A slow burn of a mystery in a slow town. Interesting look at how things were back in 1965, political and societal. This wasn't my kind of a fast paced thriller but anyone who likes that slow build will enjoy this.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

I always enjoy reading Sarah Stewart Taylor. Her protagonists have been lively female voices before, so I was curious about Franklin Warren, her newly minted Vermont detective, and how his sensibilities would come through. A+, he's new to the community, recovering from a tragedy, has some alluded to secrets back in Boston, and proves himself wise to the world as the plot unfolds. I received this as a Netgalley ARC and I am happy to recommend this first of a series (I hope). And if you haven't read Taylor before, get started! And look for her Sweeney St. George and Maggie D'Arcy books as well.

*3.5 stars. Sarah Stewart Taylor has started a new series which is a historical mystery set in Vermont in the fall of 1965. Detective Lieutenant Tommy Johnson of the Vermont State Police has offered Franklin Warren, the son of his army buddy Allen, a job with Vermont's Bureau of Criminal Investigation; Warren will work from the barracks in Bethany, in the southern part of the state. Warren had been a detective in Boston until a personal misfortune forced him to leave his job and now he's more than happy for a fresh start.

The first day on the job, Warren gets called to the scene of a barn fire with a fatality. The farmer had been in his office in the barn with the doors locked when the fire occurred. Suicide? The autopsy later reveals that the man had a head injury but if it was a homicide, how did the killer exit the barn?

Being set in 1965 gives the author an opportunity to weave in aspects of the Vietnam War era, including the draft and anti-war protests. Taylor has done a great job of creating small-town life with interesting, believable characters such as Warren's elderly neighbor Alice Bellows, whose late husband was involved in secret WWII activities. It seems she still has some connections and a desire to involve herself in local puzzles. And then there's the pregnant widow with four sons to raise...and her husband's brother who is often drunk and verbally abusive. It seems her late husband angered just about everyone in town so there's no lack of possible suspects. I did find the mystery easy to solve however and knew who the killer had to be by 50% or so but hung in there to see if I was right and learn all the details of motive and means.

Many thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an arc of this new mystery via NetGalley. I look forward to reading more in this new series. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of Agony Hill by Sarah Stewart Taylor.

This a great slow burn mystery in a rural setting. The small town suffication adds to intensity, and the characters are well drawn out. A great first book of a new series.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I stumbled across this new series through a Minotaur Sampler #11 and really loved it. I was very excited to receive this e-ARC and it was just as good as I initially thought!

The story opens with the main character, Frank Warren, starting his new job as a state police detective in Bethany, Vermont. Its 1965 and Detective Warren has moved from Boston to this small town in Vermont after the murder of his wife and the unwarranted suspicions of his fellow detectives. Now he is the first Detective this region ever had and the chief of Police isn’t helpful or welcoming.

His first case is immediately queued up when a crotchety farmer dies in a barn fire with the door locked from the inside. Suicide is the first conclusion. But more trouble ensues when the victim's brother comes to town as his estate executor and angrily protests the contents of the will.

The story has a small town mystery feel to it, with events unfolding slowly. I liked the characters and can see future installments expanding the character roles. While this is not a super suspenseful read, its a very enjoyable read focused on a unique historical period when interstates where starting to be built, draft dodgers were becoming a thing and DNA testing did not exist.

This is the first book in a new series. We meet detective Franklin Warren, newly arrived from Boston, in the small town of Bethany Vermont.

He's barely unpacked a box when he is called to investigate a fire and a death up on Agony Hill. The farmer, Hugh, died in the fire, and left behind his wife Sylvie, and four sons. His wife is pregnant. Warren quickly establishes that the barn doors were locked from the inside and suicide seems the obvious answer. But why?

Hugh was a very unpopular man. Outspoken against the new highway coming through town and breaking up farmland, as well as a host of other issues, he had many people who didn't like him. As Warren digs into his background, he meets his new neighbors in the small town, and especially Alice from next door. Alice and Hugh clearly have secrets, as does Warren.

I loved the characters in this novel, and the slow, gentle pace at which the plot unfolds. Several story lines run parallel before merging towards the end, and the pace matches the sleepy small town itself. The author does a wonderful job of describing the local area, scenery and people, bringing them all to life.

I found the ending satisfying, and hope it leads on to the next book in the series.

Overall this was a good book to read, and I look forward to reading more from this author, and especially about the characters from Bethany.

Set in the summer of 1965 in rural Vermont, police officer and widower Warren moves to a small village to find his own peace. His next store neighbor is an older widow with ties to the intelligence community of WWII. The big crime is a man, apparently drunk, dies in a barn fire - it appears to be suicide, but is it murder? The wife is a mystery as well and the four boys are sort of unaccepted by the other children. The village is about to be disrupted by the new freeway system as well. Well written with a calm sense of the country and very good character development.

