Death at the Parish Fte – Paperback

Flossie Fairweather has swapped London spreadsheets for a village post office, and with ten months behind her, Little Marshford is finally starting to feel like home. Then comes the annual parish fte, with its bunting, its brass band and its fiercely fought jam competition.

Guest judge Clive Bannerman has barely tasted the winning plum preserve before he collapses in the marquee. By evening he is dead, and the only thing certain is that someone at the fte knew exactly what was in his spoon.

Flossie notices what others miss: an entry form in the wrong handwriting, a jar label that does not match its jar, a supplier whose figures look much too tidy. With Inspector Tom Croft stuck on the facts and Dr Julian Rhys keeping a worried eye on her, she follows the paperwork from the village green to a family firm with a lot to lose.

The council has voted to hold the fte again in four weeks, and everyone in the village is certain it will go off without a hitch. Flossie is not so sure.

A warm, funny and twisty English village mystery with a rooster who hates vans, a jam recipe at the back, and a murderer hiding in plain sight.