An easy read although ultimately disappointing. Poppy the dog was a delight, but the main character Emily was not. The book started with an odd prologue, and then developed into an odd mystery which finished with a bit of an odd bump.

Emily wasn't consistent as a character, and her boyfriend was openly awful. A lot of what Emily did, didn't make sense, and she becomes obsessed with her neighbour who has an usual metal fence around her garden. Emily believes a lie this woman tells her about one of Emily's friends, despite finding her suspicious and the story of her travelling daughter starting to unravel. She's been happy in her new (inherited) home and rid of her terrible boyfriend, but the minute he turns up unexpectedly, she's ready to marry him!

Just not great, unfortunately.

Emily has inherited her aunt's house which means she also inherited her dog Poppy. Poppy is just adorable and a character all of her own. The mystery is a whodunnit that will keep you guessing and wondering who to believe. A great cosy mystery!

Cozy mysteries and dogs, what’s not to love! A highly enjoyable read that I will be looking out for more by this author

Emily is down on her luck. Having been let go by work, she's also dumped by her boyfriend Ben. Beginning to wonder what her future holds, a letter from a solicitor provides an option she'd never thought possible. It also introduces her to an intriguing (and at times dangerous) corner of the country, Ashton Mead.

A lovely cosy crime story, with smatterings of puppy love. While I was able to deduce some of the story's plot, I hadn't counted on things being quite as dark as they were.

Containing all the things needed in a cosy crime (and a good story), this has friendships, familial tensions, mental health struggles, mistakes of the heart, overactive imaginations and one very adorable puppy named Poppy.

Really pleased there seems to be a series of books. I look forward to returning to Ashton Mead and all the characters soon.

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Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this novel.
This is a cosy Sunday afternoon read......nothing too dramatic....a tale set in a country village. Just pink and fluffy enjoyable reading.

Oh dear! I liked the premise of this book but had to give up because I found the main character so incredibly stupid! She's supposed to be an adult but acts like a fourteen year old (& maybe I'm doing fourteen year olds a disservice) I really liked the dog & felt really sorry he had to live with such a moron! It's a shame because it could have been so much better. Thanks to Netgalley & the publishers for letting me try & read this book.

This isn’t really a cosy mystery / crime book for like 80% of it, it’s the ramblings of a frankly paranoid and shallow character who has very little to redeem her. While there is something to her paranoia the basis for it is just not enough to justify it!

Additionally, the writing is heavy-handed and clunky. Everything’s pretty surface level and just felt like it needed a good style edit.

Nothing happens at all til right at the end either, so the pacing feels so off.

I had read one of Leigh’s earlier books before and felt similarly, but much time had passed and she was getting blurbed but some great authors so I was hopeful for improvement, plus making it a cosy mystery felt like it could have changed it up enough for me to enjoy. Sadly, no. I just don’t think her writing is for me, and I won’t be trying again :(

The cosy British murder mystery is a very popular genre at the moment and there are some fantastic books out there. This one was unfortunately lacking. I don't think I'd be recommending it.

I wasn't sure where this book was heading to start with but it soon drew me in. Life in a small quiet village is never as ideal as we think so when a move from London, leaving behind a fiance and suddenly adopting a dog can be shock for anyone. Finding you have a neighbour that is far from friendly and add a suspicious death and lack of friends then life can be hard. Gradually life settles but there is a mystery to solve and who better to do it than a four legged friend, if only they had listened to him earlier ...............

As far as I know this is the first cozy mystery by Leigh Russell and I think she did a good job in delivering an entertaining and compelling story.
The characters are fleshed and likeable even if a bit too reckless at times and the solid mystery kept me guessing.
I can't wait to read the next instalment.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

I am a huge fan of Leigh Russell’s books and I was looking forward to seeing how she would get on tackling cosy crime. I was pleasantly surprised as sometimes I find cosy crime a bit twee but Leigh manages to balance the sweet aspects of Poppy with the darker mystery at hand. It was a solid start to a new series and I will be looking out for its follow-up!

Emily hasn’t had the best lockdown experience, she has lost her job and then her boyfriend suddenly dumps her. As she is contemplating what to do with her life she finds out that her great aunt has died and left Emily her house in the charming rural Wiltshire village of Ashton Mead. But there is a catch, Emily has to agree to look after whatever pet is living there. Emily decides that this is fine and moves into the house. The pet turns out to be a lovely dog called Poppy. She begins to make friends in the village, settling in a new job when her ex-boyfriend turns up on her doorstep wanting another chance. Plus, her next-door neighbour’s daughter has gone missing and no one seems to care but her…

At times I found Emily stupidly naive in her mindset but then she is meant to be young and slightly unaware of what's happening around her so it balance of her character did work. She did think outside the box, especially when it came to her neighbour but at times she was horrid to her friend Hannah! But then makes for a nuanced and layered character. The star of the show was of course Poppy - who doesn't love a dog in a cosy crime series?! I wonder if I could team up with my wee dog Lily and go around Glasgow solving crimes.

Let me know if you read this one!

I can see what this was aiming for (a cute, cosy small town mystery) but it didn't hit the mark. Firstly the writing style was so strange, everything moved so fast in the beginning I got whiplash, I'm so confused why half the introduction happened all of a sudden in a paragraph then everything slows down again. Secondly I couldn't get into the characters of mystery, everything felt slightly childish and the characters unrealistic and annoying. I'm sorry bit this wasn't for me.

