Reviewed by Chris
Longmuir
I read and commented on over 61 ebooks in my own nonfiction
book Crime Fiction and the Indie
Contribution. In the resulting book, which is an exploration of electronic
publishing in the world of crime fiction, I attempted to assess the quality of
a range of subgenres of crime fiction.
In my quest for e-books which could be described as
cosy, I managed to find a few. The first one I downloaded was Crime in the Community, by Cecilia Peartree.
I had never read anything by her before, and all I knew about this author was
that she came from the Edinburgh area. So the Scottish connection influenced my
choice.
Crime in the
Community was a good read. I loved the characters, members
of a community group in the village of Pitkirtly. Their interaction with each
other and those they came into contact with was fascinating as they fought
progress and tried to keep their group as a small talking shop with its main
focus on the alcohol they could consume. However, a new village member, a
retired spy of all things, infiltrates their group and suddenly everything
changes. Christopher, the chairman of the group, is involved in mysterious
goings-on and the group are pulled into the thick of it. One element missing
from this story was a body, although there was an ‘almost murder’ which did not
get carried through. So, although it met all the criteria for a cosy mystery
novel – the small community, amateur sleuth, criminal activity etc, I am not
entirely sure it qualified as a cosy crime. I do not think there is such a
thing as a cosy thriller, but that is what I would be tempted to call it.
(excerpt from Crime
Fiction and the Indie Contribution)
Chris Longmuir
You can buy Crime in the Community from:
and you can buy Crime Fiction and the Indie Contribution
from:
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