The fifth of this series that I have read, and I managed to read them in order of publication so wasn't thrown by elements that continue from other books, such as Thea's friendship with Drew Slocombe, the protagonist of another of the author's series, who would be more than a friend if it wasn't for his increasingly ill wife. In the previous of these that I read, Thea cleared Drew of murder and his wife was worsening, with a brain scan booked. It seems that in the intervening book she lapsed into a coma and is now in hospital with Drew trying to come to terms with the idea that she will not recover.

Thea is housesitting in the picturesque village of Snowshill, home of an iconic National Trust house, which unfortunately she (and thus the reader) does not get a chance to explore. All too soon, she is embroiled in another murder, a distressing one involving a child. I did wonder, when he first appeared tormenting animals and damaging plants, whether he would be the victim and so it proves. Thea is convinced that the single mother, Gudrun, is not responsible and sets out on a crusade to exonerate her. Meanwhile, there is a cast of rather mysterious characters including the ditsy owner, owner's ex-husband and their two adopted children, plus another single mother and her daughter who live opposite and a slightly sinister next door neighbour. And a horsey woman whom Thea meets just before she discovers the boy's body.

Another thread is the ongoing developments with Drew and his wife, and the antipathy of his business partner Maggs to Thea, whom she views as a cross between a gold digger and a siren.

The detective in this book is a woman, surname Gladwin, who apparently appeared in one or two earlier volumes, though not the ones I've read (which were books 1, 2, 4 and 8). Luckily she and Thea get on well, to the point where Gladwin takes Thea into her confidence a bit too much.

There is a good build up of red herrings and mysteries about the various minor characters which kept me guessing, not usually correctly. I do think the ending misses a trick though. Without giving too much away, a lot more tension could have been developed as Thea doesn't work out who the murderer is - a minor character discloses that, and although Thea is locked in with the murderer, she isn't involved in the bust up at the end. Personally, rather than have one of the family members go beserk and wreck the place, an ending where Thea blurted out the truth in her usual blunt way, then had to use the ornaments to throw at the murderer and fend the person off till rescue could arrive would have worked much better for me. ( )