia is convinced she has discovered the killer’s identity, until Jake,
a true Labrador, finds a new love of the local lake’s waterfowl and instead
ends up catching her chief suspect… drowned. Back at square one, with potential
culprits galore, Julia – newly nicknamed the Grim Reaper – despairs at ever solving
the murders.
But as Julia ruffles feathers village-wide, the clock is ticking. There is
someone in the village who has killed twice already. Will they be prepared to
make it third time lucky to keep their secret safe?
This totally addictive page-turning cozy mystery is perfect for fans of M.C.
Beaton, Faith Martin and Betty Rowlands.
Purchase
Amazon: https://geni.us/B09SQ8CD7Jsocial
UK Audio: zpr.io/6WBwQ4rZUzdE
US Audio : zpr.io/6PaCiZHfPWqL
When recently divorced retiree Julia Bird restarts her life in bucolic Berrywick, the last thing she expects is a village where dead bodies begin appearing within days of her arrival. Even worse, Julia’s the one that keeps stumbling upon them!
I enjoyed getting to know Julia. Her life has taken some unexpected turns but equipped with her intrinsic no-nonsense attitude, Julia is making concerted efforts to create a new life for herself. She’s already been claimed by Jake, an exuberant puppy who failed his exam to become a seeing-eye dog – too many birds to chase, you know. She’s joined the book club and has been roped into doing a few shifts at the charity shop. The trouble is, someone is killing these people and evidence points to it being a local. Some people she’s met may be quirky, but could they also be the killer?
The story is paced well, the plot works, and Julia, our protagonist is great. She’s straightforward and down to earth - such a refreshing quality for a fictional character these days. Even with multiple murders, Katie Gayle have created a village I would love to live in and with characters I would love to know.
Katie Gayle is the writing partnership of best-selling South African writers, Kate Sidley and Gail Schimmel. Kate and Gail have, between them, written over ten books of various genres, but with Katie Gayle, they both make their debut in the cosy mystery genre. Both Gail and Kate live in Johannesburg, with husbands, children, dogs and cats. Unlike their sleuth Epiphany Bloom, neither of them have ever stolen a cat from the vet.
