Lead Review

• Book: The Prime of Ms Dolly Greene
• Location: Barnes
• Author: E V Harte

Review Author: tripfiction

In slightly other-worldly Tinderbox Lane lives Dolly Greene, Tarot reader and all round good egg. She lives with her adult daughter Pippa in a tiny house in a tiny street where neighbours frequently bump into each other. She is perceived by many as the woman who in involved in “funny magic business“.

Her closest neighbour is Maurice Bousquet, originally from St Lucia, who can cook an exotic curry. They have a nice neighbourly relationship but are not in each other’s pockets. And Mr and Mrs Buck, who seem an ill-matched and wealthy couple, who have created their riches through a plumbing business.

Much like the magic and messages of the Tarot cards, the story takes shape as relationships are revealed and mysteries unfurled. The body of a dead woman is found in the river Thames, and Dolly is most concerned it might be a client she has recently seen, called Nikki, who seemingly came to her via Maurice. Dolly is accumulating ethereal messages that are coming at her thick and fast, but her interpretation skills are being tested and she struggles to make sense of the whole picture. Death certainly comes to Tinderbox Lane but there is also romance in the air, in the shape of a handsome police officer, heralded in the cards as true love and a meeting of the minds.

But solving a murder through the cards? Dolly certainly has the magical language of the Tarot to further the investigations. It is a cosy and uplifting murder mystery that bowls along with Dolly, a warm and pragmatic soul at the heart of the unfolding story.

This is the first in the series and the second is due out May 2018, the third is plotted and work will start early 2018.

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