Weycombe by G.M. Malliet
Weycombe
by G.M. Malliet (Goodreads Author)
30817744
Sandy *The world could end while I was reading and I would never notice* Jones's review Oct 16, 2017 · edit
really liked it
bookshelves: 2017, murder-mystery, netgalley-arc, new-to-me-author, 4-star

EXCERPT: What happened to Anna could so easily have been an accident. She could have been running flat out on her chubby legs, minding her own business, when some solicitor speeding by on his way to his office in Walton-on-Thames, anonymous in his ventilated helmet and ubiquitous black bike shorts, pushed her off the party, sending her rolling downhill and breaking her neck. That time of year, the path could be slick with wet fallen leaves. She might simply have slipped and fallen on her head.

That is certainly how it could have happened. Except that of course she was murdered, dead before her body came to rest at the edge of the river.

THE BLURB: Weycombe is the chocolate-box village of everyone’s dreams. For American Jillian White, a gated life of pleasure and comfort with her titled English husband was a fantasy come true.

But the murder of a local estate agent mars the village’s so-pretty surface. Are people actually dying to live in Weycombe? Jill investigates, piecing together clues along the snaking paths and winding lanes of her adopted village. She knows truth has many versions, depending on who is doing the telling. And that few can be trusted in Weycombe, where nothing is as perfect as it seems.

MY THOUGHTS: After reading the synopsis, I thought I was in for a cosy Agatha Christie like read. But it seems G.M. Malliet is very clever. She has written a chameleon of a novel. To start with, she uses her acerbic wit to paint a portrait of life in an English village. Even at slightly over half way, I made the following comment- "This is so not about murder. It is an amusing, sometimes laugh out loud hilarious, tongue-in-cheek, slightly bitchy poke at life in an English village. The murder is merely the vehicle."

Yes, I was well and truly sucked in. For, almost without me noticing, the story turned in on itself in the second half and became something far more sinister. This was definitely not Christie!

This is a book that I read with a smile on my face, especially at the end. Although I picked up the odd hiccup with continuity, this was an uncorrected ARC and so I would expect these minor imperfections to have been corrected before Weycombe is unleashed on the public.

All in all, a very enjoyable read that kept my interest from the first page to the last. I have added all this authors other works to my reading list.

Thank you to Midnight Ink via Netgalley for providing a digital copy of Weycombe for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the 'about' page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system. This review and others are also published on https://wordpress.com/post/sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/466

Weycombe, a new standalone suspense novel by G. M. Malliet from Midnight Ink was released 8th Oct. The author, who has written the well loved Max Tudor series about an MI5 agent turned village vicar, is a dependable 'writerly' writer, technically adept with plotting, dialogue and action. Her books are readable and very enjoyable. I have really enjoyed both the Max Tudor cozies and her St. Just series, a period cozy series.

This book is emphatically not written in the same comfortable mold as her other books. Whilst her other books have had (for me) laugh out loud moments, this one was full of sharply funny moments, quite a few of which surprised me into laughter, sometimes uncomfortable. Written in first person, the narration is wickedly sarcastic almost to a razor's edge.

Narrated from the viewpoint of an outsider, the story often lampoons (or laments) the cultural disorientation that arises from being an expat American living in England, and married to an upper class scion of the minor nobility.

The murder of the local estate agent has the village in an uproar. Anna, the victim, is found by the narrator on a nearby walking path. Jillian White's, the narrator's, interactions with the investigation and her decision to investigate on her own provide point and counterpoint to her interactions with her wealthy friends and neighbors.

I read and review mostly high fantasy and cozy mysteries. I enjoyed this novel very much and sometimes an ascerbic wit-filled slightly gritty mystery is exactly perfect for clearing the palate and resetting my reading taste-buds for the next cat cozy or dragon filled high fantasy.

It is worth noting that the author has earmarked 10% of the royalties from her sales for Weycombe to hurricane relief, a worthy cause. For this reason, I will also be buying a copy of this book, despite having recieved an e-ARC gratis from the publisher for review purposes.