This is a first time author to me. My opinion about this book was that it was very slow book. I was waiting for it to pick up but it never did! It is a mystery but it was way to slow for me.

An unlikable, back-to-the-land father of four sons and an unborn child, dies in a fire inside a locked barn.A young detective arrives in rural Vermont examines the evidence, which just doesn’t seem to line up. Townspeople who have known each other forever, some who have left and returned and others who have never left, provide some helpful details. As the detective starts to settle in to his new life, secrets are revealed about him and others. Rather dark at times, but not without glimmers of light and hope, this is an excellent opener to a new series. It is refreshing to have a story set before cell phones, but it is even more interesting to have one set at the height of the cold war and amidst the looming clouds of the draft and the rising counter-culture movements, weaving elements of each in to the story without detracting from the main plot. I look forward to future books in this series to learn more about the townspeople and a transplanted city boy detective.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books, Netgalley, and the author for early access to this mystery.

Detective Franklin Warren is new to the force in Betheny, Vermont. His first case is the suspicious death of a local farmer who wasn’t well liked in town. Signs point to suicide but Detective Warren believes there’s more to the story…

Great small town mystery set in the 60’s. Kept me wanting to know what happened next and I will be impatiently waiting for the next book in the series!

The description and beautiful book cover drew me in, but the story was agonizing to get through. I usually love a story about a small town police officer investigating secrets that a community tries to keep hidden, but this book was too slow to grasp my attention.

The town of Bethany is described as small, but there were too many characters to keep track of and I had to write them all down on my notes app to keep myself sane. The story wasn’t very suspenseful, and the plot never led anywhere after each chapter.

As much as I wanted to love this, I just can’t get over how bored I felt. I pushed myself to finish, but wish I would’ve DNF’ed it because I had zero connection with the story or the characters.

Agony Hill by Sarah Stewart Taylor is a historical mystery set in the newly changing small town of Bethany, Vermont. Detective Franklin Warren, recent transplant from Boston to Vermont state police, finds himself immediately thrown into the job when he’s called to investigates the suspicious fire and death of Hugh Weber, a local back-to-the-lander. The people of Bethany-from Weber's mysterious wife to Warren's neighbor, widow and amateur detective Alice Bellows — clearly have secrets they'd like to keep. Warren can't tell if the truth about Weber's death is one of them. The case draws Warren into a world of secrets and hidden tensions within the seemingly idyllic small town.

This book is highly character driven which Sarah developing a rich picture to illustrate life of a small town in the 60s. I found this to be a slow read because it was so character driven. Sarah is a very talented writer but I found myself not always immersed in the main plot because some of the side stories to build out the characters were a bit rambling. I overall enjoyed this book, but I’m not sure I would pick up the second book since I be like this will become a series.

Tragedy happens on Agony Hill. Although, as we read the tragedy is not see as a tragedy to everyone. A father well know in a small town as a very dislikable person dies and it is up to the new detective in town to confirm what actually happened. Murder. Suicide. Or just a happy accident. Such a thrill ride and exciting who done it.

I am so excited about this series!!! Warren is a fabulous character who I really just clung too from page one. I love the town of Bethany, its odd people and all it's nitty gritty nastiness just waiting to reveal itself. I love the tumultuous 1960 setting! LOVE LOVE LOVE!

For anyone looking for a must read crime series... Highly recommend!!! It gets all the star!!! Next installment please!

1965 Vermont farms are being threatened by Highway development while the increasing draft quotas are threatening their young men. Sylvia Weber, pregnant mother of four, a farmer’s wife, loses her husband in a barn fire, possibly by suicide. Despite her fragile appearance, she proves herself strong during the ordeal. Franklin Warren, former Boston detective, has accepted a job with the police in Bethany, Vermont. In early days he finds himself investigating two possible arsons, one fatality and an overall strange atmosphere through the town. Since the murder of his wife, he has suffered trauma symptoms when triggered by acts of violence. One might question his career choice. Sarah Stewart Taylor sprinkles timely characters throughout the novel: resistance and peace demonstrators, off the grid farmers, a draft dodger and an occasional CIA operative. The storyline calls for a sequel; this reader is not interested.

Set in the 60’s, this is a small town story. It is character driven with richly described settings. This author is definitely one to watch and I look forward to the next book in the series.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Set in Vermont in the 1960's, Agony Hill follows a newly positioned detective with the Vermont State Police investigating an apparent suicide.

