I'm delighted to be one of the stops on the blog tour for Haircuts, Hens and Homicide by Stephanie Dagg and sharing my review today. First of all let's take a look at the description for the book...
Megan
finds mayhem when she arrives in France to bury her Gran and sort out her
affairs. She expected difficult encounters with civil servants and red tape but
not with wandering chickens, an imperious policeman and a dead body. Together
with her unlikely new friend, the elderly and grumpy Alphonse and his canine
equivalent, Monsieur Moustache, Megan becomes involved in investigating the
fowl-related foul play that’s at work in this sleepy part of rural France.
She’s helped but mainly hindered by the people she comes across. These include the local mayor, who wants Megan to stay and set up
a hair salon in his village to help keep it alive. There are the cousins
Romain, the gendarme, and Nico, the clumsy but hunky farmer. They have always
clashed, but do so constantly now that Megan is on the scene. Michelle,
Romain’s terrifying ex who wants him back, appears along the way, as does
Claudette, a wheelchair-bound old lady, and Kayla, Megan’s best friend, who is
hugely pregnant but not above taking on the forces of French law and order when
Megan finds herself the prime suspect after Alphonse is stabbed.
There’s excitement, humour and lots of ruffled feathers in this rom-com slash
cosy mystery, the first in a projected series.
Purchase Link
Well where do I start other than to say what an entertaining story this was a little bit of everything including murder, humour and a dash of romance. We meet Megan as she arrives in France for the funeral of her grandmother and what follows is a cosy crime story that had me hooked. From the quirky local community, two cousins who provide a little romance and a few feathered friends make this story even more appealing. It is anything but sedate in the French countryside for Megan, I loved all the little and also the big scrapes that she found herself in.
I have to mention the title of the book somewhere I think I knew I had to read it just from seeing the name! It sums up the book perfectly and if you are a fan of cosy crime or even a mystery with a brilliant addition of humour then I can recommend picking up a copy of this book.
The pacing is pretty good with a couple of twists to keep things interesting and the mystery regarding the crimes really held my attention. The setting is perfect seemingly all peaceful but with danger lurking around the corner. Megan is a brilliant and engaging character, she was definitely lots of fun. I was constantly smiling at her antics which added a really light hearted feel to the story. I'm so happy to hear that there will be a second book, I can't wait to see what trouble Megan will find herself in next!
A lively and entertaining story to completely lose yourself in!
Five stars from me!
With thanks to Rachel at Rachel's Random Resources for my copy.
I'm an English expat living in France, having moved here
with my family in 2006 after fourteen years as an expat in Ireland. I now
consider myself a European rather than 'belonging' to any particular country.
The last ten years have been interesting, to put it mildly. Taking on
seventy-five acres with three lakes, two hovels and one cathedral-sized barn,
not to mention an ever increasing menagerie, makes for exciting times. The
current array of animals includes alpacas, llamas, huarizos (alpaca-llama
crossbreds, unintended in our case and all of them thanks to one very
determined alpaca male), sheep, goats, pigs, ducks, geese, chickens and
turkeys, not forgetting our pets of dogs, cats, zebra finches, budgies , canaries,
lovebirds and Chinese quail. Before we came to France all we had was a dog and
two chickens, so it's been a steep learning curve. I recount these experiences
in my book Heads Above Water: Staying
Afloat in France and the sequel to that, Total Immersion: Ten Years in
France. I also blog regularly at www.bloginfrance.com.
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. I have worked part-time as a freelance
editor for thirty years after starting out as a desk editor for Hodder &
Stoughton. Find me at www.editing.zone. The rest of the time I'm running carp
fishing lakes with Chris and inevitably cleaning up some or other animal's
poop.
Social Media Links
Why not follow along with the tour, see below...
Thank you for welcoming me and my book onto your super book blog today. I really appreciate the time and trouble you took to read and review Haircuts, Hens and Homicide. And especially thank you for the five stars :-) I have a big smile on my face!
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