The village of Elderwick in Yorkshire would seem to be the ideal place for Laurel Nightingale to make a new start. A former psychologist, she wants a break from that part of her life and peaceful village life would seem to be the perfect solution. But when she discovers the dead body of her neighbour soon after arriving, it seems things aren’t going to be as peaceful as all that.

Laurel is convinced that her neighbour was poisoned, but bar one member of the village, everyone else, especially the police, thinks it was an accident. With nothing bar her suspicions to work with, even Laurel starts to think she might be wrong. Until someone shoots another member of the village with a crossbow…

Another modern cosy? Actually, let’s lose the word “modern” as the cosy mystery is a modern invention. I’ll start again.

Another cosy? Well, why not? The cosy is designed to mimic the Golden Age (in theory, if often not in practice) and the original idea of the blog was to find modern mystery novels with a proper classical structure. Why this one? Well, when I joined Blue Sky – X without constantly being told how to shop like a billionaire – Rachael was one of the first authors to follow my new account, so I thought this would be a good way to say thank you.

And… it’s a pretty good read. The first half carries itself with the characters rather than the plot, as with no evidence that the poisoning is a murder (don’t worry, it is!) there’s not really much investigation that can happen, especially when even Laurel is only acting on a “something’s wrong but I don’t know what” hunch.

Once the crossbolt bolt kills the second victim, it kicks off the mystery side of the plot with some fresh ideas, especially the expected romance between the lead and the local handsome law enforcement, who turns out to be a bit of a dick. Makes a pleasant change from the US cosies.

There’s not an awful lot in the way of clues. For the third (?) time in recent reads, a vital clue is in a picture that takes a while to be described to us, and even Laurel admits that identifying the killer is, at one point, a bit of a guess.

However, things do take a bit of a left turn and Rachael Gray delivers an excellent finale, one that did catch me out. I was sitting there, thinking “Is that it?” when the last section crept up on me and smacked me in the head. That’s two books in a row, which is the first time in an absolute age.

It’s not perfect – the cluing is a bit patchy as mentioned, no one considers who in the village knows how to actually use a crossbow and the reason for… something… fitted one solution better than the actual one – but nonetheless, it’s an interesting read with interesting characters and a clever denouement. Oh, and an aggressive rooster. Always a bonus.