Murder at the Mill

October 8, 2018
Artist Iris Grey, the heroine of this engrossing first mystery and series launch from Shaw (the pen name of Tilly Bagshawe, Sidney Sheldon’s Chasing Tomorrow), flees the remnants of a bitter marriage in London for Mill Cottage in Hampshire, where she’s been commissioned to paint the portrait of writer Dominic “Dom” Wetherby, whose successful TV detective series will soon draw to a close. For Iris, the circle at nearby Mill House at first seems warm and devoted, encompassing Dom; wife Ariadne; daughter-in-law Jenna; sons Marcus, Billy, and Lorcan; and the barrister and family friend Graham Feeney. Yet Iris later detects disquieting fault lines: infidelity, blackmail, drug addiction, mental instability, troubles with the law and local residents, and rumors of abuse. When Lorcan finds a body in the River Itchen on Christmas Day, Iris cannot agree with the easy verdict of suicide and begins to look into the Wetherbys’ past secrets. Although attentive readers might identify the perpetrator, the principled, smart, and courageous Iris is bound to garner enthusiastic fans. Agent: Luke Janklow, Janklow & Nesbit.

November 1, 2018
Fan-fiction darling Tilly Bagshawe turns her pen to mystery in this pseudonymous genre debut. Iris Grey is a portrait artist inching away from her failing marriage in a quaint cottage in a quaint Hampshire village. Her quiet days pick up some drama when she agrees to paint her gregarious, famous neighbor, crime writer Dominic Wetherby. Then?as seems to happen all too often in quaint English villages?the hamlet's most polarizing resident is murdered. A natural observer, Iris joins Wetherby's daughter-in-law in an amateur investigation of the crime. She drums up a juicy suspect list?jilted mistress, Russian mobsters, long-suffering wife, brooding disinherited son, even her own estranged husband. Iris is a restrained artist?perhaps a requirement for the companionable work of portraiture?and she's level-headed and thoroughly likable, the quirky neighbor you wish you had time to know better. Happily for readers, we will get the chance to spend more time with Iris in upcoming adventures. A most enjoyable and energetic cozy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

September 15, 2018

In this first mystery from New York Times best-selling author Tilly Bagshawe, penned under a pseudonym, Iris Grey is hiding away from her strained marriage in a Hampshire cottage when she's invited to paint the portrait of famed crime writer Dominic Wetherby, who lives nearby. The Wetherbys' holiday party should have been great fun, but folks' spirits aren't up. And what about that dead body in the pond?

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2018
A portrait painter seeks solace but finds murder in a quaint Hampshire cottage.Too traumatized to stay in Clapham and face the crumbling of her marriage to writer Ian McBride, Iris Grey flees to quiet Hazelford, where she takes up residence in Mill Cottage, a little house on the estate of Dom and Ariadne Wetherby. A friendship between Iris and her fellow artist Ariadne, a sculptor, would seem natural. Instead Iris finds herself drawn to Dom, a thoroughgoing extrovert who basks in the spotlight as creator of Grimshaw, a fictional detective beloved by television audiences across the U.K. Dom's sudden suicide sends Iris reeling but also marks the start of her re-engagement with the world. Probing the complex relationships among the remaining Wetherbys--Ariadne, successful son Marcus and his sometimes too-perceptive wife, Jenna, black sheep Billy, and intellectually limited Lorcan, who insists his father was killed by a ghost--she strives to understand Dom outside the spotlight his fame cast on him. And she revives her own capacity for intimacy through a tender relationship with solicitor Graham Feeney, a family friend of the Wetherbys. Unraveling the tangled Wetherby skein gives Iris plenty of opportunity for growth in Shaw's rich mystery debut.Pseudonymous Shaw, who under her given name of Tilly Bagshawe writes her own novels and inherited the late Sidney Sheldon's franchise (Sidney Sheldon's The Silent Widow, 2018, etc.), makes a smooth transition to the world of puzzlers.

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