A Cotswold Ordeal

Thea Osborne #2

by Rebecca Tope

Thea Osborne embarks on her second house-sitting commission with very few worries. The Phillipses are obviously a laid back family, and there is little to do but tend an ailing old pony and feed various furry pets and farmyard birds. But it seems she is jinxed. An apparent suicide takes place in one of the barns. Set in the most southern part of the Cotswolds, known for its woollen mills active in the 19th century, the canal locks lie buried in woodland, along with many of the dreams and secrets of the local people. Thea is interviewed by Detective Superintendent Hollis and finds herself in the very center of the action. But confusion and conflict reign as investigations develop into the death in the barn, with divided loyalties and many frustrations.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Cozy, Cozy Mystery, Audiobook, Suspense

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Rebecca Tope is best known as the author of over twenty crime novels. She has also recently produced the e-book entitled 'The Indifference of Tumbleweed'. She has every intention of continuing with the murder stories, as well as a variety of other kinds of fiction.

She has experienced many different kinds of work in her time - running antenatal classes, counselling troubled couples and being an office girl for an undertaker, for example. There were also several years monitoring the output of dairy cows, as well as every sort of task associated with book publishing. In 1992, she founded Praxis Books, a small British press.

She lives surrounded by trees she has planted herself, tending her own sheep.

Reviews

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had picked up a few of these books and have read them in no particular order, but this'll be the last.

Our dim house-sitting lady Thea is a year widowed in this, her second case. In the first book she was cutting herself to make sure she remembered she'd had a loss. This didn't endear the woman to me. She seems to have stopped this aberrant behaviour, or just decided that after a year she will allow herself to move on with life.

I thought the book had prospects, as one of the details is the restoration of heavily overgrown and derelict canals and canal tunnels. The dead cat at the start kept putting me off again, and the poor dead cat keeps making reappearances; the author must be a stymied horror writer. Having been told that an elderly pony she's minding has laminitis, Thea, who has a laptop and can use the net, doesn't even research the ailment and see if she can do anything to help him, like hosing his hooves with cold water.

What stopped me cold was when Thea's sister comes to stay in this borrowed house and explains that she is considering leaving her husband because he has been hitting her for months without explanation. Thea considers this matter - we can see the wheels grinding - and instead of saying "Why haven't you dumped the loser swine already?" she asks her sister what she has done to cause the man to hit her.

No more.

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 5 out of 5]

I usually like to spread out the stories by authors I enjoy, but I jumped right into this one after reading the first and plan to start the next one in the series tonight.

In A Cotswold Ordeal, Thea has just left her last house sitting job, staying in a house for an uptight couple that swiftly embark on a vacation that takes them away from England. Naturally a murder happens in their back yard. In one short week, Thea meets a variety of village people and one police inspector in particular, although only barely.

In this second mystery, Thea is once again house sitting, in a neighboring village, this time for a hectic blended family (his kids, her kids) who are rushing off to Ireland and don't contact them. Thea is left with a small farm, which includes rabbits, guinea pigs and an old pony, suffering from Laminitis.

It is not long before Thea is up to her ears in the same old trouble. She finds the pony won't go in her stall and for good reason. There's a body hanging in it.

As all mysteries go, who is it? Why are they hanging in the barn? Suicide or murder?

This time we have a couple of sub plots going. Lieutenant Hollis plays a much larger role in the investigation and also in Thea's life. Plus, once again, Thea gets to know a variety of the town folk. Are any of them involved?

And just to further complicate things, Thea's youngest sister arrives. She has decided to leave her husband and five children.

