Author: Dahlia Donovan
Title: Dead in the Garden
Series: The Grasmere Cottage Mystery Trilogy, #1
Series: The Grasmere Cottage Mystery Trilogy, #1
Genre: Gay Romantic Cosy Mystery
Release Date: October 6, 2018
Release Date: October 6, 2018
Publisher: Hot Tree Publishing
Cover Designer: Claire Smith
Available now!
Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2uqKgvZ
All other links: books2read.com/grasmere1
Join bestselling author Dahlia Donovan on a cosy mystery adventure in Grasmere Cottage Mystery book one. With love, wit, and a murder to solve, life for Valor and Bishan is about to get bloomin' complicated in this sweet gay romance.
Dead body in the garden? Check.
Mystery to solve? Check.
Police focused on the wrong person? Not good.
All grown up and graduated, Valor Tarquin Scott, son to Earl and Countess Scott, owns The Ginger’s Bread, a biscuit shop, in Grasmere in the Lake District. The love of his life, Bishan Tamboli, has turned his music studies into a successful career playing with the London Symphony Orchestra. It’s a perfect life with their cat, spending evenings watching Poirot on the television.
The nightmare begins with one dead former schoolmate, leading police to believe Bishan is responsible.
Valor struggles to solve the cryptic puzzles left behind in a race to prove Bishan’s innocence.
He can’t help wondering how far the body count will rise before they manage to stop the killer.
Available now!
Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2uqKgvZ
Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2JqyXc3
Amazon CA: https://amzn.to/2Lj4C4d
Amazon AU: https://amzn.to/2NjaJTj
iTunes: https://apple.co/2NNNfqu
Nook: http://bit.ly/2LitA0g
“That is a body.” Valor stared stupidly out the window over the sink where he’d been rinsing his coffee mug, his hazel eyes glued to the obviously dead man at the corner of their garden. He dragged his fingers shakily through his mussed-up red hair. “Bish?”
“Yes, it is.” Bishan joined him with their fawn-coloured, long-haired cat, Staccato, perched on his shoulder, playing with his wavy inky hair.
“That’s a dead body in our garden.” He risked a glance at his long-time boyfriend to find him mesmerised by the sight. “I mean, it’s a corpse.”
“Very astute of you. Very. Astute. Quite astute. Incredibly so, actually.” Bishan had a tendency to repeat words when he enjoyed the way they sounded to him. He claimed it was one of his many autistic superpowers. “Ahhh—stute.”
“Yes, I grasp the concept. Why’s a body in our rose bushes?” Valor carefully set the mug into the sudsy water, drying his hands off on his jeans and ignoring the indignant huff from Bishan. “Right. I’ll call the police, and you put Staccato in the bedroom.”
Their cat enjoyed climbing up on anyone who came into their cottage. Valor didn’t think the local constables would appreciate their uniforms being covered by their feline’s orange-sherbet-tinted hair. She also loved to disappear into the garden, something that wouldn’t be helpful either.
“Why are you calling the police?” Bishan had his phone out already.
“They hate you.” Valor fumbled with his iPhone for a second.
“Only because I set fire to cotton wool. And they think I’m a terrorist.” Bishan shuddered, obviously thinking about the offensive white fluff balls that he hated with a passion. “Val? It’s a body. Out there. In our garden.”
“Maybe stop looking at it?”
The police didn’t actually think Bishan was a terrorist. They’d had one unpleasant run-in with one of their neighbours when they moved into the small cottage in Grasmere in the Lake District. The older gentleman hadn’t appreciated Bish’s Indian heritage, their out-and-proud relationship, or the Tamboli family who’d come en masse to help the two move into their home.
Everyone else in Grasmere had been lovely to them. They’d welcomed the couple with open arms. Valor had needed the encouragement after falling out with his own family.
Ironic, in some ways, considering they’d always assumed Bishan’s traditionalist parents would be the disapproving ones. It seemed being gay and dating an Anglo-Indian had been one step too far for the son of an earl. Valor Tarquin Scott had been struck from the family; his father, mother, and elder brother hadn’t spoken to him in over a decade, not since a year after his graduation from Harrow.
By contrast, the Tambolis had embraced both their son and his boyfriend. Valor had been relieved. He didn’t honestly know how they would’ve gotten through without their support—and the help of the old boy network from Harrow.
We take care of our own.
Valor drew his attention back to his still muttering boyfriend. “Cotton wool is an inanimate object, Bish. It can’t hurt you.”
“It’s evil and must be purged with fire.” He gently set Staccato into their bedroom and closed the door. “Wicked stuff.”
“Overly dramatic twit.” Val rolled his eyes.
“It squeaks when you pull it apart. That’s not natural.” Bishan gave a full-body shudder this time. Hypersensitivity to sound was yet another of his autistic superpowers—or maybe more of his kryptonite. “Well? Call the police.”
The Grasmere Cottage
Mystery Trilogy
Dead in the Pond (bk 2)
Available now!
Dead in the Shop (bk 3)
Available now!
Dahlia Donovan wrote her first romance series after a crazy dream about shifters and damsels in distress. She prefers irreverent humour and unconventional characters. An autistic and occasional hermit, her life wouldn’t be complete without her husband and her massive collection of books and video games.
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