A note from the author: My book WEYCOMBE comes out October 8. I am donating 10% of the royalties I receive from my publisher on this standalone suspense novel, up to $5000, to @RedCrossHouston relief efforts for those affected by Hurricane Harvey.

Five stars. Enjoyable and surprisingly witty.

3.75 stars

Atmospheric suspense novel threaded through with an intelligent and bitchy narrator. Jill, the main character, is an expatriate American married to a British artisto and living in the pretentious storybook village of Weycombe. Jill's marriage to Will is sliding into dissolution after she is laid off from a BBC media job. Everyone's lives change when Jill and Will's neighbor Anna, a compelling but unlikable woman, is found murdered. Jill, who worked on a crime tv series, is soon enmeshed in the investigation.

I have enjoyed this author's other books. This one is in a different vein -- still with humor, but more barbed. There are few likable inhabitants in the village or in Jill's past life. And everyone has a secret to keep. Nice narrative pace with frequent wickedly funny asides.

I was provided an ARC via Net Galley in return for my honest review.

I had not read Mallet before so this was a real treat of an introduction. The narrator of this tightly written thriller is Jillian, an American resident in the UK who isn't the most likable person but who is definitely one determined and intelligent woman. When a neighbor is found dead in her gated community, Jillian, who's got too much time on her hands, decides to poke around. Surprise, the village has a lot of secrets. It's always hard to review this sort of novel without spoilers so suffice it to say that this one will keep you guessing. The fish out of water aspects of Jillian (as well as her attitude) add to the positives. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I wasn't really sure what to make of this book, I loved the idea of it but found the pace too slow, and I found the back stories brought into the story by the main character a bit tiresome.I wanted more action and less pondering.Having said that , I am an impatient reader with all the self control when I'm reading of a 2 year old I want it, and I want it now! More mature and sensible readers would probably enjoy the slowish build up and relish the tension. So I can't really judge it by my own standards.Also when it got going it was a thrilling and interesting read and I found myself hurtling towards the end trying to find out what had happened, and what an end.......Don't worry I'm not giving the game away, you will have to read it for yourself, and you won't go wrong if you do .This is well worth a read, and in spite of my original misgivings I enjoyed it.Thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for an ARC in return for an honest review.

The first thing I should probably say about Weycombe is this: if you've read other books by G.M. Malliet (as I have), do not read this one expecting more of the same. This is not a cozy mystery. It's a diabolical little treat told in the first person by the very snarky Jillian White.

Jillian is highly intelligent, highly observant, and always very aware of her status as an outsider. UK readers will be able to see how Americans view their country, and American readers will be able to benefit from her descriptions of life in the UK. Although Jillian and I have the same opinion about a few things (some facts about life in the UK and housecleaning come to mind), I'm not sure we'd be best buddies even if my occasional snarky periods coincided with hers. But being friends with the main character really isn't the point of the book.

Jillian's voice kept me under her spell throughout the book. Malliet has written a masterful character study. I can't pinpoint exactly when I began to get my first glimmerings of what might actually be going on in Weycombe, but I know it made me smile. What if.....? No, I am not going to tell you any more. I can't talk about the plot without giving important points away. All I can say is that I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and if you're the type of reader who doesn't mind a rather acid character or when an author wants to try something different, chances are you might enjoy it every bit as much as I did. I hope you do!

I love thrillers, I love crime-solving stories and I absolutely adore mysteries. «Weycombe» was all of that plus a huge family drama that started to unravel throughout the book. It had all the elements to be an amazing story and maybe some of you found it rather great.

I had only ONE BIG ISSUE - the timing of when certain facts were told to us.

We read the story as it is told to us by Jillian White, a woman from the neighbourhood. An American woman married to a upper-class British men, Will. They live in a perfect neighbourhood, in a perfect house, but as we know there are always troubles in paradise.

