Download And Enjoy Village Affairs (Phillip Bethancourt And Jack Gibbons Mysteries #2) Conceived By Cassandra Chan Supplied As Print

Scotland Yard detective Sergeant Jack Gibbons hears about his latest casethe death of a middleaged widower in Chipping Chedding, a small town in the English Cotswoldsand can't believe his good luck.
  His best friend, wealthy manabouttown Phillip Bethancourt, just so happens to be in Chipping Chedding already, accompanying his model girlfriend on a fashion shoot on a country estate.
  Since Phillip has helped Jack on numerous occasions, indulging his interest in a good mystery by aiding Jack in his investigations, it's natural for him to help them figure out what happened to Charlie Bingham.
 
           
Though at first Bingham's death appears to have been accident, tracing his movements on the evening of his death proves to be more difficult for Jack and Phillip than they expected, and they begin to suspect foul play.
It seems Bingham was going to visit his girlfriendbut no one in the village, from the vicar to Charlie's chess partner and Phillip's distant cousin to Charlie's neighbors, knows who she is.
And when it turns out that Bingham was in fact a very wealthy businessman who hid his enormous wealth from everyone around him, suspects begin to pop up, including his estranged daughter, who was in London on the evening in question, and an unhappy business partner who has no alibi.

           
Cassandra Chan shows her mastery of the traditional English mystery in this second charming novel to feature the investigative duo of Gibbons and Bethancourt, a modernday Peter Wimsey.
Enjoyable read. An improvement over the first novel in this series, Your basic contemporary British cozy mystery, especially those with amateur detectives, Which is somewhat surprising since one of the

main characters is a police detective, Solid characterization, attentive attention to the details of small village life and an unusual mystery combine for an enjoyable, if unspectacular, read.
Very strong sense of place i, e. a contemporary small British village

Possible ReadALikes: The first novel in the series, The young widow and several previously published short stories featuring the Gibbons and Bethancourt.




Village Affairs, the second in Cassandra Chan's BethancourtGibbons series, is the first to show signs of the series seriously getting its feet under it.
It's not quite as strong yet as the third and fourth novels, but the pieces are all in place here, and all of them are starting to work well together.


This book kicks in not terribly long after the events of the first bookand Gibbons, unfortunately, is in sad straits.
More than that I won't say, so as to avoid spoilers, But Bethancourt's girlfriend is doing a photo shoot in a small town in the English Cotswolds, and it just so happens that a murder has taken place there, providing Jack with an excellent opportunity to enlist his friend's aid.
A nice tangled little murder investigation ensues, complete with the obligatory cast of colorful characters, In particular, the vital young vicar and his beautiful wife stand out for me as memorable,

Overall the actual murder investigationwhich, at first, doesn't even necessarily seem like a murdertakes second place to me behind the characters.
In particular, Bethancourt's stormy relationship with Marla holds a lot of interest, as Marla highly disapproves of his participating in murder investigations.
Set off against Jack's depression over the events that have happened between the last book and this one, it makes for great character development fodder for all three characters.
You should definitely read the first one before reading this one, though, to pick up on the proper context for Jack's state throughout the plot.


Three. Okay, I really wanted to like this book, I accidentally stumbled upon it at the local library, It had a very cute cover and boasted a great mystery, This novel does take you into the heart of a small town in England, I actually think Chan did a great job incorporating the English flair, However, the mystery itself was pretty slowmoving, Sometimes I think the reason why I can't figure out the murderer is because there are too many people aroundthere's all these mentions of different names and places.
Small talk and habits are interspersed with actual action, Anyway, it was a decent mystery but not quite my cup of tea, Basically fine, with a couple special props:, the story is set in England and it's written by an American, but only the first of those is glaringly obvious and.
whoever did the jacket design came up with a megacute spine the spine was wearing a tux and the imprint's logo was a bowtie! I mean!.
This book really held my attention, It was a thoughtful whodunit, filled with good characters, The cover looks a bit smutty, but the content was clean, I love Small English villages as settings for mysteries and this one was great! i believe i read them out of order and read this one first.
preferred it to the other two in her series, this was a good 'british cozy', When Charlie Bingham is murdered in Chipping Chedding while Phillip Bethancourt is visiting there, Sgt, Jack Gibbons and Chief Inspector Wallace Carmichael find the amateur sleuth more than willing to help in the investigation,

A gentle murder mystery that explores the secrets of a small town, May I say that Clarence AstleyCooper almost stole the book Anyone with a fondness for Agatha Christie or Midsomer Murders should love this series.
And the time period just adds panache,.out of. Cute, cozy mystery. It definitely lagged in the middle though and I guessed who did it fairly early on, Jack Gibbons is a British detective who often calls upon the sleuthy abilities of his friend, gentleman Phillip Bethancourt who is SO CUTE, by the way.
I was bummed to find out that this was, Now I have to track down, The only qualm I have with it was that there were too many points of view, We really didn't need to hear from so many incidental characters, Chan's second proves she is after Christie's crown as the queen of the English cozy, Entertaining, light, and with a touch of Sayers' wit, she has a good shot at it! Cosy country mystery

Twists and turns abound in this book.
Fun read, worth the time, Looking forward to reading the next mystery in the series, More accurately.I think.

