Review: First in the series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 12, 2012
Libby Sarjeant lives in a small village in Kent.  She is an actress and an artist and is directing a play by a local writer to be put on in a newly modernised oast house turned theatre in her village.  When a series of accidents at the theatre threaten the production and the author starts to say the play should not be put on Libby gets curious.  The disappearance and murder of one of the cast members makes everything much more serious and past history seems to be coming to the fore again.This is an entertaining, though relatively slow moving mystery with some interesting characters and situations.  The plot is well constructed and kept me guessing until very nearly the end of the story.  The relationships between the characters are well done and I especially liked Libby's own budding romance with Ben.  I liked Libby as a character as well as her cat, Sidney, and I thought Fran was good too.  I found the insight into the lives of the hop pickers in the mid twentieth century of interest as my aunt was also one of the many hop pickers during the nineteen forties.If you like your crime stories without too much on the page violence then give this series a try.  If you enjoy authors such as Hazel Holt, Veronica Heley and Rebecca Tope then you may enjoy Lesley Cookman.