This book was sent to me electronically by Netgalley for review. Thanks to the publisher for the copy. What a fantastic book! The author has a great gift for characterisation - nuanced, interesting, believable people!Thanks to a great author we have great storytelling and emotional intelligence, this book was a huge pleasure to read!

I liked the description of Barking Up the Right Tree but unfortunately when I got into the story it just didn't work for me. The main character, Emily, really annoyed and irritated me as she didn't appear to have any common sense and all the way through I was silently screaming don't do that!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC.

As soon as Emily Wilson loses her job in marketing, her boyfriend Ben who moved in six months ago promptly leaves her. Fortunately fate steps in and Emily discovers her Great Aunt Lorna, estranged from the rest of her family, has left her a home in the village of Ashton Mead near Swindon, but with one condition – she must take on any pets that Lorna had when she died. Believing it to be a goldfish, Emily is taken aback to be presented with Poppy, a Jack Russell cross Shih Tzu puppy. As Emily sets about cleaning up the house, she falls in love with little Poppy and takes a job at the Sunshine Tea Shoppe, making great friends with the owner Hannah and local chemistry teacher Toby amongst others. She even befriends her initially hostile new neighbour Alice and, putting two and two together from excepts from Lorna’s diary, she starts to imagine something sinister has befallen both her great aunt and the neighbour’s daughter. Is this her vivid imagination working overtime or does Emily have something to fear from her new found friends?
Emily is a very sweet girl but rather dim when it comes to trusting the wrong people, in particular her good looking but incredibly shallow money-grabbing and controlling ex-boyfriend. Thank goodness Poppy is a better judge of character. It’s a real feel-good cosy mystery with a most endearing and star of the show character in the adorable Poppy as Emily learns life is not all about the bright lights of London but more about where the heart is and caring friends live. With an exciting and shocking ending which I didn’t expect, this is very different from this author’s crime stories but I’m sure it will have a universal appeal to animal and cosy story book lovers alike, and I am looking forward to more adventures starting with book 2, Barking Mad, due out in July 2023. 4.5*

I have mixed feelings about this book. Overall I did enjoy it so that’s why I am giving it four stars. It starts off feeling like a “chick lit” book which I find perfectly acceptable. Then it veers into a cosy mystery and then more of a thriller. This is the part I struggled with most as the start of the book didn’t set up the situation. I liked the main character, Emily until half way through the book where I found her incredibly annoying. Thankfully that didn’t last too long and she stopped being so naive. So bit of a mixed bag this one, but worth a read. Thank you #netgalley

A gentle, cosy mystery, first in a new series.

When Emily's boyfriend walks out of their shared flat, she is crushed. She really didn't see it coming but, having lost yet another job, she cannot afford to stay on alone. Then along comes the timely - and surprising - legacy of her great aunt's house left to her, but not unconditionally. To have the house, she must agree to look after any pets left at the time of her great aunt's death. With not a lot of options open to her, Emily sets out for the village of Ashton Mead, hoping for a new life . . .

This is a light, easy read with a bit of a mystery to solve. It got a bit heated towards the end! I liked the main character Emily and, of course, Poppy, but I did think Emily was a bit gullible at times. I know I can be a bit pedantic at times, but I was amazed at how she could just takes days off when it suited her! Still, really nothing to complain about and, for me, four stars. ****

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

DNF @ 23%
Barking Up the Right Tree is advertised as a new British cosy crime series, and in the book description it proclaims to be for fans of Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club, one of my personal favourites. I was very let down by the 23% of the book I managed to get through, and whilst I hate DNF-ing a book, I couldn't continue with this one, even with it being such a short, quick read.
The book was poorly written and the first person narrative felt very juvenile and bland. I disliked Emily from the first few pages; her outlook and behaviours were strange, coming across as extremely paranoid and absurd. The intrigue in her neighbour because of a metal fence... it was just too ridiculous to entertain.
I have seen other reviewers say that the only saving grace of this book is the dog Poppy, but Emily's attitude towards Poppy was the defining reason I didn't finish this book. The quote/straw that broke the camel's back was "my curiosity to find out more about Alice and her absent daughter overcame my qualms about abandoning my dog." Emily isn't an animal-lover yet the book is advertised almost exclusively about Poppy, the cover, the title, the name of the series. This didn't sit right with me as personally my dog is my child and I'm a proud dog-lover. Even if their relationship improved further into the book, I just detest Emily and as the main character, written in first person narrative, there was no chance that I would enjoy this book. After reading other reviews on goodreads, I don't think I missed out on much at all.
1/5 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley, Oldcastle Books and Leigh Russell for a digital review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review posted to Goodreads.

Things have gone from bad to worse for Emily she’s lost her job and her boyfriend dumps her , then one day she finds she’s inherited a house from her great aunt .
The inheritance does come with a proviso , that she must look after any pets that her great aunt has left behind at the time of her death.
Emily stays in the village and begins a new chapter in her life with her great aunts dog Poppy in tow.
Emily is very inquisitive ( nosy) and upsets her eccentric neighbour next door, is there more to her than meets they eye?
The story is easy to read and Emily is an exasperating character at times although I found she did redeem herself.
An enjoyable cosy village mystery and I look forward to Emily and Poppy’s next adventure .
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.