February Online Book Club: Murder at the Village Fete by Catherine Coles

Murder at the Village Fete
by Catherine Coles

This series has the grandeur and inner workings of a large hall like Downton Abbey mixed with the small town country life of Murder, She Wrote or Father Brown.

Evelyn Christie lives in the Yorkshire countryside at Hesselham Hall during the 1920s, but she’s no coddled noblewoman. Whether helping out the servants in the kitchen or getting dirty from training her champion hunting dogs, Evelyn is ahead of her time. She’s also an occasional amateur sleuth because unfortunate incidents keep happening around her.

Murder at the Village Fete is the second volume in the series. Evelyn and her World War I veteran husband Tommy are looking forward to hosting their first village fete (festival-I looked it up), but when their local Member of Parliament turns up dead, they have to help catch the murderer before their houseguests are frightened away-or worse!

If you like 1920s English countryside mysteries with plenty of potential suspects and good puzzles to solve, you should definitely pick up the Tommy and Evelyn Christie Mystery series.

I had the pleasure of meeting Catherine Coles at the author conference we attended in Las Vegas last fall. She’s utterly charming in person, and of course I loved chatting with her because of her accent and fun English vocabulary. (I wonder if Brits say the same thing about Americans? Somehow I suspect not…) Catherine is also a fan of my favorite British TV series like Poldark, The Last Kingdom, and Downton Abbey.

There are eight books in this series and she’s starting a new cozy series set after World War 2. I hope you like them as much as I did!

Have a great month, friends!

Kelly Brakenhoff is the author of 15 books and a seasoned ASL interpreter. She splits her writing energy between two series: cozy mysteries set on a college campus and children’s books featuring Duke the Deaf Dog.

Parents, kids, and teachers love the children’s books and activity guides because they introduce ASL and the Deaf community through fun, engaging stories. And if you enjoy a smart female sleuth, want to learn more about Deaf culture, or have ever lived in a place where livestock outnumber people, the Cassandra Sato Mystery series will have you connecting the dots faster than a group project coming together the night before it’s due.

A proud mom to four adults, head of the dog-snuggling department, and grandma to a growing brood of perfectly behaved grandkids, Kelly and her husband call Nebraska home.