Over the Edge

I have a confession to make - I have NO IDEA what a "cozy" is. I THOUGHT I had, but there is nothing "cozy" about Betty Rowland's novels that I can see, other than that Melissa herself lives in, or just outside, a village in the Cotswolds (a range of hills) in Gloucestershire. Melissa herself is a forty-something, and an attractive forty-something at that, it seems, since she usually has at least a couple of men making advances to her - though in this particular book it is Iris who gets the man. And talking of this book: Melissa's next door neighbour, fabric designer and water colourist Iris Ash spends half the year in Britain, and half at her second home in Ales, the capital of the Cevennes region of France. Naturally Iris gets to know some of the inhabitants, such as businessman Philippe Bonard. So when Bonard opens a rural study centre, Iris agrees to run a painting course for him, and invites Melissa to go along. Melissa accepts the invitation, meaning to use the time to get stuck in to her latest "Nathan Latimer" novel (as author, not reader), but fate intervenes, and the two women have hardly had time to unpack before a dead body is discovered. This is one of those stories where few of the characters are quite what they seem, and some are very different indeed. The story is well-plotted, and though it might have been useful to have had an explanation of exactly who the Camisards were (as a brief appendix, perhaps?), the lack of information on this point doesn't really hamper the main story line. I got the impression that Ms Rowlands knows the Cevennes region from firsthand experience. and if that isn't so then she's an even better writer than I thought. I also suspect that Inspector Hassan is based on a real person - at least, I hope he is. Either way, taking Melissa off into a completely foreign setting, with a mixture of nationalities in the supporting cast, is an interesting move, which works well. Another first class Melissa Craig mystery. Highly recommended.