Well written for a debut novel. From page 3 I was hooked. The description of the surroundings held me. Easy pleasant reading.

A twist of a tale of inheritance, rural life, and sleaze in the neighborhood. When a policeman retires does he ever really give up his past role?

Author to follow in the future.

I loved the style of writing in this book, it’s sumptuous rather than elaborate. You can really feel the peace and the promise of the land. Great mystery here too, with many suspects in a very small village. I especially enjoyed the relationship between the vet and her daughter, which struck as very realistic.

Thank you to #Netgalley for the copy of #DeathUnderALittleSky by #StigAbell
Jake Jackson is a detective at the Met. Well thought of with a good career ahead of him. But maybe his life is not as great as it appears. When he receives notice that his uncle has died and left him his house and land in the middle of nowhere, Jake decides this might be just what he needs. Leaving everything behind he settles in to his new life of peace and quiet, but there is crime everywhere and it doesn’t take long before Jake is in the middle of a case.
A good story maybe just a little too long, but I would read any follow up now the stage has been set.

It started off really slowly and stagnated and nothing was really happening. This book reads more like a cosy mystery with too much romance and overly descriptive writing style..Just ok for a first novel.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for chance to review it.

This was a great read - I raced through this debut novel from Stig Abell.

Jake has been working in London as a detective, but with his marriage in trouble, when his uncle dies and leaves him his property out in the rural countryside, he sees this has an opportunity to get his life together and rest!
The solitude and ;lack of social media, Wi-Fi, gadgets (all the things we take for granted) is a new experience for Jake. No amenities; he trains each day, swimming in the lake and spends the evenings reading his late uncle's collection of crime novels.

Events mean that he has to put his detective skills to use, to discover the killer of a local girl, whose bones have turned up.

This will keep you riveted; it's fast paced and a great debut thriller novel.

More please!

I'm sure I won't be the only reviewer to use the word cosy, in describing this book.
I'm dont know if I misread the blurb, but it wasn't quite what I expected.
Perfectly pleasant, but a tad slow paced for me.
If you're after something a bit more mellow, this might be tight up your street.

Jake is a bit warn down. His marriage is all over bar the divorce and he is pretty burned out from his high-flying London based detective job. So the death of his reclusive uncle, albeit sad, comes at the right time for him as it presents him with the opportunity to turn the page on it all. Said uncle has left his house to Jake. It is in the middle of the countryside, near a small village and, well, has the potential to grant him the polar opposite of his current lifestyle, and the fresh start he craves and needs.
So he ups sticks and moves. Into the rural life. Slowly getting to grips with the slower pace and quieter life. Reconnecting with nature and, well, himself. He is assisted by Livia, the local vet, who he bumps into early on. And Sarah the local shopkeeper.
Things are ticking along quite nicely for him until the day of the annual treasure hunt comes round. He teams up with Sarah and her daughter as they start to hunt for St Aethelmere's bones. I say bones, I mean sticks, as it is all a bit of fun, but also quite serious as village events are wont to be. Traditional. Although when Jake finds the bag, and on his first time too, he is shocked when it actually does contain bones.
An so begins a bit of a dilemma as the reason for the bones being there is discovered and, well, Jake is forced to decide whether he wants to pause his new idyllic lifestyle to put his detective hat on once again to assist the local police. Especially as the stakes get higher...
Ooo I loved this book. The premise of parachuting an ex-detective into the country and having him play detective once again is not a novel idea but the author has managed to make this book feel shiny and new. Especially with regard to the story being told when the truth does eventually come out. It's extremely well plotted and that plot expertly executed. Quite a slow burn initially as the author sets the series up wrt characters and setting but nothing that drags and all as you'd expect from a series opener. Pacing matches the narrative all the way through, ramping up to the final scenes as the action gent more frenetic.
Characters are well drawn and all act well within their own stories. Having lived in a small village I found the author's depiction to be wholly believable. I took to Jake right from the start, same with Livia, and look forward to reconnecting with them and learning more about them both apart and together as the series continues.
And the crimes... wowsers. Really didn't see it all going there... and to find out what I mean, you'll have to read the book. I'm giving nothing away here!
And now all that's left is to wait for book 2. To reconnect to the characters I felt sad leaving as the book finished. Hopefully I won't have to wait too long. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

3.5 stars

A thriller with the difference that the detective really didn't want to detect. He wanted peace and quiet.

Jake's uncle leaves him Little Sky, a smallholding miles from civilisation in order that he can rebuild his life after splitting from his wife. An ex-policeman Jake finds himself thrown all too quickly into investigating a decades old death that certain members if the community want hushed up.