How does the story develop? Very well. I have grown attached to Thea and now must see what happens to her in the next novel.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thea is a more developed character in this second installment and provided me with a very enjoyable light read. The characters in this Cotswold tale turn out to be very complex, not at all the "happy family" villagers one might expect to find. Thea has taken the job of house sitter again, much against the wishes and advice of her family members. Things seem ideal for her initially as she and her dog can have great walks along the old canal and in the woods, and she has a horse and other farm animals to watch out for. She quickly discovers the villagers have a great hatred for any proposition to recover/rebuild the canals, something she would support as a lover of canal history.
Very soon after the owner's family departs for a vacation in Ireland Thea finds the body of a young man hanging in the barn. From that moment things kick off in high gear, she is once again working with the Police Superintendent Hollis, a man she was attracted to in the first book.
Thea's sister comes to visit without invitation due to troubles in her marriage, so things get quite interesting. It is a fun book to read.

[Joana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t work for me

[Stef Rozitis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Computer ate my original (and detailed) review.

In brief: I have read better but nearly everything is worse.

There was irritating gender essentialism and unchallenged trivialisation of domestic violence (really assault, when you consider it involved hitting someone with a cricked bat until she couldn't walk properly for weeks afterwards). The detective after pointing the cop in the right direction retreats into her cosy and toxic femininity and leaves it to him to mansplain to her the details. She also spends too much of the book mooning over him. The book i overlong and contains all sorts of irrelevencies that are not rewarding enough to be the scenic route.

The mystery itself was reasonably good. The animal characters (notably Hepzibah but there were others) were great in terms of being significant without being anthropomorphised. I really don't understand the point of the scene where the pony went psycho though, that was the main example of a scene that was written as if it was greatly significant and then petered out to nothing.

I'll neither seek out nor go to any lengths to avoid reading this author again.

[Rebecca Hock · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not all that good of a book. It was 300 pages and it seemed that not very much at all happened in those 300 pages. Yes, there was a murder but other than that nothing much really happened. Seemed almost like 300 pages of nothing happening. Really quite boring. Not one I would recommend to others.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gave this up in disgust. I was confused when the main character justified her lack of compassion for the apparent victim of suicide with reference to her own trauma after her husband's tragic death, despite the author having told us that now a year (a year!) had passed, the 'sting' was lessening. But I couldn't get past her reaction to finding out her own sister had run away from home because her husband was beating her:

'Thea frowned and shook her head to clear the conflict between how you were supposed to react and what her actual feelings were....'
'She knew she wasn't supposed to ask what her sister had done to provoke him, what the matter was with Alex, why such a tragic air over something that was, really, rather ordinary...'
'"But... what have you DONE to him?"'

Nope, I'm done reading about this woman we're supposed to like because she's calm and unflappable. Cold and heartless, more like.

[Natalie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got this book as the first in my Ninja Book Club advent calendar, as I had stated I liked crime novels…

This is just an absolutely atrocious piece of writing. There isn’t a single redeemable quality about any of it. The main character is a truly awful person; case in point, when her sister confides she is being hit by her husband she asks ‘Hard?’ And ‘what did you do to him?’

Aside from this there are terrible plot holes everywhere, and honestly, I have never read anything this bad. Avoid at all costs.

[Piepie | The Napping Bibliophile · Rating 2 out of 5]

The beginning of this book, the 2nd installment in the Thea Osborne mystery series, held a lot of potential, and I was starting to think that it was better than the first. But then the story grew weird, and Thea was just as odd as she was in the previous book. I've been a petsitter, and I would not like her housesitting for me. The ending did nothing to glue the story together. I'm not pursuing the rest of this series.

[G. Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read, although I guessed the killer correctly part way through. Whilst an enjoyable read, I fin Thea an odd protagonist. She's really quite cold a lot of the time, and her reaction to her domestically abused sister didn't sit well with me, elements of victim-blaming, I felt. Still, the mystery and settings were good, so a good read, with a few qualms.

[Andrew Willcocks · Rating 1 out of 5]

'Ordeal' being apt for this book. Absolutely dreadful. A lead character who is, quite frankly, damned annoying, and a storyline which gets more ridiculous page by page, along with romantic themes more worthy of Mills & Boon. I finished it because I hate giving up but will not bother with others by this author. As for the casual treatment of donestic violence, words fail me

[Michael Harling · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't the death-race, heart pounding sort of police thriller I usually read; it was more of a quiet who-don-it puzzle, and a good one, at that. I would like to point out that the actual who-did-it seemed, to me, to come out of left field, but maybe I just wasn't paying attention.

