Murder at Ravaen's Hollow is the 3rd in this series. It takes place in the town of River's Edge. Detective Harriet March lives above the florist shop, Foxglove and Hemlock owned by Amelia Locke and Gabriel Fox. They live in the apartment above Harriet. The fence around the property has been taken down. Gabriel told Harriet that he and his sister found a glasshouse (greenhouse) in the woods. They were excited about it and planned to restore it. Harriet was taken into the glasshouse by Amelia and she showed her the garden that she was working on. She said that she had found a dog and had removed the bones and put into a pile. Upon examining it Harriet takes a picture of the bones and sends picture to her boss, Detective Inspector Ben Taylor. She told Amelia that it wasn't dog bones but human ones. They met with Lucia who told them that the bones were not old. They found a coin dated 1984 which tells when the body was buried. The skelton was 40 years old man. It was buried naked and all his teeth were removed. Ben and Harriet interviewed both Gabriel and Amelia. They felt that the two were hiding something but not murder.

Harriet went to speak to her grandmother and asked her who owned the florist shop before Gabriel and Amelia. She told her that the last name was Kunsella. Gabriel's mother, Hester was the manager for 5 years at the time but was now deceased.

Iris Evergreen has just moved into the house her mother had inherited. The house was called "Alfheimy (house of fairies). Iris is a well known author. She went to the bookstore and found her book on display. Whittaker Smith was the manager and owner of the bookstore. He thought the book took place in Raven's Edge but Iris told him that she had never been in the town before now. She told him her mother had grown up in the village and told her stories that she remembered. He told Iris that were sort of true. The Raven Queen was a witch called Magik Mag. She was tried as a witch and threw herself over the bridge. She turned herself into 100 ravens and flew away. He told her that the person she should talk to was Ellie Garlik who was the curator of the museum.

Iris went to speak to Ellie. She was a strange woman. She takes Iris to a room where the village is set up in minature. She told her that the original name of the house was Raven Hollow. The name had been changed by her great grandfather. The house had been designed by Alister Harrow. It had been built for his daughter as a wedding present. When they moved in strange things started to happen. They moved out and the house was rented out for 80 years until Clement Wainwright who bought the house to try to prove that faries were responsible but lost his reputation and went into the forest and never came back. Huge debts arouse because of his disappearance. She moved into the strange cottage with her son.

Iris walked back home in the snow and saw a man ahead of her and followed him. She almost fell into the ravine. She saw a white cat in the tree and took it home with her.

Harriet when she got home opened her window and heard Gabriel talking to Amelia. The boxes had been taken away. Amelia mentioned what was in the boxes. Did she remove something from one of the boxes? Gabriel said that the fence had to go back up. Amelia asked if that is how the murderer got into the glasshouse.

Harriet and Ben went to speak to Niall Kinsella. He told them that he didn't live in the house when it was the florist. He lived in a small cottage on Church Lane. The house had originally been owned by his grandfather who was a doctor. Later his father opened a florist shop. He was told that greenhouse was in bad shape when he was a child. He wasn't surprised that there was a body found in it. The glasshouse was close to the church and could have been part of the cemetary. He said his father had disappeared. The house had been inherited by he and his half brother. He had sold his share of the house to his half brother and that Gabriel was his half brother.

Over lunch Ben and Harriet talked about the case. He was upset that Gabriel didn't tell them about his relationship with his brother. He thinks he is smarter than the police. They decide to check on one of the men who is on the list. Detective Constable Aaron Cooper. He had been missing and his body had never been found. They went to speak to his only relative his sister, Jamie Ware. She is the sole owner of Cooper Event Planning. She thinks they are there to tell her about her brother. He had been having an affair before he died.

There are two stories in one. Tia is a woman who is married to an older man who doesn't pay attention to her. She has an affair with a man who is a police officer. She doesn't love him but pretends. Could she get him to kill her husband. Aaron is the man who loved Tia. This is how the two stories become one.

