Julie Cooper, a student a St. Oswald's College, is found dead in the fens with crushed flowers in her pocket and indications that a ring had been removed from her right-hand ring finger. A crime of passion? DC Tara Thorpe and her team at the Cambridge Constabulary are on the case.
First things first -- the police want to know everything they can about Julie and have no shortage of potential suspects in her murder. A supposed BFF who copies Julie in every way -- dresses like her and engages in the same political activism as Julie -- Bella Chadwick -- who seems to be lying even as she has nothing significant to report, but does lead the team to Julie's ex boyfriend, Stuart Gilmour, who ticks a lot of boxes. And then there is, "John", the academic whom Julie was supposedly helping with a research project. Oh, and the fellow at the college, Julie's tutor, Lucien Balfour, who ticks all of DC Thorpe's boxes for being a total creeper. But the investigation is just warming up, frustration with the progress of figuring out the crime mounts, and the various members of the team are dealing with personal issues when a second death occurs. NO SPOILERS.
I do enjoy this series. I like Tara most of the time but I don't find her that believable as a character. I know she carries a torch for Blake (having read the previous 3 books in the series) and he has a lot of issues to work out before they could possibly consummate their romance. The setting as described always lends an authentic touch to the story and I relish all those details. I don't typically have a problem figuring out "whodunit" in fairly quickly when reading a mystery but I do like the slow reveal as the climax is reached. The writing is good and the pace is fast. I can't wait for the next book in the Tara Thorpe series.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the e-book ARC to read and review.
This is the fourth book in the series and I recommend it be read in order. I've read them all to date.
Genre - police procedural, cozy mystery
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