The Hawkshead Hostage

Description

Summer has come to the Lake District town of Windermere, where Persimmon 'Simmy' Brown runs her own florist shop. But there's no time for her to stop and smell the roses with the shop struggling for money, so a contract to provide floral displays for a hotel in Hawkshead couldn't have arrived at a better moment. However, Simmy's association with the hotel soon turns sinister when she finds a body in the lake. To make matters worse, her friend, Ben Harkness - responsible for calling and alerting her of the discovered body - is now missing and thought to be kidnapped. Caught up in both a murder and kidnapping investigation, Simmy begins chasing clues left by the missing Ben. With many suspicious characters bustling in and out of the hotel, while simultaneously trying to cope with her father's encroaching dementia, solving the puzzle seems a grueling challenge, but Simmy is compelled to uncover the truth...

Rebecca Tope currently lives on a smallholding in rural Herefordshire rearing Cotswold sheep and Tamworth and Berkshire pigs and produces her own meat and wool.

'Bringing characters to life is clearly one of the author's great strengths... beautiful and well-evoked surroundings, emphasis on solving a puzzle, characters it's easy to warm to. ... a cracking good read.' - Mystery People; 'A quirky whodunit delight in the Agatha Raisin mould.' - Peterborough Telegraph