Anya March is Harriet's mother. Harriet did not have a good relationship with her.. Dean Hunter is her mother's recent lover. When Iris looked out of her window she saw Anya outside her door. She recognized her as her neighbor who lived next door. She came inside and Iris gave her a tour. Iris showed her a picture of her father and did Anya know him. She wanted to know what happened to him. Anya says she doesn't recognize the man in the picture and goes home. When home Iris runs into a large man in her library. He attacks her and puts her in her glass coffin. He walks out leaving her to sufficate. She was able to get out of the coffin but the man comes back. He attempts to attack her again but falls over the cat and hits his head and dies. Iris decides not to contact the police as she had been in prison and didn't want to go back. She decides to dispose of the body. She makes a sled out of the boxes she has from her move and puts his body on it and pulls his body in the snow to the road. She deposited it outside The Laural, which is Anya's house. The snow hides any sign she was there.

The body of a man was discovered the next day. Ben and Harriet arrive at the scene. The people from the crime scene investigation and Caroline Werner, the cororner are already there. The dead man is Dean Hunter Harriet's mother's latest boyfriend. Harriet goes to check on her mother and to tell her about Dean's death. She is shocked.

This is where the story takes off. There are so many twists and turns in the story to put on paper. I will leave it to the reader to enjoy to the surprising ending. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to the next book in the series to find out what happens with the main characters in this story.

Thank you NetGalley and Storm Publishing for this ARC.

This was a strong third entry in the English Village Mystery series, it had that overall feel that I was looking for from the previous two books. The overall story worked well with the murder mystery element and enjoyed the concept. Louise Marley has a great writing style and enjoyed the overall story in this, I’m excited to read more in this series.

This series gets better with each book. A skeleton is uncovered in an abandoned glasshouse. Ben and Harriet have to figure out who it is and how they died. They have a suspicion of who it could be but the investigation carried out 25 years earlier on the missing persons case was done by Harriet's father and seems a little suspect. At the same time, there's a newcomer to Raven's Edge who also seems to have a link to Harriet and her late father. A pair of very intriguing cases with several twists that I did not see coming! Brilliant.
Thanks to Netgalley, Storm Publishing, and Louise Marley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In Murder at Raven's Hollow, book three of An English Village Mystery series, Louise Marley spins an atmospheric mystery set in the quaint yet secret-laden village of Raven’s Edge. The story kicks off when human bones, hidden for decades, are discovered beneath a glasshouse at Foxglove & Hemlock, a local flower shop. Detective Sergeant Harriet March and her partner, Detective Inspector Ben Taylor, are soon immersed in a web of buried secrets that stretches back generations. The case takes an eerie turn as they dig deeper into the village’s history, especially when they realize it may link to Harriet’s own family.

The timing of the bone discovery coincides with the arrival of Iris Evergreen, an elusive novelist who takes up residence at Raven's Hollow—a dark, brooding mansion that has held the village’s curiosity for years. As Harriet investigates, her search for answers around the glasshouse bones draws her closer to uncovering chilling connections to the mansion and, even more alarmingly, to her own past. The suspense escalates when a new murder shocks the village, and Harriet must confront the terrifying possibility that the killer still walks among them.

Marley crafts a captivating story filled with suspense and rich characters that readers will love to follow. Harriet’s journey is both professional and personal, adding depth as she faces the ghosts of her own history. Murder at Raven’s Hollow offers a clever plot with twists that keep the reader guessing, alongside a haunting setting that brings the village’s mysteries to life. This book is a treat for anyone who enjoys mysteries where the past and present collide in unexpected and thrilling ways.

Louise Marley crafts an engaging mystery in her latest novel, where the discovery of a skeleton beneath a Victorian greenhouse leads detectives DS Harriet March and DI Ben Taylor into the shadowy depths of Raven's Edge's history. The quaint English village setting evokes a sense of nostalgia reminiscent of classic television dramas, enhancing the story's charm. Iris Evergreen stands out as a delightful character, embodying innocence and warmth.

Having received this book through an ARC program, I found myself pleasantly surprised by Marley’s narrative style, especially given my unfamiliarity with her work. As the third installment in a series, it functions seamlessly as a standalone, with only subtle references to prior events, ensuring that new readers won't feel out of place. This captivating tale, rich with mystery and hints of romance, had me thoroughly engaged from start to finish. I am now eager to explore the first two books in the series, as this entry has deepened my appreciation for Marley’s writing. Mystery and romance aficionados will undoubtedly find much to love in this story.

