The Coniston Case: An English Country Mystery (Lake District Mysteries)
Cozy/Traditional Mystery
Witness Impulse (August 30, 2016)
Print Length: 352 pages

Synopsis

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and business at Persimmon “Simmy” Brown’s flower shop is booming. But when Simmy fulfills a string of anonymous delivery orders, she is startled to realize that each contains a secretly menacing message for the recipients. When one of the people who receives a bouquet disappears, it seems that her worst fears have been confirmed.

As if that isn’t enough, Simmy’s friend Kathy turns up, on the trail of her wayward daughter Joanna, who she fears has grown too close to one of her university tutors. When Kathy attempts to reason with her daughter she finds that Joanna’s older lover may be even more dangerous than she had imagined. With both Kathy and Joanna in peril, Simmy and her friends find themselves caught up in a web of deception, blackmail and murder . . .

Guest Post

Today we are welcome Rebecca Tope to StoreyBook reviews.  I’ve not read her book yet, but it sounds good because if you have been following me for any length of time, you know I love a good mystery!

Rebecca Tope’s journey to becoming an author

I always wanted to write, from earliest childhood. I entered story competitions in magazines and at school, and actually won a prize in a competition associated with Enid Blyton. I sold small pieces to national magazines through my teens, and joined writing groups from the age of 21. My best subject at school was English, and I did a degree in English and Philosopy. Since my twenties many of my closest friends have been writers. I went to conferences, and became part of correspondence clubs in which we critiqued each other’s work. I wrote at least a dozen novels during my thirties and forties and had a literary agent for a short time.

As I approached the end of my forties, I resolved that my fiftieth birthday would be ‘make or break’. So I became very persistent, sending stacks of work out to magazines and book publishers, entering countless competitions, with some short stories sold, but not much else. Finally, I heard of a London publisher starting a new crime list, and sent them a novel I had just completed. After sixteen months of indecision and delay, they finally bought it. That was 1998. In the meantime I had written two more, which they also took, and I was launched at last. The first book appeared in 1999 and since then I have had twenty-six original crime novels published, as well as a few ‘ghost-written’ titles and self-published work. Everything is still in print.

I had an agent for a few years, but came to the conclusion that I preferred to conduct the business directly with the publisher. Now I do it all myself.

About the Author

Rebecca Tope is the author of four murder mystery series, featuring Den Cooper, Devon police detective, Drew Slocombe, Undertaker; Thea Osborne, house sitter in the Cotswolds and now Persimmon Brown, Lake District florist. She is also a “ghost writer” of the novels based on the ITV series Rosemary and Thyme.

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Check out these other great blogs on the tour

October 1 – Island Confidential – INTERVIEW

October 2 – Books, Dreans, Life – SPOTLIGHT

October 3 – Back Porchervations – REVIEW

October 4 – StoreyBook Reviews – GUEST POST

October 5 – A Blue Million Books – INTERVIEW

October 6 – Readeropolis – SPOTLIGHT

October 7 – Queen of All She Reads – REVIEW

October 8 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT

October 9 – Laura’s Interests – REVIEW

October 10 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

October 11 – 3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, &, Sissy, Too! – SPOTLIGHT

October 12 – The Girl with Book Lungs – REVIEW

October 13 – The Editing Pen – GUEST POST

October 14 – Lori’s Reading Corner – GUEST POST