Fear in the Cotswolds

Following a string of disastrous house-sitting assignments, and with troubles in her recent personal life, Thea Osborne is understandably apprehensive about her latest commission: a month in an isolated farmhouse with only an assortment of animals, including her loyal spaniel Hepzie, for company. After Thea spends her first few days exploring the area and meeting some of the local characters, the weather turns extreme, and so do events. She finds a man lying dead in a snow-filled field, but by the time the police arrive, the body has gone. Although no one believes her story, amateur detective Thea is convinced that something criminal has happened, and continues the investigations alone. When she finds the man again, still dead but mysteriously returned to his own cottage, the bizarre case takes another sinister twist.

Thea Osbourne is perhaps over-optimistic about the English summertime and her latest assignment in the Cotswolds - house-sitting for reptile breeder Harriet Young. For Thea soon finds a dark side to the characters she encounters there, indeed Harriet's beloved geckoes are not the only cold-blooded creatures at large...

Yet again, the region's bucolic charms prove to be more than deceptive, and Thea is thrust once again into the heart of a Cotswolds mystery. For despite the ease with which Thea's new assignment in the secluded village of Cranham begins, she soon finds a dark side to the characters she encounters there. From the tragic Donny Davis to the enigmatic figure of Edwina, Thea begins to realize that Harriet Young's beloved geckoes are not the only cold-blooded creatures at large in Cranham. Family intrigues, murder, suicide and deception combine to give Thea a decidedly challenging summer in the Heart of England...

Thea Osborne, accompanied by her beloved spaniel Hepzie, has had her fair share of unfortunate occurrences while house-sitting, and her new assignment for the mysterious Yvonne Parker is no exception. The isolated and somewhat unsettling village of Snowshill, has Thea on edge as soon as she arrives, and Hyacinth House - her new, rather cluttered home - does nothing to dispel such feelings. Soon enough, her intuition in this case proves to be right, and once again Thea becomes entangled in another horrifying murder.

Stevie Horsfall, a mischievous child from the village is found brutally strangled outside Hyacinth House, with his eccentric mother Gudrun as the prime suspect. Believing in Gudrun's innocence, Thea, alongside Sonia Gladwin and her friend Drew Slocombe, work together to uncover a sinister plot, where seemingly separate lives are intertwined with secretive and strange relationships. This malicious web of suspects leads Thea through the lives of the villagers and their secrets, to London and beyond.

When Thea Osborne agrees at the last minute to house-sit for Oliver Meadows as a favor to her mother, she expects a few days of peace with her spaniel, Hepzie. Uncomfortable with the news of her mother's sudden involvement with an old flame, and Thea herself unsure of how to deal with her feelings for Drew Slocombe, she hopes that some time alone in the historic town of Winchcombe will help to clear her head. But, as usual, Thea quickly finds herself at the center of a dark mystery when she discovers a dead body in the gardens of the house.

In the latest installment to the popular Cotswolds series by Rebecca Tope, Thea must work quickly to unravel the secrets which are being kept by Oliver Meadows and his brother, Fraser, and discover exactly what lies beneath the surface of their turbulent relationship. And amidst the chaos caused by the investigation, will Thea find time to decide how she should deal with her own problems too?

Thea Osborne, Cotswold house-sitter with an infamous reputation for getting mixed up in crime, is determined to avoid trouble this time. Her latest commission in the village of Daglingworth seems straightforward, with most of her time spent looking after an old corgi and a hibernating tortoise. Thea is ready for a relaxing if rather boring two weeks, with phone calls to new boyfriend Drew Slocombe the highlight of her days. Until, that is, a dead body is discovered in a nearby quarry....

The secrets of the dead will not stay buried...

Thea Osborne and Drew Slocombe have been married for a year and are settled in the beautiful Cotswold village of Broad Campden, but Thea is chafing at the domestic routines she is expected to devote herself to, missing the novelty and adventure that house-sitting used to bring.

When a routine burial exposes the secrets of the deceased, Drew finds himself caught in the middle of a family feud in which he feels he is on the wrong side, and Thea's inquisitiveness and penchant for solving crimes draws her in too.

With another crisis at Drew's business leaving him with a profound dilemma and Thea struggling against the charismatic charms of a new man, can their marriage survive this latest Cotswold drama?

'As Rebecca Tope tells it, every rural idyll is blighted by underlying menace. Such is her writing skill, I'm inclined to believe her' Daily Mail

'With beautiful descriptions of the countryside, this excellent thriller marks a compulsive series of rural adventures ... A well-paced mystery with plenty of quirks and plot twists' Good Book Guide

'The classic English village mystery is alive and well and living in Gloucestershire' Sherlock Magazine

'Tope is one of the most intelligent and thought-provoking of today's crime writers' Mystery Women