Murder at Hawthorn Cottage, by Betty Rowlands: book review

The people who know me probably know what a simple soul I am. I love the idea of living a sheltered life. I don’t like nastiness or unpleasantness of any kind. I cover my ears when there’s anything distressing on the news, and I don’t have a strong enough stomach to watch Casualty.

It follows, therefore, that I love a cosy mystery, and Murder at Hawthorn Cottage, by Betty Rowlands, certainly fitted that bill. I’d never heard of the book, nor the author, and I picked it because I liked the cover. (I’m shallow like that.) And off I went. 

In truth, I found it a slow start. Crime writer Melissa Craig has just moved into a Cotswold village and for the first 20% or so of the book, not a lot happens. Apart from repeated agitated phone calls from a man begging a woman to meet him, the author spends a lot of time introducing Melissa, the village, her next-door neighbour and the vicar, covering her trials and tribulations with the removal men and so on.

If it hadn’t been for those mysterious phone calls, so obviously the hook for the plot, I probably wouldn’t have bothered reading on, but I hung in there, if only to see if there was a reason why Melissa didn’t dial 1471 and call the man back to tell him it was a wrong number. I’m glad I did keep going, though, because with the discovery of a woman’s body in the woods, the pace picked up. 

You can never say too much about the plot of a crime novel for fear of spoilers, so I shall keep this bit brief. Melissa and her partner in crime, local journalist Bruce, find their way through murders and drugs, not to mention a bit of porn, as the story runs in parallel with the plot of Melissa’s latest book. 

I get frustrated by amateur crime, because there’s almost always a point where the sleuth should turn the matter in to the police and doesn’t. So it was here, but at least Rowlands had a nod towards that as Melissa got a ticking off from the investigating officer for it. And there were some lovely touches in the characterisation which lifted the whole thing slightly above the run-of-the-mill and made up for that slow start, so I certainly will consider reading more in this series.  

The reason Melissa didn’t call 1471, by the way, wasn’t obvious until much later. Although the book was released this year, it’s a rerelease and was originally published way back in 1990 — hence the lack of computers, mobile phones and so on. It didn’t undermine my enjoyment of the book in any way, but I think I’d have liked some clue a little earlier on.