Olga Wojtas

The Bunburry series is a typical cosy mystery series: It is set in a small, picturesque village in the Cotswolds, most of the characters have known each other for ages, there are two lovely elderly ladies who like to solve crimes, and everyone has secrets.
The main character is Alfie McAlister, a man in his forties who moved to Bunburry three months earlier because he inherited a cottage there from an aunt he barely knew. In the meantime, he has made friends with a few of the villagers, mainly his late aunt's two best friends, Marge and Liz. In the beginning of this story he discovers that in addition to the cottage, he has inherited a vintage car, and he takes it to a garage in order to be inspected. Unfortunately, the car is soon used as a murder weapon, and of course Alfie is the prime suspect...

I enjoyed this installment much more than the first one. The scene was set, I knew all the important characters, and so it was much more straight forward. The reader learns more about Alfie's past life, and in fact the case only gets going until a substantial part of the story has already been told. There is only very little actual case solving involved. But I did not mind because I like Alfie as a character so much, and I was just fond of the story. The actions of the police are totally unrealistic in this one, and the plot is thin, but it is all good fun and that was what I wanted.… (mais)

The first installment of the Bunburry series has all the important ingredients of a cosy mystery: A small, picturesque village, a set of people who have known each other for ages, two lovely elderly ladies, and a host of secrets. The main character is Alfie McAlister, a middle-aged man who travels to Bunburry because he inherited a cottage there from an aunt he barely knew. He quickly becomes acquainted with his aunt's two best friends, Marge and Liz, who gently force him to take part in the rehearsal of Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap", which is traditionally performed by the village's drama group every year. The group is one member short because someone accidentally died shortly before Alfie arrived in Bunburry, but of course the trio soon suspect that it might not have been an accident.

I loved the beginning of the story, it was set up very well. I soon lost interest, though, because the story rambled on. It was hard to distinguish the characters, the plot moved incredibly slow sometimes, and there was not much excitement overall. I did like the main character and the nods to Agatha Christie. The audiobook is narrated by Nathaniel Parker who does it well.
As I have already downloaded books 2 and 3 of the series I will listen to those (I got all three for one credit in a bundle), but if they are not considerably more interesting, I will stop after that.… (mais)