Today is my turn on the Blog Tour for the newly released Box Set of the Detective Harriet Taylor series by the brilliant Stewart Giles. This is a great series and the box set is a bargain at 2.99
TROTTERDOWN box set (Detective Harriet Taylor books 1-3) by Stewart Giles.
Available from AMAZON
Do you like gripping thrillers that are a little different? Meet Detective Harriet Taylor in this gripping series set in Cornwall From #1 best-selling author: Stewart Giles.
Three gripping thrillers in one, great value, box set.
BOOK ONE: THE BEEKEEPER
Alice Green is a beekeeper in the small Cornish village of Polgarrow. She lives with her pet jackdaw in a beautiful cottage not far from the sea. One evening, Alice finds something strange under the hollyhock bush in her garden. The gruesome discovery will change everyone’s lives. And then Alice’s best friend Milly disappears…
BOOK TWO: THE PERFECT MURDER
Two cats are found mutilated in the same town. Detective Harriet Taylor is reluctant to investigate, but then one of their owners is killed a bizarre way that same day. Harriet and the team step in. The dead woman has four words written on her neck — four very ambiguous words. Then another body turns up with the same words written on it. Harriet fears the worst — a serial killer is on the loose in the small Cornish town of Trotterdown.
BOOK THREE: THE BACKPACKER
A girl’s body is found hidden in a remote spot of a Cornish Farm. The same farm that a young girl ran towards to escape her pursuer many years before. Who would kill a young backpacker who hurt nobody? Is there a link between this and a mystery from many years ago?
If you like Police Procedurals, then this is a series you won’t want to miss.
THE SETTING
Trotterdown and the surrounding villages is a fictional village in Cornwall. It is typical of Cornish villages with remote farms and sleepy Cornish stone cottages. However, the area is steeped in history and the residents of the quaint cottages have their share of myths and secrets making it the ideal setting for this series.
THE DETECTIVE
DC Harriet Taylor had only been married for 2 years when her philandering husband was killed in a car crash. It is common knowledge around the station that the woman who died next to him was his latest lover. Harriet transferred to Trotterdown to escape the gossip and sympathetic looks. She is now finding her way around Cornwall and getting to know the other members of the team.
My Review
The Beekeeper
This is a brilliant book. The Author takes what should be gory and makes it amusing with an enormous amount of skill and the result is a gripping book that has the reader turning page after page.
This is possibly the funniest thriller I have ever read. Stewart has a dark sense of humour that comes through in the book which brings a totally unique perspective to the story. I found it very intriguing. I suspected who the killer was at the beginning but what you have learned from reading thrillers over the years is ingrained into you and you find yourself denying what is actually staring you in the face. The characters are unique but develop well throughout the book and the story is also different I was very impressed.
I love Alice’s character, she is a lot of fun. An eccentric old lady who has had a rough life with a philandering husband who had a habit of disappearing for long periods with his latest fling. He eventually left 10 years ago and hasn’t returned. She makes a living from the honey produced by her beekeeping. She has a Jackdaw that she rescued who is her main companion and a friend Millie. Millie is widowed and a fragile person who is dominated by Alice.
Detective Harriet Taylor has also had a difficult life. Her husband was killed in a car crash with his lover also in the car. She became the laughing stock of the Police Force in Edinburgh so transferred to Polgarrow, a quiet town in Cornwall. She is picking up the pieces of her life and has a good relationship with her boss, Killion, when half a body is caught up in the nets of a fishing boat. Shortly afterwards Millie goes missing and her car is found at the bottom of the cliffs. When a house explodes the decision is made to bring in a crack team from Exeter. When Harriet is chosen to be part of this team she finds herself, again, the talking stock of the station. The similarity in their history forms a connection between Alice and Harriet.
The Perfect Murder
This is a fast paced story with dead end’s and curve ball’s a many as we join the team in a race to uncover the murderer before any more people die. Stewart has brilliantly created a murderer that turns on its head everything you thought you knew about the profile of a serial killer. Excellent read.
The story begins with the death of 2 cats and from that point I was hooked and just kept turning the pages. This is a very unique story which keeps the intrigue building throughout the book. There are many twists and turns with the ending being a real shocker.
I love Harriet. She is a very compassionate person who sees a lot of good in people and this makes her an excellent detective. She is backed by a team who all work together excellently. We get to know them a little more in this book as their characters develop and we learn about their private lives. All are realistic characters with depth.
As I have come to expect from Stewart there are quirks in the story that bring a touch of humour (he has also worked in a little romance)
The Backpacker
Harriet moved to Cornwall to escape the gossips when her philandering husband was killed in a crash with his lover. I am pleased to see her getting over that and moving on with her life. Her character is developing well. She is forming a healthy friendship with John Finch and they both have a passion for boats. The first chapter gives us an insight into the boating world but reality returns when a body is found.
This is an intriguing story with 2 strands. 2 bodies a couple of decades apart in the same place in the remote countryside of Landell’s farm. The same farm a girl ran towards escaping a pursuer many years before. What is the connection between the 2 cases? Is there one?
I loved this story I found myself thinking ‘detective’ and trying to work out who the murderer was all the way through along with the team. Every clue leads to a dead end as the team go around in circles trying to find a way through the secrets and lies.
There are a lot of twists and turns as the story moves along keeping the reader totally engrossed in the story. The intrigue builds all the way through to the very end.
There are a mix of characters in this book and all are unique and bring a lot to the story. Some I liked some I didn’t. I am familiar with Derbyshire farmers and although the characters at Landell’s are Cornish I doubt they differ much so in my opinion Stewart has them portrayed perfectly. There are characters that come and go but they are all realistic and well described.
I love Stewart’s books I think he is a very talented author but this book is, in my opinion, the best yet. It has everything you could want from a good detective book. Intrigue, suspense the ins and outs and entanglement of complex detective work all wrapped up in a fast-moving page-turner that keeps the interest all the way through to the shocker of an ending.
Stewart Giles: author bio
After reading English at 3 Universities and graduating from none of them, I set off travelling around the world with my wife, Ann, finally settling in South Africa, where we still live. After Ann dropped a rather large speaker on my head I came up with the idea for a detective series. DS Jason Smith was born. Smith, the first in the series was finished a few months later. 3 years and 8 DS Smith books later, Joffe Books wondered if I would be interested in working with them. As a self-published author, I agreed. However, we decided on a new series – the DC Harriet Taylor Cornwall series. The Beekeeper hit the shelves and hit the number one spot in Australia. The second in the series, The Perfect Murder did just as well. The third in the series, The Backpacker I have self-published and there are plenty more to come. Unworthy, the ninth Smith instalment was followed by a totally new start to a series – a collaboration between the Smith and Harriet thrillers. Entitled The Enigma, it brings together the broody, enigmatic Jason Smith and the more level-headed Harriet Taylor. Miranda is something totally different. A stand-alone psychological thriller, it is a real departure from anything else I’ve written before. A new Smith/Harriet book is in the pipeline as is the 10th Smith instalment.
You may also like:
AUTHOR INTERVIEW with Stewart Giles
The Enigma (DS Jason Smith & DC Harriet Taylor #1) by Stewart Giles
