Book Review & Giveaway: The Secluded Village Murders by Shelly Frome

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Secluded Village Murders by Shelly Frome

Publisher:  Boutique of Quality Books (September 1, 2018)
Category: Transatlantic Cozy, Cozy Mystery
Tour dates: Oct-Nov, 2018
ISBN: 978-1945448201
Available in Print and ebook, 339 pages
Secluded Village Murders

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Description

Written in the style of a classic English Mystery with a contemporary young American woman as the amateur sleuth. Entertaining. Keeps you guessing until the end.

From a small secluded village in Connecticut to the English Countryside, readers are taken on a roller coaster of events and quirky characters as amateur sleuth Emily Ryder tries to solve a murder that everyone thinks was an accident.

For tour guide Emily Ryder, the turning point came on that fatal early morning when her beloved mentor met an untimely death. It’s labeled as an accident and Trooper Dave Roberts is more interested in Emily than in any suspicions over Chris Cooper’s death. For Emily, if Chris hadn’t been the Village Planner and the only man standing in the way of the development of an apartment and entertainment complex in their quaint village of Lydfield, Connecticut, she might have believed it was an accident, but too many pieces didn’t fit.

As Emily heads across the pond for a prescheduled tour of Lydfield’s sister village, Lydfield-in-the-Moor… she discovers that the murderer may be closer than she thought.

Note: This book is a  totally revamped version of “The Twinning Murders” with a different publisher.  It is quite different from ‘The Twinning Murders’.  You should enjoy this book even more!  

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Guest Review by Betty B.

A small New England village. A suspicious death. A woman who believes it was a murder. These are elements to the story of ‘The Secluded Village Murders’ that combine to make it a one-of-a-kind reading experience.

Emily is a tour guide who witnesses the falling death of a beloved friend and suspects that it might have been a murder. But what’s that old saying, ‘curiosity killed the cat’? Emily quickly becomes embroiled in a mystery where the stakes are high and the perpetrator has already proven they have a penchant for murder. I enjoyed this a lot and plan to list it as one of my top 2018 reads at the end of the year. The writing was great, the characterization was solid (I particularly loved Emily for her determination and intelligence) and the mystery was gripping and kept me guessing until the end.

This was the kind of book that I felt like I could only put down when I absolutely had to and that if I did, I’d be thinking about it until I had the time to pick it up again. If this isn’t part of a series, it should be. I’d love to dive back into Emily’s world again and solve another mystery.

I don’t want to give away the ending, because that’s practically sacrilege in the mystery-reader world, but I will say that it was not what I expected at all. Normally I figure out the truth behind the mystery about halfway through the book as I’m reading but this one threw me for a loop in the best way. I would love to read more by this author in the future. I felt like his writing and atmosphere were pitch perfect and truly brought me into the story, making the reading experience what it should be. Five stars for sure!

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Praise for Twinning Murders by Shelly Frome

“There is a very eclectic cast of characters in this novel and the story reads fast. I enjoyed reading this mystery and I found that I was surprised at the ending. This is a story basically about money and greed.”-Kathleen Kelly, Celticlady Reviews

“Shelly Frome does a great job of creating an interesting murder mystery around a hennas crime committed in a small New England village. He then takes it all the way across “The Pond” to England where he beautifully captured the essence of Dartmoor National Park and the moorlands of Devon. From the village fete to the sudden fog that can devour you upon The Moor, Shelly Frome creates a wonderful atmosphere in which to add intrigue and mystery.
The story twists and turns and creates an interesting confluence of red herrings, doubts and suspicions until the end when you will be, as they say, “Gob smacked!” at who the murderer turns out to be.
This book was fun and scary and full of great characters one of which is a wonderful golden retriever. Twinning Murders will give you a dose of a good old fashion murder mystery with a surprise ending.”- Me Minty, Amazon Review

“Technically The Twinning Murders can be called a cozy as the profanity and violence are extremely minimal, the latter taking place primarily off-stage, and Emily is most definitely an amateur sleuth. Author Shelly Frome has also populated The Twinning Murders, on both sides of the Atlantic, with a wonderfully eccentric cast of characters. Unlike the cozies many readers are probably familiar with, however, The Twinning Murders has a genuine old fashioned, Agatha Christie-Miss Marple, British mystery feel to it, even though the bulk of the action takes place in Connecticut.”-Elizabeth  A. White, elizabethwhite.com

“If you enjoy playing detective, this book was written for you. As you venture along you’ll be entertained by folksy New England characters in contrast to the British blokes who serve up their own style of wit and smarts. Enjoy this reading excursion and see if you can figure
out who done it and why! Well, Shelly Frome has done it again! He has set the scene and pace for an exhilarating chase through England and back to America.”- Herbert Siegel, Amazon Review

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About Shelly FromeSecluded Village Murders by Shelly Frome

Shelly Frome is a member of Mystery Writers of America, a professor of dramatic arts emeritus at the University of Connecticut, a former professional actor, and a writer of crime novels and books on theater and film. He is also the film columnist for Southern Writers Magazine and writes monthly profiles for Gannett Media.

His fiction includes Sun Dance for Andy Horn, Lilac Moon, Twilight of the Drifter, The Twinning Murders, Tinseltown Riff, and Murder Run. Among his works of nonfiction are The Actors Studio and texts on the art and craft of screenwriting and writing for the stage. He lives in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

Website: http://shellyfrome.com/
Facebook: https://facebook.com/shellyfrome
Twitter: https://twitter.com/shellyFrome

Buy Links

Amazon
BarnesandNoble
Indiebound
BookDepository

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Giveaway 

This giveaway is for one print copy or ebook copy of the book.  Print is available to the U.S. only but ebook is available worldwide. This giveaway ends on November 30, 2018 at midnight pacific time.  Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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