I really wanted to like this, and considering some of my favorite books and TV shows are the classic small, English village murder mystery I really should have liked this.
And honestly, it's not that there was one glaring flaw in the book, it really was just a bunch of small things that built up to make simply finishing the book more and more difficult.
Let's take them one at a time:

The book is way too slow and dense for the information being conveyed.
Each chapter felt like I had to slog through and I'd find myself getting tired halfway through, Eventually I gave up on reading a chapter at a time my normal and I'd hazard how most of us read and just read what I could.
There's nothing inherently wrong in a densely written novel but I suspect it would have gone over better if the chapters had been shorter.
One chapter might containmajor scene changes and if these had become chapter breaks you probably would feel more like you were being propelled along then trying to get through a swamp.
This is really my primary complaint about the book, it just became so difficult to pick it up that I stopped reading altogether.
. .

It was so predictable, I knew at about the/point who the missing girlfriend was, and therefore who had committed the murders and why they might have done so.
The motive was switched out at the end, but not in an interesting enough way to make it feel like a surprise.
It was hardly even a noticeable tweak, The fact that none of themajor detectives in this story even once thought of what was an easily arrived at motive for me "But why would have done it" just feels like sloppy misdirection.
Once my girlfriend guess was proved correct around the halfway point I got stuck on pointover and over again, Do I really want to plod through the whole rest of this book just to find out I already know who did it.
This weekend I gave honest consideration to reading the end of the book and letting that be that something I haven't done since I was.


The title "Village Affairs" and tagline "The Upper Classes Are Just Dying to be in Love" have nothing to do with the actual stories.
No one was having affairs, No implications of a half dozen or evenbehind the scene affairs that are fogging up the storyline were ever even made.
In fact, the only possible affair is vehemently denied as having happened by what is supposed to be our most astute detective.
So what I read this cover and expected a seemingly quite small village to turn out to have all kinds of deceit and misadventure under the surface ala Midsomer Murders only to find this is a book about.
a perfect, small, English village, With the only thing near to trouble coming from out of towners, I'm sure I'd be much more inclined to rate this book theI gave it if I hadn't felt like someone pulled a bait and switch.


And finally, the characters just, aren't. interesting. Ok. Our main detectives are quirk, but they aren't interesting, You can't really tell one from the other unless you notice the dog is in the scene, Now, if this series was about Carmichael and the Tothills I'd definitely read the next book, As it is, if you're looking for an interesting, well paced, rich buddy/detective series that you can't put down, Martha Grimes' Richard Jury novels have everything this book was supposed to deliver and none of the minor or less than minor flaws go read those instead.
It was one of the coziest mysteries ever, A rich wanderer who finally has settled down in a small English village is found dead in his house initially, heart attack is suspected, later high doses of sedatives are found in his blood.
His daughter is a socialite who depends on his money for her life style and later, it is brought to light that he was engaged to be married to a rich filmstar whose children, who again depended on her for their livelihoods, were ensconed in a farmhouse in the village, with their faithful nurse.
The mystery deepens with a second death, I liked the moderate pace of the book, and for once, the ending was plausible and not so dramatic, Overall, a good read. Good characters, ok mystery. A fun read.

Not picky but, . .
Odd inconsistent use of mobiles, . . and why is there so much smoking in a modern day mystery It just feels wrong but I guess more Brits don't care about health.
But seriously who lights up in other people's homes without asking! I should NEVER, ever, pay attention to publisher's promotional quotes, I am sure I would have enjoyed this book thoroughly if I had not read the "blurb" suggesting it is a homage to Dorothy Sayer's engaging Lord Peter Whimsey.


The conceit of using a sophisticated, worldly man of means as an amateur detective has been done so well by Marjorie Allingham and Dorothy Sayers that it is challenging for anyone who aspires to fill those shoes.
Cassandra Chan created an intelligent, appealing character for this book in Philip Betancourt,but I never could get past the practical issue of the police accepting Betancourt as an adjunct to their homicide team.
It just hovered in my consciousness as an unacceptable and unlikely scenario,

Betancourt's relationship with his girlfriend also hit a false note for me and when a book is so charactercentric these issues were not minor.
But, putting all that aside, Ms, Chan takes us to a charming English village and a house party gone mad with murder, She does a good job setting the scene and her descriptions of the culinary exploits of the Lord of the Manor on the maid's night off are reason enough to pick up the book.
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