If you enjoy a cosier type of thriller with not much gore but enough action to keep you interested and intrigued then this may be the book for you. I enjoyed about two thirds of the book and the only parts I became bored with was the relationship between Jake and the local vet. The whole on again-off again aspect grated after a time.

But apart from that it was a good whodunnit in that I didn't guess whodidit. It was an easy read and I have a suspicion that Stig Abell could be a name to watch as his skill develops. I'd certainly read more.

I received an E-ARC with a request for my honest review.

This small village mystery follows Jake as he starts a new life in a house his Uncle left to him in his will. The house means Jake will have a completely different life and although he has left his old life behind, he is looking forward to the quiet life.

When human bones are found in a local traditional bone hunt the mystery leaves Jake and a new friend Livia searching for whose bones they could be.

The investigation starts to become dangerous as it seems inhabitants of the village want to keep their secrets safe.

Will Jake and Livia solve the mystery of the bones? Who is trying to keep their secrets safe?

I found this small village mystery quite slow paced but it was still exciting throughout as you got to know the characters Jake and Livia more as well as the mystery behind the bones slowly being revealed.

I liked the banter between the two of them and how their relationship develops throughout the storyline. The danger causing a few hiccups along the way.

This is a debut book for this author, and I would like to read further books from them in the future.

Overall, a small village mystery where a local tradition turns into a possible murder investigation.

There was a lot I thought was great about this debut, one being the premise of the central character's transition from married, city-dwelling police detective to single, unemployed inheritor of an isolated rural property. Jake's vulnerabilities and search for fulfilment added an interesting backdrop to the murder mystery itself. His journey from feeling tired and despondent to gaining joy in physical work, exercise and time outside rang true. I enjoyed the evocative descriptions of landscape, weather and wildlife. I also felt the romance was well-drawn - not icky! I like Abell's ability to raise questions about the treatment of women, the male gaze, and make violence. Surpassed my expectations and would recommend.

Mysteries and thrillers aren't really stories I read much but the title and the cover drew me into this one and I can honestly say that this was definitely worth reading,
The whole story was fascinating and it made me want to keep on read even after the novel finish.

This is an absorbing crime novel set somewhere in rural England. DI Jake Jackson has inherited a house deep in the countryside and as his marriage has just broken up and he has become disillusioned with his career with the Met, he gives up his former life and moves in.

The mystery begins when some human bones are discovered which leads Jake to question the death of a young woman 10 years earlier. The close knit local community are unhappy with him asking questions but soon an actual murder occurs which makes Jake even more determined to find out the truth. He is helped in this by Livia, the local vet and also has the blessing of the local police who don’t have the manpower to cover this area.

This is a very slow paced novel and also written in the present tense which always takes me a bit of time to get used to. I liked the pacing although wonder whether it is possible to be as isolated as Jake is nowadays. I especially enjoyed the prologue which showed the characters in a snapshot ten years previously and set the scene beautifully for the mystery. The novel is beautifully written and was as much about Jake finding his feet in his new life as a murder mystery. I found it engrossing but can see how some people might find the pacing too slow.

I thought it was an excellent debut novel and look forward to reading what Stig Abell writes next.
Thank you to Net Galley and Harper Collins UK for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Old human bones in a grave – not surprising. Recent bones found in a bag – very surprising. Whose bones? Why are they in a bag? Is this a crime? The bag in question is searched for annually by the residents of Caelum Parvum (Latin for Little Sky), a small, rural English village, as part of a festival commemorating a, probably apocryphal, mediaeval saint. It’s a sort of hunt the parcel game, but extending over several acres of open countryside. To make the bag feel right, it should have contained pieces of wood, not real human bones.
Former DI Jake Jackson, separated from his wife Faye and disillusioned with The Met, has only recently moved to the area, having inherited a house with a lot of land from his uncle Arthur. The local vet, Livia, had invited him to join her and her daughter to form a search team. Predictably, they found the bag. The law, as Jake knows, requires them to contact the police whenever remains are discovered in case they are evidence of a crime. Forensic tests show that these are those of a young women who died about ten years previously. The evidence does not suggest that she was unlawfully killed, so the local police, headed by DCI Watson, are reluctant to get bogged down investigating what might be a practical joke. Jake, with the help of Livia and Dr Peter, an eccentric local naturalist, determines to identify her and find out why her bones ended up in the bag. Their investigation puts them all in danger, as the villagers resent the intrusion into their quiet lives. Or do they have more sinister motives?
This is a fairly gentle criminal investigation story, some might call it rural, but I think bucolic is a better adjective. The author well known for his non-fiction writing, but this is his first novel. It may be a function of this that causes him to dilate on the descriptions of the countryside and country life (the actual location of the village is not given, but it feels like Somerset). He is particularly creative with adverbs. This is not to suggest any detraction from the writing, but it does make the whole thing a slow read (which does echo the quotidian life for which Jake strives). Elapsing time is hard to pin down, partly because it is largely measured by the weather. Jake is an interesting character, leaving the techno-urban world for one where electrons don’t intrude, and hygiene means swimming naked in the lake. The other characters, there aren’t many of them, are more routine. The villain of the piece is not hard to deduce, but the pace does pick up towards the end, once Jake has put the evidence together, and there is a reasonable amount of jeopardy. My score of four is a rounding up.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

