Review: The Death at the Vineyard

The Death at the Vineyard by Emylia Hall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Shell House Detectives are called in to investigate the theft of quad bike by Owen Harper, oldest son and part-owner of the late Frank Harper's farm turned vineyard Shoreline Vines. Owen, his mother Ruth and younger brother Edwin, together with Edwin's wife Karensa run the vineyard together but Frank's death uncovered that the vineyard was not in a good financial state.

Just as Ally and Jayden are approaching the vineyard they see the police are already in attendance, apparently a man has been trampled to death by their neighbour's cattle which he keeps in a field he rents from the Harpers. Although the body is unrecognisable the Harpers are sure it is Russell Tremaine, the ne'er do well son of their former odd-job man, Shaun Tremaine. Their story is that Russell stole the quad bike and was coming back to see what else he could steal when he got scared, hid in the field and got trampled by the cattle.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Owen is no longer interested in finding the quad bike (although the loss of a £10,000 practically new machine must be a blow to a struggling business), but Shaun asks the Shell House Detectives to find out what really happened to his son, because he's convinced that nothing on earth would have persuaded Russell to go anywhere near cattle.

Their investigations uncover all sorts of secrets and come to a very satisfying conclusion - nice to know I was right in my suspicions!

I think this series has really hit its stride. The personal stories are advancing slowly, the characters are deepening and the investigations are more organic. I still have a soft spot for Mullins and Saffron, but he still has some developing to go.

And can I just say how much I love these covers? Honestly its what drew me to the series in the first place.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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