Review: A Refreshingly Good Read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 22, 2013
This book was offered for an affordable price as a first in the series, but it was a refreshingly good read.  There is a "play within a play" motif because Libby Sarjeant is a volunteer director of  village amateur actors.  The play they will be performing is written by a resident of the village, centering around his family and an unsolved murder in 1943.  Although most of the action occurs in the present, there are inserts of what happened to the family members in the past.  Libby Sarjeant is definitely a wonderful character because if, like me, you are sick of perfectly beautiful, proportioned, smart and sexy heroines, Libby is none of that.  She is in her mid-50s, overweight, with frizzy hair and clad in hippie dress (like a  cape, probably covered with cat hair, and longish dresses that don't seem to match the scarves hiding the creases in her neck).  To me, it is more interesting to have a heroine who looks and thinks like I do!  Besides solving a murder or two, Libby is also challenged with the possibility of a romance although he seems to be playing games with her heart.  Here is a memorable quote from Libby who is fighting her jealousy of another woman that her romantic interest has brought into the mixture:  "Ever since Ben had walked into the pub that evening two weeks ago, she had reverted to her eighteen-year-old self, plagued with sexual jealousy and insecurity, even, she thought in disgust, in the face of bloody murder."  A woman aware of her faults...I love her!  I'm so glad there are other books in the series for future enjoyment.