Cold in the Earth

well, this is the third in the series and i really really liked it. i think it's the best so far - but i've lots left to go! the relationship between meredith and alan is the glue that keeps you wanting to go immediately on to the next book, but the mysteries are good in themselves.

Although I read this book a bit out of sequence since I read the next one first, I still really enjoyed this. I love the Meredith Mitchell and Alan Markby series, and I'm glad that this is only the beginning of the series, since I still have a lot of books to read yet. I can't wait to see the relationship develop between these two. This book brings Meredith back to Bamford for a week while she house-sits for Markby's sister's family, and throws her into Alan's investigation into a body found buried in the earth right where a development for houses is being built. Of course, Meredith can't resist doing some investigation on her own. A whole series of a family's secrets come out during the course of the investigation. For English Village Mysteries, they don't get much better than this or any of Ms. Granger's books.

This is the first of this series that I have read, so I have nothing else by the author to compare it with. There is a murder, in fact more than one, but the focus of the story is on the people connected to the murder and its effects on them. For those who don't know, Markby is a police officer in the town where the murder takes place, and Meredith is a Foreign Office employee currently stationed back home in the UK who is friend/love interest for Markby. I found one of the characters to be over-the-top unbelievable, but that may simply be because I don't have any experience with small English country towns and the people who inhabit them. I recommend it for those who like a character-driven story, or are simply tired of the flood of serial-killer novels inundating the market.