Detective Franklin Warren is dealing with trauma in his life with when he moves from Boston to Bethany, Vermont for his new job. We slowly learn about his past as we learn more about the residents of Bethany and if Hugh Weber took his own life by starting a fire in his barn or if someone ended his life and staged it to look like a suicide. Hugh's widow is pregnant and already raising four boys, Warren's neighbor Alice Bellows is a bit of a sleuth herself and she starts looking into items being stolen from the local store.

I really enjoyed the characters and look forward to more sleuthing by Alice, it's obvious this is the start of a new series. Alice's deceased husband was a spy and there is a connection to a couple men from his world invading hers in Vermont. There's also a young man who is a draft dodger who ended up in Vermont on his way to Canada. I appreciate period pieces like this highlighting what was important to people back then.

It's old-fashioned detective work because of the period of this story, there was no DNA testing in the 60's. It doesn't seem that long ago but it makes a big difference in policing and makes you appreciate how many more tools they have today to solve crimes.

A fun thriller with a good setting and lots of suspects. Historical farm and small town life, nice peaceful settings. Really enjoyed the characters: the police force and the town busy bodies. I hope this is the beginning of a new series, I will definitely be following up with future reads!

It’s a pleasure in a long life of reading to encounter, parallel in time, a writer through a long career. I’ve loved all Sarah Stewart Taylor’s iterations: the youth of the Sweeny St. George series; the mid life, mid career, mid child raising life of the Maggie D’Arcy series; and now the confident, assured – and dare I say, mature - storytelling voice in this latest book. Her newest book, set in the mid 60’s, follows the story of newly appointed Vermont State Police detective Franklin Warren. Warren has moved out to Bethany, Vermont, from Boston after a personal tragedy and a career in the police department there. He’s ended up smack in the middle of town in what was the vicarage, and the first day on the job, he’s called out to the scene of a fire.

He’s introduced in this way almost instantly to much of the Bethany community: the officers he’ll be working with, and members of the volunteer fire department who are also a part of the fabric of town life. The fire has taken the life of a farmer, Hugh Weber. He was a back to the land person, farming and living simply, and he’s left behind a pregnant wife and four sons. As Warren is dropped into the case cold, knowing nothing about the area, he relies on his new second in command, Pinky, a life long Bethany resident, to help him with the lay of the land.

Stewart Taylor is one of the most exquisite writers of setting, whether it’s the Ireland experienced by her Maggie D’Arcy character or the hills and valleys of Vermont that she depicts here, along with the hard life of the farmers who work the land in the area with varying degrees of success. She describes the beauty but also the hard scrabble life of the farm. Here, she doesn’t disappoint, as the feel of Vermont infuses every page of the novel. As Stewart Taylor is herself a Vermonter, as well as a farmer, she knows what she’s writing about and that assurance is reflected on the page.

The mystery part of the novel plays out as a kind of cloud of uncertainty hanging over the whole town, not just for the family on Agony Hill, who have been most directly affected by the fire and the man’s death. There’s a watcher in the woods, there’s another unexplained and similar fire, and there’s another crime that has no file and that no one will talk with Frank about.

But there’s a larger picture Stewart Taylor draws in as well, and that’s the uncertainty and division brought about by the Vietnam War, which is in full swing. Young men are worrying about the draft and a few are already overseas. As one of the characters reflects at one point: “Was this just the way of the world, progress and resistance in an endlessly repeated cycle?” The tensions of the war are bringing about the worst and the best, highlighted in a very strong scene at the town’s end of summer parade.

This is an all-encompassing human story. There’s family anger, jealousy, violence, as well as the power of love, even if it’s displayed awkwardly or incompletely. It’s an immersive reading experience. And it’s also the journey of Warren, who is adjusting to a new town, adjusting to grief, and adjusting to a new job. This is a richly layered and beautifully told story. After my long reading of Sarah Stewart Taylor’s books, I expected nothing less.

This was a well written slow burn book. The main characters are likable and unique. The personalities of each were deep and realistic. Warren is new in town after accepting a position as a detective with the state police in the small town of Bethany, Vermont. He is hard working, kind, and determined to prove himself worthy in the tight knit community. Alice is a likable nosy neighbor of Warren. She originally grew up in Bethany and returned after her husband passed away. She herself is somewhat of an amateur detective. Sylvie is newly widowed with 4.5 children. She is an amazing mom and basically superwoman, while also humble, quiet, and bit mysterious.

Hugh Weber has died in a barn fire. Was it self-induced or murder? Before Detective Warren can find the answer, more questions pop up. Warren has to figure out if all the recent events are related.

This is a good book if you’re looking for great storytelling at a slower pace with characters that are well defined and likable. I can usually take or leave detective series, but this is one I’m excited to read more of in the future.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for this ARC.

Pub Date Aug 06 2024

Very dark, not exactly my type of story. Reading the description made me think it would be different. 1 star