Secrets bloom where the roses die – and Mel Greenway is digging up the truth. In post-war Britain, Avonby estate is a crumbling relic hiding deadly secrets.
Lady Melinda ‘Mel’ Greenway, a former army mechanic and the family’s poor relation, seeks solace in its overgrown gardens – until she unearths a body beneath the roses. The discovery drags Mel into a tangled web of lies, resentments, and buried truths, forcing her to clash with Inspector Derrin Bradley, her wartime lover turned investigator.
As Derrin digs into the dark web of secrets entangling Avonby’s privileged residents and its resentful staff, Mel is determined to solve the mystery herself. As sparks fly and old wounds resurface, Mel’s relentless pursuit of the truth puts her at odds with both her family and Derrin, while making her a target for a killer desperate to keep the past buried.
A tale of resilience, forbidden romance, and suspense, A Thorn in the Rose is a richly atmospheric mystery that will keep you guessing until the very last page.
Samantha Lee Howe began her professional writing career in 2007 and has been working as a freelance writer for small, medium and large publishers ever since. She is a multi-award winning screenwriter and a USA Today Bestselling author.
Samantha’s breakaway debut psychological thriller, The Stranger In Our Bed, was released in February 2020 with Harper Collins imprint, One More Chapter. The book rapidly became a USA Today bestseller, and has now been turned into a feature film for USA, Canada, China, the UK, and various countries in Europe. It won Best Thriller at the National Film Awards.
Samantha lives in South Yorkshire with her husband, Historian, Writer and publisher, David J Howe and their cat Skye. She is the proud mother of a lovely daughter called Linzi.
My thoughts: I really liked Mel, the loss of her parents and brother is awful, but she manages to survive the tragedy and become a mechanic in the women’s volunteer corps (as did Elizabeth II). There’s also some things she can’t talk about due to the Official Secrets Act, and the reappearance of Derrin, now a police inspector, brings a lot of things up that she thought she’d buried.
A body in the rose beds brings the police to her home, where she’s stuck somewhere between staff and family. Her cousin is quite nice but his wife is pretty ghastly. If her father or brother had survived, they would have inherited, which makes things complicated.
Mel and Derrin’s history is complicated and as they work together to solve the case, they’re forced to deal with the messy end of their relationship and whether there’s anything still between them.
It’s a really enjoyable read and the characters are well rounded and interesting. I hope there’s more to come from Mel and Derrin.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 