4* Good author intro, a solid little muder-mystery tale in quiet quaint England. Hahaha ha!

This book is a very good intro to this author, and despite it being the last in a trilogy set in this slightly strange little village somewhere in England, I didn't struggle to get into it.

There's no huge info dump, just enough that you know who's who, and who's with who; a few red herrings; and a few dead bodies. It's done nicely and believably and no one seems to have anything to prove in the local police shop, so everyone gets on and does their job to solve the crime.

The focus at the start of the tale on a particular couple kind of went nowhere in the end, so it's a little bit irritating that a tad too much was hinted at. I think if it was meant to be a red herring, the author didn't do it well, which is why the tale, for me at least, loses 1*.

I checked the other books in the series out based on this, and they seem to feature the male detective more, so I think they're not really my cup of tea.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Storm Publishing for my reading pleasure.

multiple-perspectives, multiple-timeline, twisty, writers, bookseller, secrets, self-worth-issues, self-absorbed, lies, contemporary, small-town, small-business, local-history, local-gossip, local-legends, investigations, false-information, false-identities, family-by-choice, family-drama, family-dynamics, family-history, famous-author, cozy-mystery, procedural, sly-humor, witty, situational-humor, wry-humor, relationship-issues, relationships, relatives, relentless, local-law-enforcement, England*****

This book is ‘a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma’ or maybe a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. There are about two timelines and many more plots and a veritable plethora of intriguing characters. DS Harriet March and DI Ben Taylor along with novelist Iris Evergreen who renamed her recently acquire home Raven's Hollow are the central and most important of all this lot who are intertwined even before they are aware of it. And I was blindsided by the ending of this one, too!
Avail Jan 03, 2025 #MurderatRavensHollow by @LouiseMarley #EnglishVillageMysteriesBk3 @Stormbooks_co #NetGalley #CozyMystery #Twisty #Phenomenal
Forgot to credit that I requested and received a temporary uncorrected proof copy from Storm Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

This was just great. There was murder, and then old murders and then new murders and yet this wasn't gruesome or grizzly, just an excellent read. The characters were so real, not necessarily loveable but they came across with their real aspirations and when they made mistakes - and they made colossal mistakes - I understood how they had got to that point and that it actually might have been reasonable! Clearly the police didn't always think so, and yet again, there was an understanding of the police and their human role in the mysteries. This was a fun read, for all the death and investigation, there was an embrace to the book that made it endearing and so worth the read.

This delightful mystery, with the backdrop of a Bookshop and Christmas time, is a well written story that showcases
the lovely homes in the village, the folks who live there and the secrets held by so many of them. Released as a
Christmas time story, it’s not overly so ~ I think it’s a great book to read any time of year. I liked how the discovery of bones in
an abandoned part of a garden turned into the entire basis of such an interesting murder mystery. Not just one mystery.
This is a book that will keep you thinking and guessing for a good long time.
New to the Author, I hope to go back and read the previous books to perhaps fill in some of the character’s and history.
My thanks to Storm Publishing via NetGalley for the download of this book for review purposes.

Thanks to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for this Advanced Reader’s Copy of Murder at Raven’s Hollow by Louise Marley due to be published January 3, 2025.

When decades-old human bones are discovered beneath the old glasshouse behind Foxglove & Hemlock, the local florist, DS Harriet March and DI Ben Taylor find themselves digging into Raven's Edge's murky past. At the same time, novelist Iris Evergreen moves to Raven’s Hollow to a mansion sitting idle for years. Iris wants to find out who her father is and see how she is connected to this town.
This, like the last two, was a great book. The characters seem like you could sit down and have a cup of tea with them. Just when you think you have worked out who did what and who the “good guys” and “bad guys” are, something happens to change your mind! There was some unfinished business at the end of this book – can’t wait to see what happens in the fourth installment. I’m usually not a “cozy mystery” reader, but these books are great!
#NetGalley #LouiseMarley #StormPublishing #MurderAtRavensHollow