Hate Bale

Written by Stephanie Dagg I loved it! 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 Published by     Self Published (17th April 2019) Genre Cosy Mystery, Fiction Pages 345 ASIN B07Q4W88Y5

My thanks to Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources for the invitation to join the blog tour for Hate Bale, and again to author Stephanie Dagg for a free digital copy of this book to review.

The blurb:

Hate Bale

Grumbling guests and escaping piglets are precisely what Martha doesn’t need. She’s already struggling to run a holiday cottage and a rather large smallholding single-handedly. Since her husband Mark died, three years ago, her rural property in France, beautiful as it is, has become an increasingly heavy millstone around her neck.

So whilst she’s horrified to stumble across a corpse at the local farm supplies shop, it does at least distract her from her own woes. Best friend Lottie, the cheese to Martha’s chalk, swoops in to offer moral support, and encourages Martha to join her in some unofficial sleuthing. Meanwhile, police officer Philippe Prudhomme, a former fellow chess-player of Mark’s, undertakes a rather more professional investigation.

However, despite everyone’s efforts the killer remains at large. And when more bodies (one and a bit, to be precise) come Martha’s way, it definitely feels like he’s closing in on her…

There’s suspense, humour and excitement in this entertaining cosy mystery set in the French countryside.

Cosy Mystery    Fiction    Humour

My thoughts:

After taking on far too much last year, I was trying not to sign up for too many Blog Tours this year, and decided to restrict myself to twelve for the entire year. Well, here we are in April, and that goal has grown wings and flew out the window at breakneck speed weeks ago! I've already taken part in eight Blog Tours this year, and I've signed up for eleven more (due before 26th June) not counting this one! Although I was very determined not to sign up for everything that took my fancy, and despite having already exceeded my self-imposed limit, when Rachel dangled Hate Bale in front of me, I lost all self control, and signed up immediately.

I absolutely adored Daggs' Haircuts, Hens and Homicide, and thought that Fa-La-LLama-La and Deck the Halles were equally brilliant, so Hate Bale had a lot to live up to, and I'm delighted to say that I was not to be disappointed. Hate Bale is every bit as funny and entertaining as Dagg's other stories.

In this story, our protagonist, Martha Bigglesthwaite, runs a small farm in France with a holiday cottage on site. She has been on her own since the death of her husband, Mark, some three years earlier. The cottage is to be let to the objectionable Carol Cuthbertson, Carol's downtrodden husband Roy, and their two grandchildren, in the week when Martha stumbles upon a dead body... and then goes on to find one and a bit more!

Martha has to deal with Carol's selfish complaining and general nastiness, whilst managing the farm, worrying about the killer at large, and training for a cycling competition which she decided, on the spur of the moment, to enter.

After finding the first body, Martha becomes the prime suspect with the two out-of-town gendarmes attending the scene, until Philippe Prudhomme, an adjutant-chef in the local gendarmerie, and friend of Martha's late husband, arrives to intervene on her behalf. He is concerned for her safety, and urges Martha to stay with a friend.

Enter Lottie, Martha's estate agent friend, who has offered her refuge while the killer is still on the loose. Lottie is fascinated by the sudden spike in the local crime rate, and, dragging the reluctant Martha along with her on a sleuthing expedition, they find the third body.

How Martha finally encounters the killer, and her friends race to save her, is brilliantly told in this highly amusing cosy mystery.

Dagg's writing style and observational humour appeal to me greatly. I smiled at the prospect of a hormonal, teenage lad sleeping under a presumably predominantly pink Disney Frozen-themed duvet cover, with his head nestled on a similarly pink pillowcase dedicated to Anna and Elsa. I loved the larger-than-life, exquisitely, although sometimes unsuitably-attired and manicured Lottie, who is prepared to face down the likes of Carol Cuthbertson, and would stop at nothing to help her friend. I also loved the sarcastic nickname, 'Skull Face the ungrateful', Martha bestowed upon the miserable cyclist she tried to help out of a ditch. The characters Dagg has drawn in Hate Bale are all completely lifelike, and the story has the perfect balance between suspense and comedy.

Hate Bale is a well-written, humorous, happy ending story. The plot is well-considered, and all the threads are neatly tied up in the closing chapters. I loved it!

Purchase from:

Amazon UK    Amazon US    Amazon CA    Amazon AU

Author Bio – Stephanie Dagg

I'm an English expat living in France, having moved here with my family in 2006 after fourteen years as an expat in Ireland. Taking on seventy-five acres with three lakes, two hovels and one cathedral-sized barn, not to mention an ever increasing menagerie of animals, has made for exciting times. The current array of creatures ranges from alpacas to zebra finches, with pretty much everything in-between! Before we came to France all we had was a dog and two chickens, so it's been a steep learning curve. I'm married to Chris and we have three bilingual TCKs (third culture kids) who are resilient and resourceful and generally wonderful. I'm a traditionally-published author of many children's books, and am now self-publishing too. As well as being an author, I’m also a part-time editor and, with Chris, manager of three carp fishing lakes. My hobbies are cycling, geocaching, knitting and sewing.

Other stories I've read by Stephanie Dagg

Social Media Links –
Web Site	www.bloginfrance.com
Goodreads	https://www.goodreads.com/booksarecool23
Facebook Author Page	www.facebook.com/StephanieDaggBooks/
X	https://twitter.com/llamamum

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