Caroline is running, escaping her abusive husband and looking for a place to finish her book, Riverbank Cottage seems ideal despite the murders. When she gets there she can’t concentrate on her writing, her neighbours are only too happy to talk to her about the murders and she ends up embroiled in the task of looking for the killer.

A basic enough premise but the proof of the pudding is in the writing. According to Wright’s biography on Alfie Dog Fiction she’s had over 100 stories published in women’s magazines and it shows, both in the writing and the conclusion. I won’t do spoilers and give you the conclusion but if you think of the predominant conclusions in women’s magazines you’ll understand. Although, I’m being a little disingenuous here as the murder is slightly different and if your focus is the murder then you’ll be pleased.

I didn’t get it. I spent the entire book wondering who was the murderer, whether it would be one of the suspects or someone out of left field and I was both totally wrong and right at the same time. I never guessed the actual person but I did hedge my bets and say it had to be either one of the main suspects or someone out of left field…see! I said I was right, it was one of those.

This is set in a little town where everyone knows everyone (or almost everyone) and I enjoyed the byplays, the character assassinations and machinations that every small town has. I saw bits of myself or other people I knew somewhere in these pages.

Once I finally started reading I struggled to put it down and gave up trying so ended up reading it in two separate sessions on the one day. It was satisfying to actually read a book in a day as I used to but also the book was well concluded, the ends were wrapped up nicely but with no room for a sequel.

This is where you can buy it, I receive nothing for your purchase except satisfaction at having been party to it.

One of the problems this book highlights is the lack of budget small publishers have. Alfie Dog Fiction is one of these small publishers and while it’s great as we get lots of new and potentially great authors it’s not so great for people who have trouble with typos. I do my best for them and pass back the problems I see but I do bear in mind I’m receiving no payment for this except for being given the book to read and review. This is one of the better ones and only a couple of problems jumped out at me. I plan on writing more about small publishers in particular in the future as I see them as a valuable addition to the publishing stable.