Murder In The Meadow by Faith Martin
Publisher: Joffe Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by FernWayne Sutton is found dead by a stream in a beautiful meadow. His head has been bashed in and a red paper heart left on his body. The handsome young artist had a reputation as a ladies’ man.
DI Hillary Greene discovers that many wealthy married women were buying his paintings and taking ‘private’ art lesson from him. It appears that several of them might have wanted him dead.
Hillary also has a new detective sergeant, Gemma Fordham. Seemingly efficient and pleasant, she harbours a secret agenda.
Can Hillary get to the bottom of a complex case involving jealousy, love, and cold-blooded murder?
When two schoolboys find a dead artist in a nearby meadow DI Hillary Greene and her team are called in to investigate. All too soon they have more suspects than they can handle – cal DI Greene work out what’s really going on?
I’ve been really enjoying this British police procedural series based around Oxford. Greene is a wonderfully different character, a middle-aged woman, secure in her career and with plenty of brains and intuition. I love how she’s smart and competent without being omniscient or unrepeatable. I also enjoy how the author has managed to switch things up a bit by over the last few books having two of Greenes team move on – one through a transfer due to marriage and one through promotion. This realistically and easily opened the doors for two new team members to arrive and become strong secondary characters.
With enough interpersonal intrigue to keep me turning pages, the fact the murder mystery was also well plotted and set at a good pace was just icing on the cake.
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