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Death at the Village Christmas Fair by Debbie Young #Review #CotswoldCuriosityShopMysteriesBook3 #PublicationDay

  I am delighted to feature this cozy crime novel, Death at the Village Christmas Fair  by Debbie Young . It is published today by Boldwood Books on August 16th.   It’s been a busy year for Alice Carroll, with her Curiosity Shop opening for business, and not one but two murders shaking things up in her quaint Cotswold village. She’s looking forward to her first countryside Christmas, complete with traditional Christmas Fair and Santa Run. But her hopes for innocent festive fun are thwarted when one of the Santa Runners steals something from her mum's knitting stall. His festive outfit makes him hard to spot, until he's found fatally injured outside the village hall with the stolen item. Despite what the police say, Alice suspects there's more to his murder than meets the eye. She's determined to solve the mystery - including why, once more, a stranger thought something from her Curiosity Shop was worth killing for. With the help of her charming neighbour Rob...

The Perfect Gift by Emma Hannigan

    The Perfect Gift is ideal summer reading. It is light, romantic and heartwarming. Set in Ireland, the story has two strands. Roisin, who was adopted at birth, receives a letter on her thirtieth birthday from her birth mother. All Roisin knows is that her birth mother died soon after her birth but she has received a birthday card message from her every year. She is at a crossroads in her life with a threat to her livelihood at 'Nourriture', the foodie shop she has established. Back from France where her relationship with Jacques has ended, she has a lot to consider. Her family, though close, have their own secrets and problems to unravel.  Meanwhile, Nell, an elderly inhabitant, who lives at the local lighthouse, has kept herself apart from the village. One day, she finds a young girl hiding in her boiler house which leads her to reassess her feelings about her own daughter.

     The characters draw you in as their lives interweave.  Mother and daughter relationships come under the microscope but also they have wider family matters to address. Emma Hannigan creates a picture of a warm community where the pace of life is slower and everyone knows each other. My only quibbles would be that sometimes the detail was too much and also the turn round of Mouse from a young runaway who could not read to the well adjusted member of the community who made such rapid progress at reading and even learnt to drive all within a few months stretched credulity a little. 

In short: a heartwarming read- perfect escapism

Thanks to the publishers at Headline for a copy of the book
    

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