What I found odd was a mix of present and past events. At one point Jillian would be talking about Ann’s murder and her thoughts about it, or maybe trying to get more information from her neighbours to solve the case, and then suddenly she would be remembering certain facts from the past that would take up pages and pages of text in between the events that are happening right now.

I can’t say that it wasn’t interesting, it just wasn’t structured well enough and maybe a few cuts here and there would have made the book more perceptible to absorb all the information that was thrown at us.

All should be perfect in the chocolate box pretty village of Weycombe where transplanted American, Jillian White, lives with her titled husband in an upscale gated community. There are cracks though, both in the marriage and the village. Jillian was "made redundant" (a kind euphemism for laid-off) nine months earlier from her job at the BBC, and her marriage to Will White is falling apart. But when Jillian discovers the dead body of Anna Monroe, local real estate agent and femme fatale, on a walking path next to the river, all the pettiness, secrets and evil in Weycombe begin to rise to the surface of this tranquil pond. Anna has always wanted to write a novel, so she begins to investigate the murder on her own, with an eye to using the case as a basis. There are consequences for everyone involved.

It's a challenge to review Weycombe without giving anything away. I have enjoyed Malliet's previous books, but this stand-alone novel is entirely different. I was immediately captured by Jillian's acid voice: she is not someone that I would like, but I wanted to listen to what she had to say. It's not often that I can't put down a book, but I stayed up late just to find out what came next. I began to get the feeling early on that Jillian was a far from reliable narrator, but the extent of her unreliability was stunning. The twists and turns in the plotting kept me intrigued until the end. I highly recommend Weycombe for fans of psychological suspense with a dark edge.

Thanks to Midnight Ink and NetGalley for an advance digital copy. The opinions above are my own.


RATING- 5 Stars

American Jillian White has relocated to England and lives n the wealthy village of Weycombe with her titled husband. Fro the outside, everything is picture-perfect, but looks can be deceiving. Jill's world is turned upside-down when a local resident is murdered and Jill becomes involved in the investigation.

I have read a couple of this author's cozy mysteries and really enjoyed them. I wasn't sure what to expect from this standalone suspense novel, but I enjoyed it beyond my expectations. This book and her Max Tudor mysteries are equally well-written, but "Weycombe" is a true thriller as opposed to a clever cozy. The main character and English setting of "Weycombe" grabbed my attention from the very beginning and never left go. I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next and was completely surprised by the twists and turns the book took. I don't want to give away any of the surprises, but I truly enjoyed this thriller, which stands out from the pack from many of the recent books in this genre I have read.

I received this book from NetGalley through the courtesy of Midnight Ink. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! I almost threw in the towel after getting about a third of the way in... I'm glad I stuck with it!

I liked Malliet's St Just trilogy, and I LOVE her Max Tudor series. "Weycombe" seems to be a departure, and it had been a while since I'd read one of her books but the voice didn't really sound like her. But the story picked up speed and became very, very clever.

An American married to a titled Brit is an intriguing plotline. I identified with Jillian - she is also unemployed and she has ties to both Kansas and Maine. She is a very sharp and smart - and at times witty - character.

What I think knocks this novel down a star for me is that it was all over the place with backstories. In one part Jillian is meeting Will's mother for the first time and then pretty seamlessly she and Will are at a "celebration of life" for Anna - the woman whose body Jillian discovers right at the beginning of the book.

However, I'm torn between giving it 3 or 4 stars ... that ending comes out of nowhere and blows everything out of the water. It was my favorite part ... and all loose ends are tied together (or are they??). If you think the pacing of this book is slow, just keep right on plodding. Your patience will be rewarded. I am expecting this book to receive high praise. Keep them coming, G. M. Malliet - I will keep on reading you!

Thank you, Netgalley, for this arc.

It begins like any other cozy mystery.... Deliciously different.

I can't provide a fair review because I gave up at 20%. I just couldn't get into it. I didn't are about the crime or the main character and I didn't enjoy the other people in the neighborhood.

