Murder in Langley Woods: A Completely Addictive Cozy Mystery Novel

Melissa Craig Mystery Series, Book 8

By: Betty Rowlands

Narrated by: Joan Walker

A body is found near a picture-perfect Cotswolds village...but the upstanding local residents couldn’t possibly be involved, could they?

Murder is the very last thing on Melissa Craig’s mind when one of her neighbors pops in to complain loudly about a minor local robbery. She’s far too busy thinking about her next book....

But when the evening paper lands, there is a shocking headline. A young woman’s body has been found in the nearby woods, and it seems the local robbery may offer a crucial clue. Suddenly the whole village is talking about the murder, but none of Melissa’s neighbors have come forward to say they know who the victim is.

Convinced that the police have got the wrong end of the stick, Melissa can’t resist doing some more digging. When she finds a photograph of the dead girl at her former family home, she realizes this is the clue she needs, if only she can find out who took the picture....

Melissa finds an exciting new lead and rushes to follow it. But might she be walking into a trap? Can she work out the truth before she puts herself in harm’s way?

If you love novels by Joy Ellis, Faith Martin, or Agatha Christie, you won’t be able to pause this twisty murder mystery!

This book was previously published as The Cherry Pickers.

©1998; 2019 Betty Rowlands (P)2019 Bookouture

Totally surprise ending!

I NEVER would’ve guessed who done it!!!
So interesting with some details of gypsy life and quirky characters.
Several satisfying resolutions by the end of the book.
As usual, superb narrator!

5 stars

Melissa Craig Mysteries are delightful and entertaining. The characters are well developed and the plot is always interesting. I enjoy these books and look forward to the next one.

Narrator irritating

I have listened to several in this series. Story is easy listening, but narrator's drawing out her words for many characters, and then raising the sound an octive is just too irritating to listen to any more with this narrator.

Once again “The Best one so far”

This book was excellent with something for everyone. The narrator is really good and the characters and storyline are exciting and interesting.

love the details

I love how I am drawn into the story. It is at a perfect time. I have health issues. I have know listened to all her books. I had just forgotten this one. I hope more audiobooks books come out.

Narrator is too annoying.

The narrator is not the only annoying thing, but she is the most annoying. She has a beautiful voice, though it seems a bit affected to my ear this time around, but the really unbearable thing is that she goes high pitched ALL THE TIME to indicate absolutely anything....supporting character, any emotion, humor, enquiry, whatever; Joan goes to the top of the register for ALL of it. It's ghastly. Also, her accents for practically every character who isn't Melissa (the main character) are weirdly drawn out and nasal, making practically everyone sound like they have some sort of speach defect or mental affliction.
Also, while some stories in this series are better than others, I thought this one stank. It has the usual skillful details that have made these books worth reading up till now, but my favorite character is moving away which takes a lot of the joy out of it. Plus, Melissa's "detective" skills seems more like magic to me, as she has no reason at all to suspect the things she rightly suspects over and over. I mean, seriously, she just happens to see a guy in a bar and somehow knows he's the one the police are looking for? Honestly. Plus (final complaint) what about the dog? It's like the dog just evaporated from the story and the author couldn't spare even one line to let us know what happens to him. Bleah. I gave this an overall three stars because I made it to the end, the mystery itself was actually pretty good and I did NOT suspect the culprit, and we still have a few interesting encounters, as well as a few interactions with Iris, but overall I thought this was pretty poor. I probably would have liked it a lot better had the reader not been like fingernails on a chalk board to me, though. She might not irritate you as much as she does me, so maybe you'll like it.

3

A disappointing book though the
mystery, with its twists and turns, is good. I've listened to the series here on audible but this
little caboose of a book simply ties up loose ends in the characters lives. This book is for long times fans.