Toll For the Dead by MS Morris

Toll For the Dead by MS Morris
Publisher: Landmark Media
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Fern

A solemn funeral. A bitter schism. A brutal murder.

When the much-loved lord of the manor, Henry Burton, passes away, the villagers of Hambledon-on-Thames gather to pay their respects at his funeral. But the day is marred when the churchwarden is found brutally battered to death in the north transept of the church.

Called to investigate, Detective Inspector Bridget Hart soon unearths a tangled web of old grudges and simmering feuds beneath the tranquil idyll of this sleepy South Oxfordshire village.

Bridget and her team must look beyond the thatched cottages and rose-covered houses to uncover the truth and prevent another death.

Almost every villager in the small township of Hambledon-On-Thames have gathered for the funeral of the old squire. After the service, when the bell-ringers are doing their toll for the dead, the local churchwarden is brutally murdered as she cleans up after the service goers. Bridget and her team are called in to investigate – only to find this case has a number of complications.

I have found this to be an excellent addition to an enjoyable series. The ending really left me feeling as if the author plans to leave this series here. The final chapter or two really seemed to me to tie up a number of the more longer-running story arcs and leave this in a good place.

While this might be the final book in the series – I still feel that the story, and the murder plot in particular, really was well encapsulated in this book. While the team and a lot of the history between them working together has a longer reach than just this book I felt the author explained everything really well and there was a good flow to the story that means I do think readers should feel comfortable if they pick this book up having had no exposure to any of the previous stories.

I also enjoyed the fact this was a multi-layered plot and held my attention throughout the book. There were some interesting secondary characters and quite a few different wheels turning so I found myself invested and interested throughout the story.

For a solidly written British police procedural style of mystery this is an excellent author and a book I can definitely recommend.