Crime

Number 7 in the Cotswolds cosy crime series featuring the misadventures of house sitter Thea Osborne. This stared off quite interestingly and I had high hopes: it has been referred to a number of times in later books (haven't managed to read these in order) and I thought it was going to be a high octane tale of Thea snowed in and stalked by a ruthless killer. Instead, it's nothing of the sort. She finds a man dead in the snow early in her assignment and calls the police but by the time they arrive, held up by the heavy snowfall, the body has been removed and they aren't keen in going to search for it. Thea later returns and discovers that it has been dragged on a sledge to a house in the village. The dead man is George, supposedly a recluse, but as he was also a sort of substitute granddad to the two boys next door, that seems a contradiction. Also, he was popular enough with a local farming family for them to be letting him have the house rent free.

Thea becomes involved in the lives of various residents especially the family with the two boys where the mother has a high powered advertising job and the boys are mainly looked after by an au pair from Bulgaria, with some input from their father although he also has a demanding job as a manager at a large hotel somewhere. Thea ends up discussing her findings with the female detective who turns up in a few other books in the series. However, a lot of the book revolves around her duties taking care of the owner's donkey, rabbits - one of which has had babies - and the rescue dog, a lurcher which appears apathetic most of the time but at one crucial moment becomes disastrously less so (avoiding spoiler). What Thea does to the dog at that moment, although instinctive, will surely not endear her to animal lovers.

So what could have been an exciting read - because the first dead body is followed by another - is a bit of an anticlimax, especially since we are repeatedly told, following her discovery of footprints and hence the first body, that Thea is experiencing feelings of fear, dread etc. The trouble is these are not invoked and she continues to act as if she has no concerns at all - at one point, someone walks in because she has forgotten to lock the door. If she was really as scared as we are told throughout, she would have been checking and rechecking that she had locked the doors etc, even if she was irritated at herself for having to do so. It doesn't really gell with the nature of the deaths, considering the murders she has dealt with in previous books, that she is so undermined by snowfall especially since she is never really trapped in the house - she has help from a policeman in digging out part of the track so that she can get her car out, for example. She isn't as isolated from other people as the scenario requires if we were to believe that she is scared silly - and we need to be shown that in her behaviour and invoked emotions rather than just bald statements. The denouement also lacks drama though it's possible that the culprit owns up rather than let someone else, close to them and suspected by the police, take the rap. All in all, not the best installment in the series, sadly. ( )

Thea is house-sitting in a converted barn in an isolated hamlet in January. After a heavy snowfall, she finds footprints round the house and a body in a neighbour's field the body disappears by the time the police get there.

Very atmospheric as Thea grows more and more frightened and also trembles on the brink of depression and suicidal thoughts. I would have liked an update on what happened to Emily after the events of the previous book. ( )

Continuation of Thea Osborne's house sitting adventures in the Cotswolds.

This is her longest stay to date, a whole month in an isolated barn conversion during January. Thea has plenty of animals to care for, rabbits, cat , donkey and a ill looking greyhournd who fortunetly gets on well with her own spaniel. Then an atypical british winter descends with several inches of snow causing chaos all around. Thea loses some of her detached calm when she spots a set of unknown footprints traking acorss her prisitine white yard. She girds her loins and follows them - as all the readers would expect she finds a body in the snow, and returns home to summon police assistance. However this won't be her former lover Phil Hollis because Thea broke up with him, despite how her thoughts frequently return to him. Eventually the polic do arrive - along with the local photographer, only to discover no body lying in the snow covered field. Thea is sure she wasn't mistaken and that the man was really dead, but can concieve of no other explanation other than that he was merely comatose and recovered sufficiently to return to wherever his home was. The weather makes the police disinclined to search a wider area.

Otherwise much the same, and as enjoyable, as the other in the series. Thea's wise head keeps the worst of the introspection at bay, and apart from a tirade at a police woman (who rightly asserts that the UK is a long way from being a police state), there are a few other comments on the social life in the UK. These always serve to spice up what could otherwise be a balnd book - topics include the role of the fmaily and how we percieve others, and even metaphysically ow are perception of them can influence their actions. Sadly there is no time or space in the story for the full explanation of how this would resolve in the case of the lives of the two children who become embroiled in Thea's visit. Indeed we don't even get the details of the whole month's stay.

The only downside is the (ever present) overly sociable police. They just don't go around handing out details of cases to the pubic, even when they're looking for help. Other than that fully enjoyable, a good description of english life and how coping with a few inches of snow really is that hard when you aren't prepared for it, amoungst all the usual village fare. ( )

Throughout the six or seven books in the Cotswolds series by Rebecca Tope that I've read, I've found myself mostly disliking the books, but continuing to read them anyway (partly because I paid for them). In Fear in the Cotswolds, I finally have come upon the reason I so dislike them and the protagonist, Thea Osborne. The easiest way to explain is by way of a SPOILER (consider yourself warned): Toward the end of the novel, Thea, who has been housesitting in a remote area during a snowstorm and who has responsibility, among other pets, for a number of rabbits including a half-dozen babies born unexpectedly and a part-greyhound rescued dog, Jimmy, who had previously been abused and is in a very fragile mental condition. When Thea irresponsibly leaves Jimmy in the yard and then opens the barn door where the rabbits are and forgets to close it, she shouldn't be surprised that Jimmy, seeing the rabbits, dashes in, grabs one in his mouth and kills it. But surprised she is, and her immediate instinct, which she acts upon, is to kick Jimmy in the shoulder. Apparently she regrets it immediately, but for the rest of the book she is said to be continuing her duties, including feeding and letting Jimmy out for a pee, but the author describes absolutely no further specific interaction between the dog and the woman after that incident. Perhaps she doesn't want her readers to realize that traumatized Jimmy is going to be absolutely terrified of Thea (and probably other humans) for the rest of his life; she has made his already fragile existence immeasurably worse by her action. And she doesn't seem to care in the least.... Yes, there's a murder (well, one murder and one suicide) in the tale, and yes, Thea more or less learns the truth (though only because someone thoughtfully leaves a note for her to find), but the woman is so self-centered and superficial and downright reckless about the animals she ostensibly cares about, that I simply can't stomach her; and her treatment of Jimmy is such that if she were a real person, I'd be calling the RSPCA to get her banned from caring for animals ever again. Thank god this is the last book in the series that I bought, so that I never have to read about Thea Osborne again. ( )