This series is set in the Cotswolds and involves a professional house-sitter named Thea who has the bad luck to stumble upon a dead body at every house she turns up at. (Hey, it could happen--look at the mayhem that follows Jessica Fletcher around.)

Anyway, the story was full of well-drawn characters, bags of local color and more than a few relevant social issues. The body in this case turned up hanging from a beam in the barn where the house-owner's pony was being kept. Thea tries to keep out of it, but her natural instinct to dig for the truth (or find excuses to hang around the hunky police detective) place her in the middle of the investigation, and in grave danger. The story kept my interest and made me want to read more.

[Paraphrodite · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

This second outing is probably just as lacklustre as the first. The murder is "solved" in another very bumbling way and I'm really not sure about that "romance" with Hollis the policeman. Thea seems to think any single man she's had a couple of conversations with is a potential lover!

Another major problem I have is with the subplot involving Thea's younger sister and her marriage. The way they waffled on about the serious domestic violence issue with her brother-in-law taking a cricket bat to her sister! And Thea thinking that she'd rather her sister go home to her husband? Really???? It's just not right!

One more go with book 3 to decide if it's worth continuing with the series. At the moment, the only character I really like is her dog!

[Nicola · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story is ok in itself but the fact that the writer made light of domestic violence spoilt it. When Thea’s sister tells her that her husband has been hitting her, Thea’s response is to ask her what she did. Victim blaming at its finest. I can’t help but think that the writer had to come up with a valid reason as to why Jocelyn left her husband and children and thought ‘this will do’. Such a shame as it overshadowed the rest of the book for me.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The booked reminded me very much of the Jane Bolitho series set in Cornwall ( no 1 Snapped in Cornwall). Same widowed protagonist fancying the detective. Set in a cosy village. Not sure which series were written first.
Wasn't a fan of Thea, she dismissed her sister's domestic abuse far too easily where most of us would be insisting she informed the police!
I have another in the series but probably won't read it. Luckily only paid 50p each for them so no loss!!

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one lost a few stars for me purely down to Thea's cavalier attitude towards her sisters confessions that she is a victim of DV. She repeatedly wishes her sister will go back to her husband and "things get back to normal" and even throws in a spot of victim blaming for good measure. It has completely spoiled Thea's character for me.

[Dani Chaves · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy Rebecca's books a lot. The Cotswold series has been super enjoyable to read. Overall, an interesting and intriguing plot. This one was a bit of a disappointment though.
It really bothered me how the issue of phyisical aggression within a household is treated so lightly or even as something not worth dealing with with drastic measures.

[Joanna Forbes · Rating 2 out of 5]

A somewhat disturbing attitude towards domestic violence.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75⭐️ I don’t think I’ll read more of this series. I’ve decided the main character isn’t my thing.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Osbourne and her spaniel Hepzibah embark on their second house-sitting commission with few worries. Despite her first disastrous venture, in which she became drawn into a murder case, Thea is convinced that lightening will not strike twice, and arrives at the idyllic Frampton Mansel with renewed enthusiasm. However it seems she is jinxed: within days of her arrival she find a body hanging from the rafters of one of the barns.

"But was it suicide . . . or murder?"
~~back cover

Another intricately plotted little mystery, interwoven with Thea's sister Jocelyn's domestic troubles, interwoven with the growing attraction between Thea and Detective Superintendent Hollis for a bit of extra spice. As there generally is, there's large cast of local characters, all of whom seemingly have their own agenda, and their reasons for wishing Thea gone.

There's a frightening scene where Jocelyn is assaulted, and another frightening episode where Thea is kidnapped & Hepzie left to die. Of course, all ends as it should -- did you think that would be any different?