I found this a slow burner and it took me a little while to warm to the style of writing. Overall I thought it was a great first novel and I warmed to the characters.

Wow! what an amazing Roller Coaster of a Book, Jake an ex Policeman goes to live off grid in a Home left to him by an Uncle , & then becomes mixed up in the discovery of some Bones from a Cold Case! Then the hunt begins , I won't put in any spoilers but once the story got going it was hard to take a break , but sleep must be had , nonetheless I highly recommend this Book . #NetGalley,#GoodReads, #Instagram, #Amazon.co.uk, #FB, #BetweenTheCovers, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/358a5cecda71b11036ec19d9f7bf5c96d13e2c55" width="80" height="80" alt="100 Book Reviews" title="100 Book Reviews"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/ef856e6ce35e6d2d729539aa1808a5fb4326a415" width="80" height="80" alt="Reviews Published" title="Reviews Published"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/aa60c7e77cc330186f26ea1f647542df8af8326a" width="80" height="80" alt="Professional Reader" title="Professional Reader"/>.

Jake's marriage is over. He has left the police at the grand old age of thirty-eight. After receiving a letter informing him of his uncle's death, he moves into Little Sky in the middle of nowhere, which has been left to him.
He meets Livia while sitting by the lake after his swim, and they form a friendship.
While out looking for the bag of bones, which is a yearly ritual, they stumble across real bones.
Who do they belong to? why are certain people keen to discourage Jake from finding out the truth?
It is a very enjoyable read. I really like the author's style of writing.
I found Jake and Livia easy-going, relatable characters.
There are plenty of shady characters too!
I did guess who the baddy was about halfway through, but I really liked how the ending was all tied up.
Thanks to Harper Collins UK for the invitation to read.

A decent first publication from Stig Abell.
Although billed as a crime drama, I thought there was just a little bit more to it than that and could imagine it might put some readers off. I did however enjoy it and was certainly kept sufficiently interest right to the end. No hesitation in recommending and look forward to future books from this author.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in return for an honest unbiased review

Death Under A Little Sky by Stig Abell is a debut book by the author and it is a very well written and extremely clever read. I liked the main characters, Jake as the former police officer and Livia, the vet for the small community.
It was a very clever crime thriller with plenty of twists and turns before the climax at the end.
I enjoyed reading this book and would read more by the author in future.
Highly recommended

As a debut novel this is a really good read. For me it was maybe a little too ‘wordy’, a little over descriptive and a slow burner, but that said it has a clever unusual plot (still can’t imagine being so unconnected) and I’d definitely be interested in reading more about Jake Johnson and his life in his rural idyll.

Jake has been left a house and a nice sum of money by a reclusive uncle after his death. Sounds great except that the house is in the middle of nowhere, there isn't a TV, radio, telephone or telephone signal let alone a bath or shower or a machine to wash your clothes.
Until now, Jake has been a successful city detective, married to an equally successful woman but his marriage has broken down and he is burnt out with the rigours of death that his job entailed.
This would appear to be the perfect form of escape, beautiful surroundings and the chance to get back to nature and self care.
Although Jake is enjoying his own company, Jake meets beautiful vet Livia who invites him to the annual village treasure hunt and Jake uncovers a death of a local that happened a decade ago. No one wants to talk about it and someone is definitely trying to cover things up.
Jake turns detective with some very dangerous consequences.
The book starts in a very descriptive manner, setting the scene and providing the atmosphere. The descriptions are fantastic but so many can get a little tiresome. However, the story once it took its hold, is dark, mysterious and thrilling with a 'who done it' that is kept under wraps until nearly the very end, just as it should be. A good mix of classical rural detective and psychological thriller.

With thanks to HarperCollins UK, Harperfiction and #NetGalley for this preview read of #DeathUnderaLittleSky.