A Body at Lavender Cottage
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley November 23, 2022
Author Dee MacDonald
Distributor: Netgalley
ISBN: 9781803148526
Publisher: Bookouture
Release Date: November 2022
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Book Six in the Kate Palmer mystery series A Body at Lavender Cottage is a stand-alone read, as well as a continuation of a lovely cozy murder collection from Dee MacDonald.
Kate Palmer seems attracted to dead bodies rather than cups of coffee, but even to her, finding a body in her back yard is something of a shock. The biggest problem with this dead body is that her husband Woody, a retired policeman, knows who it is and is equally surprised to find Frank Ford dead, let alone in their yard.
It seems Frank was due out of prison where he had been serving 20 years for the murder of his wife, a murder Woody never really though he committed. Frank had sent Woody a letter saying he would like to meet him and have a chat when he came to Cornwall.
In the eyes of the Police, this sees Woody as the prime suspect, which truly upsets Kate, as she knows Woody would never have done this, but it is a real mystery as to who would have known Frank was coming out of prison and visiting Cornwall.
The Police seem to be having little luck finding anything that indicates who is the killer or what happened. As Frank’s family are in the area, holidaying at the local Caravan Park, a most unlikely group of Campers, they appear to be the prime suspects, or at least so Kate believes.
But when another body, that of Sid, Frank’s brother in law, is found on the cliffs, also murdered, Kate is convinced one of Frank’s children was most likely to have committed murder. But which one did it, or did any one of them, and why?
A third Body is discovered which simply adds to the mystery and while it does not seem to tie in with the other two murders, perhaps it does, but once again, how?
Kate, in her usual Miss Marple style, sets out determined to prove Woody is innocent and in doing so overhears a random conversation that almost gets her killed.
The Body at Lavender Cottage is the perfect cozy mystery murder with a sufficiently complex plot, which while every amateur armchair detective may have thought they worked out ‘who dun it’, before the last page, most probably have not. Perfect for cozy afternoon in.