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The life in the fast lane is the opposite from the expectation in the Cotswold, but Thea's experience so far would belie that. All sorts of goings on in a quiet area. The issue of restoring a canal seemed to figure large but never seemed to really get clarified. Thea's family got involved to a larger extent. The romance developing between the cop and the gal was interesting.

[Hayley R · Rating 3 out of 5]

A better storyline than the first book in the series. The characters have grown on me too.

[RhiannaH · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fab detective book in the series.

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second in the 'cosy crime' series about Thea, a widowed housesitter who looks after properties and animals while people are on holiday. True to form, she hasn't been in the property for a day before a dead body turns up, this time hanging in the pony's stable. Strung up, it initially appears to have been suicide, but is soon identified as murder by the police. It then transpires that there are a lot of hidden agendas among the locals, involving eco activitism, and opposition to any plan to restore the derelict canal near the property. Thea meanwhile finds that her nascent romance with Detective Superintendant Phil Hollis whom she met in the first of the series has turned into full-on powerful mutual attraction.

Further complication occurs when Thea's youngest sister, Jocelyn, asks for a few days refuge, and Thea learns that her husband beats her, a big surprise as she always thought her sister's marriage happy. Jocelyn leaves her five kids with her husband for a few days with Thea, though she is torn, but her presence at least enables Thea to stay on at the property, fulfiling her sense of obligation to the owners in taking care of their animals. A series of incidents make it evident that someone in the area wants them to leave.

Without giving anything away, I must admit that I did work out who the murderer was though not motivation or the twist which meant the 'wrong' person was killed. At one point, Thea is in great danger, and her reactions are realistic at first, she thinks she will soil herself and is then violently sick which is a nice change to the usual cool, controlled reaction of people in such situations in fiction.

[Alison C · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Cotswold Ordeal is the second in Rebecca Tope's series, each book set in a different village in the gorgeous landscape of England's Cotswold hills. This time, our house-sitting heroine Thea is hired to mind the house, ailing pony, frightening geese, and other animals of a family that has gone off to Ireland for a two-week vacation. Soon after her arrival, Thea discovers a body hanging in the stables; naturally, she calls in the police, including Detective Superintendent Hollis. She initially dismisses the event as a suicide, but soon learns that it was murder, and that she herself is in danger of becoming the next victim.... I liked this book less than the first one in the series, as the writing seemed rather perfunctionary to me. But there are interesting moments involving the battle between conservationists and those who want to turn England's country-side into a playground for the wealthy, and the secondary plot concerning Thea's sister Jocelyn and her abusive husband Alex provides some interest as well. A rather tepid review for a rather tepid book, overall.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this second installemnt much more than the first one. I thought Thea was a much more engaging character this time, and it was nice meeting her sister Jocelyn too. Poor Thea and her faithful dog Hepzibah do have rather a tough time of it in this mystery as they get themselves involved in the crime that seems to have taken place at the property that Thea's looking after. There are plenty of suspicious characters to mull over, and some nice facts about canals - which Thea loves (as do I) but many residents don't. There is also a sub plot involving Thea's sister's marriage, and I wonder whether that'll be revisited in another book . Overall just what I was in the mood for - being a bit cold ridden and tired this last few days.

[Cat Parker · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the second book in this series, but the first I've read. Thea is a house-sitter based in the Cotswolds, who seems to be having a string of bad luck with murders afoot! There are recurring characters and she goes nowhere without her companion doggy friend, Hepzie. It was an easy read with a fairly simple plot line. I didn't love the characters, perhaps if I read more they may begin to grow on me. All in all, I've read better 'cosy crime'.

[Rob Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book much more than the first in the series, the inclusion of Thea's sister into proceedings helped give her someone to bounce ideas off of and speed up the narrative.
I was surprised by the whodunnits (makes a change) and the ongoing development between Thea and Hollis was nice.
Looking forward to the next one!

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spent all of today reading it while it rained outside, not a better way to spend the day!! Well written mystery that will keep you guessing.

[Zoey · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5★