Weycombe is a wealthy village and Jillian and her husband Wil live herel. Jillian has been made redundant and is trying to find a way forward. Will has lost interest in her and between his work and his visits to the pub they do not see a lot of each other and when they do they argue. One day Jillian finds the body of her friend Anna and a murder enquiry begins. The book revolves round the character of Jillian and gives her perspectives of who the murderer was and why. Then another body is found. This book is slow to begin with but gathers pace very quickly and the climax is unexpected.

Can the genteel English countryside stand yet more killers sheltering under thatched cottages and wisteria? I feel publishers think they can as this prolific author has already established her name with crime thrillers based (in a series) with a retired MI5 agent leading detective duties.
However in Weycombe, a stand alone novel we come across a different type of plot. American Jill White (married to minor aristocrat Will) lives in a posh gated community of secure houses in leafy Surrey. When she finds her neighbour Anna Monroe dead by the river and a whole neighbourhood of potential suspects we find there are a whole load of motives by many suspects as to why Anna was killed.
There is a slightly ironic turn of phrase by Jill and a very American view of small town/village England which soon blows away the pretence of perfection our Atlantic crossing tourist visitors might like. But I'm not entirely sure readers in the UK would be quite so keen.
The characters inhabiting the community are quite one dimensional or deliberately framed in a stereotypical manner especially when the issue of class or money is concerned. The life of the church, pub and of course a book club where many female suspects lurk does not really throw open the murderous undercurrents to much inspection.
Although readable the psychological background (of deaths and traumas) which often link into deviant behaviour never seem very well explored and I never got the feel of danger haunting the pages as I read. Annoyingly the author's use of names such as Gideon and Rossalind and the introduction of an ethnic family amongst the good white residents of Weycombe are so planted I began to drift away from any serious themes. Instead of blowing me away I am afraid the book was so light (and trite) I sometimes wanted it to fly away.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Midnight Ink for an advance copy of Weycombe, a stand alone novel set in the fictional village of Weycombe in the Home Counties.

Jillian White, unemployed and unhappily married, is out walking when she stumbles across the body of her neighbour, Anna Monroe. With her husband on her back about finding a job, not easy for an American in London, she decides to conduct her own investigation into Anna's death with the vague thought of writing a book.

I enjoyed Weycombe. At first I was doubtful about it and thought about not finishing it as it is obvious from the start that the first person narrative does not hide an unreliable narrator and the novel is all about Jill, her emotions, experiences and history rather than the investigation I expected. I'm a bit unreliable narratored out but the novel soon took hold of me and I became fascinated with Jill and the secrets she uncovered.

I like the slow drip of information, Jill's reactions to it and the conclusions the reader draws from it. It is cleverly done although the net result is fairly obvious long before the conclusion with just the detail to be explained.

I wasn't so keen on the writing style. Although Jill is American and her language reflects this there are a fair few Americanisms in the mouths of the very British inhabitants of Weycombe which strike a jarring note. I also found some of her comments on the British clichéd and a bit strange. I did, however, enjoy the picture of the insular, privileged gated community of Weycombe Court with its petty jealousies and rivalries.

Jill is an unusual character. At first she is an unhappy woman, bored and probably depressed, and her investigation seems like a hobby or something to do but with no real reason behind it. Gradually as her past and her previous interactions with Anna and her neighbours are fleshed out you begin to realise that there is much more to her than first appears.

Weycombe is a good read which I can recommend.

I've read G.M. Mailliet's other series which are on the cozy side. This is not that book. What starts out as a murder investigation in an English village gradually turns much darker. The main character, Jill, is a curious woman with a lot of time on her hands, but as she conducts her investigation, she becomes less and less reliable as a narrator. I had guessed the outcome and felt that the ending could have been a bit stronger. Overall, I thought Weycombe was an entertaining suspense novel.

I was completely in the mood for a nice cozy mystery in a luxurious setting when I picked up this book last weekend, and I got it in spades.

