Chapter length is just right for my commute, especially as many of the chapters are subdivided which allows plenty of places for a break in the story without losing continuity, yet does tend to tempt you to read "just one more". The narrator was great, no silly whiney voices for different characters but you could tell the difference when someone else spoke. Then there were other little things like how both Belinda and Harry go poking around even in the police’s presence, or Harry’s being at a loss for explanations when a person is hurt because he’s only dealt with dead bodies—I mean he was a police detective not a coroner (also if this last instance was meant to be humorous, it didn’t really come across as that). Belinda finds the cause of her latest problem dead which is how she gets involved in solving the crime. I feel there's some good potential between the pair and look forward to seeing what they get up to next.

Hillary and her team interview possible witnesses, friends, acquaintances and relatives of Malcolm Dale. Janine is not impressed with having Hillary as her 'boss' and her relationship with Mel causes problems for everyone. Clear diction but considering so many make characters the narrators voice seemed almost the same for the narration plus the female characters and also the male ones. Marcus too lives at Challham Castle (and comes up with said hare-brained schemes), as does their father who seems absent from the scene though where or why is not explained. She’s such a good detective with an inbuilt instinct for sniffing out truth and lies and never tries to label a suspect guilty unless she has the solid evidence.

The plot is compulsive with some unexpected twists and turns and a very clever ending and moves the characters' personal lives forward in different ways. It didn’t help that the investigation into the murder of the politician was quite boring, although Hillary’s private investigation was a bit more interesting. But it was the other case that Hillary was working on that went belly up, with several bodies at the site and a confusing outcome that didn't feel right to Hillary. When a suspicious death occurs there she is pulled into solving the mystery, along with retired police detective Harry Powell, a newcomer to the village.

Just as she's about to make a breakthrough, everything is turned upside down by a fatal development in anothercase she is working on . I enjoy Faith Martin's books immensely and am reading through them as quickly as she is producing them. Despite the title, the murder of a politician at home is not the main plot, though it still has to be investigated by the team and resolved. Against the backdrop of springtime in Provence, a series of malicious poison-pen letters against her best friend Grace leads ex-pat Maggie Newberry to a remote rural village in France—and into a vortex of revenge, spite…and murder.Also the dognappers marking houses where they planned to strike didn’t seem a mystery at all—fairly clear from the start.