*I received a free copy of this book, with thanks to the author, Bedford Square Publishers and Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*
Blurb: Anna Deerin moves to a remote Cotswold cottage to become a gardener, trying to strip away everything she's spent all her life as a woman striving for, craving the anonymity and privacy her new off-grid life provides.
But when she clears the last vegetable bed and digs up not twigs but bones, the outside world is readmitted.
With it comes Detective Inspector Hitesh Mistry, who has his own reasons for a new start in the village of Upper Magna.
Drawn in spite of herself to this unknown woman from another time, Anna is determined to uncover her identity and gain recognition for her, if not justice.
As threats to Anna and her new life grow closer, she and DI Mistry will find that this murder is inextricably bound up with issues of gender, family, community, race and British identity itself – all as relevant in decades past as they are to Anna today.
Based on the title and cover, I would have expected something of a Gothic mystery, but the blurb clued me in that this would be more of a thoughtful exploration of human connections and identity with an underlying mystery providing the bones for the living story to adorn.
Both main characters, Anna and Hitesh are isolated and lonely, and trying to forge a new life and identity for themselves after events in their individual pasts caused them to question their purpose and sense of self. In Hitesh's case, one feels that he longs for closer human bonds but has forgotten how to reach out to forge them, and in Anna's case the isolation feels more like a moral and philosophical choice - a chance for her to strip herself of others' perceptions and find what is at her bare core.
Anna's gardening job and barebones living style give very cottagecore vibes, as she lives on what she can grow and make and sell and eschews any frivolous or modern possessions in favour of the simple life. Hitesh also lives in a stripped-back setting, but his feels more bleak: surrounded by boxes full of his belongings (both useful and decorative), but managing without because he can't face the reminders of his previous life that 'normal' living would entail.
Their joint-but-separate investigation of the identity of the bones Anna finds and how they came to be in the grounds of Fallow Hall is really an exploration of their lives and choices to this point and of where they want to their futures to lie. Both feel damaged and wary and recognise that in each other, but struggle to break free from their self-imposed exiles.
I feel like I should have worked out the murder mystery sooner, as all of the clues are there in the plot and obvious in retrospect, but I was so caught up in the characters' lives that I found myself following their tortured thought paths and was kept guessing alongside them until all was revealed.
With quite a literary descriptive style and a slow, meditative pace, this mystery story is a poignant, thoughtful journey towards a more mindful and connected approach to life and to others, investigating how easy it is to be consumed by passion, possessions or perceptions and how important it is to stay true to one's self in order to truly thrive. Anyone who likes their murder mysteries cerebral and hauntingly human will resonate with this book.
Eloise squeezes back. She buys flowers and smooths her hair, and when she turns to rejoin the crowd and greet her friends, Anna watches to see if she can find the fault lines between the face that is pleasing and the mother in pain. There are none, Anna concludes, as she watches Eloise greet a friend and stroke her goddaughter's hair, and she wonders whether Eloise is too practised to show it, or whether it is not there. Whether, if you please for long enough, the boundaries dissolve and your pleasing face is your real one, and the only one you have.
- Bonnie Burke-Patel, I Died at Fallow Hall
About the author
Born and raised in South Gloucestershire, Bonnie Burke-Patel studied History at Oxford. After working for half a decade in politics and policy, she changed careers and became a preschool teacher, before beginning to write full time. She lives with her husband, son, and needy cat in south east London, and is working on her next crime novel about fairy tales, desire, and the seaside.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bonnieburkepatel
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