Weycombe is a place where people dream of living; a beautiful, idyllic village running along the river Thames where houses can only be afforded by the mega rich. It’s also a place where everybody knows everybody’s business, and if they don’t, they do their best to find out! This turns out to be a bit of a problem when one of the villagers, the incomparable Anna is found lying dead in her brand new running shoes. Village gossip has just been kicked up a notch.

Our protagonist is Jillian, an American, the forever ‘outsider’, who is in a failing, loveless marriage and out of work. Jillian is the one who discovers the body, and needing something to occupy her, she takes it upon herself to find out as much as she can about Anna’s secretive life, and the mystery of her death.

I really enjoyed this book, but it won’t be for everyone. It’s quite a traditional, ‘old school’ type mystery that unfolds very slowly. At first, I enjoyed the slow pace of it – perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon – but at some points I did drift away from the story and wished there was more to keep me focused.

Weycombe is a good whodunnit. The large cast of characters are interesting, and all have different secrets and flaws. It kept me guessing just enough, but it was a bit of a struggle to get to the end to be honest.

The main thing I loved was the setting. I’m intrigued by the dynamics and social politics of village life, which always works great for a murky mystery.

The main thing that didn’t work for me, however, was Jillian. I could relate to parts of her character, but I never fully warmed to her. And I thought the link between her being unhappy (and not having much going on in life at that moment) and her deciding to investigate a murder was a bit of a stretch. Her background of working in media seemed to be the author’s reason behind her thinking she was qualified to act detective. Hmm. I know that regular folk sticking their noses into an investigation is a common thing in mysteries, but it didn’t feel very genuine on this occasion.

Overall, Weycombe is a classic murder mystery with lots of intrigue. If you’re looking for a gentle whodunnit to while away the weekend, give it a try!

Jillian White lives in a beautiful community with her handsome husband, and when she first moved in she felt lucky to live in such a fairy-tale situation. As she continues to be search unsuccessfully for a job and her husband becomes less supportive her... and less tolerant of the increasing chaos in their home... she begins to see Weycombe as a "yuppie preserve." The apparent perfection seems false, just as the external perfection of her life is, she knows, false.

The death of a beautiful neighbor rips away the impression of perfection. As Jillian becomes more involved with the mystery, and with the detectives, she spirals down. We learn more about her and about her past, and the suspense mounts -- not just the suspense of the crime, but of her slide away from that false perfection.

This is a haunting novel that bypasses the genre to create memorable characters and an unforgettable story.

I am a big fan of the Max Tudor series by G.M. Malliet and was excited to read her new stand alone novel. I really wanted to like it but felt it was slow moving until the ending, and the character development was still going on 75% through the book. The ending which was intended to be a major twist wasn't a surprise to me at all. It was an ending similar to an early book by Agatha Christie. The author's refences to Christie in the book led me to believe she was going to use that particular Christie plot twist. A disappointing stand alone novel. I look forward to the next installment in the Max Tudor series.

Setting: Described well. I could almost picture the community and the setting where the body of Anna was found.

Characters: I didn't like a single one. I understand the book is being told through Jill's eyes and at the beginning of the novel, we are told she's going through a very bad stretch of her marriage and its moving inexorably toward a divorce. But Jill doesn't have a kind word for anyone, and her attitude of superiority and condescension to everyone was wearying. I'd figured out she was the murderer by half way through, and held out to see how she would be caught. When she wasn't, I was very disappointed. Part of the appeal of the genre is that there aren't loose ends, that the bad guys get their comeuppance, and her implied final murder was very distasteful.

Plot: Fairly uncommon (a la The Murder of Roger Ackroyd) but the murderer is easily identified before the book is half over. As a psychological discourse, it's uncomfortable since we only see the murderer's viewpoint.

Pace: difficult to assess since I found the book so unpleasant to read, I didn't read it as eagerly as I normally do other fiction and nonfiction titles.

Format: Kindle version had plenty of typos and incorrect words used which were hopefully fixed before it was published.