A portrait painter turns amateur
sleuth when a corpse is discovered on Christmas Day in an idyllic English town.
M.B. Shaw is the pen name of British writer Tilly Bagshawe, who has written several contemporary romance novels (Scandalous), as well as thrillers for
the literary estate of Sidney Sheldon (Sidney Sheldon's The Tides of Memory). Murder at theMill is the first installment of her smart, lively mystery series;
in it Shaw probes the secrets of an idyllic Hampshire village.
The book opens in December. Iris
Grey--a 41-year-old portrait painter--has fled her home in Clapham and her
estranged husband, Ian McBride, a once successful playwright. After several
years of failing to conceive a child via in vitro fertilization, the couple--heartsick
and broke--has split up. Iris had hoped that by settling in to Mill Cottage in
Hazelford ("Alone. Like a mad cat lady, only without the cats") she
would "paint and hide and lick her wounds." Shortly after her
arrival, however, she's commissioned to paint a portrait of resident Dominic
Wetherby, a charismatic and famous crime writer. During the Wetherbys' posh
Christmas party, a corpse is discovered in the river. The shock leaves the
family, townsfolk, gossipmongers and the paparazzi reeling. Speculations
abound. Was the death an accident--or murder?
Shaw has created a wise and winning
sleuth in Iris. Her keen, observational skills honed from her artistic
sensibility allow her to detect subtle nuances of human emotion and motivation.
This, along with an intricate, cozy plot--and fully realized characters
embroiled in a dynamic whodunit and why--will keep readers guessing, and eager
for future installments.
Murder at the Mill: The Iris Grey Mysteries (Book One) by M.B. Shaw
Minotaur Books, $27.99, Hardcover, 9781250189295, 400 pages
Publication Date: December 4, 2018
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NOTE:
This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To
read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (January 15, 2019), link HERE