A Cotswold Killing

First of the "Cotswold Mysteries" by Rebecca Tope, the protagonist is 42-year-old and recently widowed Thea Osborne, who has decided to try out house sitting to  keep herself occupied and bring in a little extra money. Along with her spaniel, Hepzibah, she has taken a job in the village of Duntisbourne Abbots looking after not only a lovely home, but a couple of dogs, and a small herd of sheep. On her first night she awakens to a scream, but because the dogs don't bark and the security lights don't come on, she assumes it is just a fox calling and goes back to sleep. While out walking the next day, however, she finds a body in the creek and it turns out to be a neighboring farmer, Joel Jamison--one of the only village people to have stopped by and said hello when she arrived. We find out that the deceased's brother was found dead in the same field just 6 weeks earlier. Thea is curious how this could possibly happen in such a small, close-knit community. As she begins to learn more about the neighbors, however, she finds lots of history, secrets, grievances, and underlying tensions. Quite a colorful cast of characters and, since I love the Cotswolds, I enjoyed the setting as well.  Solid "English cozy" fare. I've read a couple other books of Tope's, a later book from this series, and the first in her "West Country mysteries," A Dirty Death. Tope was also the ghost writer for one of my favorite British TV mystery series, Rosemary and Thyme. 
Kirkus has written reviews of several of her books, although not this one.