A Swarm of Butterflies

It is like meeting up with friends for a natter when reading this series. Dr Nell Ward, Dr Rav Kashnap, DI James Clark and Sylvia Shawcross are once again caught up in the middle of a crime adventure. Finchmere Estate are planning their first Finchmere Fete following their successful YouTube programme, Following Finchmere and their latest project focusing on rewilding the estate and opening artisans' businesses. We learn that Rav has a number one fan but no one knows who that is until the big reveal at the end of the book. It is a well written mystery and it's taught me a bit about ecology and very descriptive about the locations based on the estate. All the sub plots come together with a dramatic ending and the big reveal of the fan came as a total surprise to me.

Having loved A Trace of Hares by Sarah Yarwood-Lovett, I was excited to receive an arc of her next book. A Swarm of Butterflies didn’t let me down. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Set at Finchmere estate, where a fete was organised over 3 days to promote the rewinding project of Nell and Rav, it was being videoed to show on their You Tube channel. Unfortunately over the period they encounter murders, threats fire and stealing, to name but a few problems. James the Detective tries to solve the murders, but he doesn’t quite solve them before Nell and Rav do. So many people had the motive to commit murder, but it took me until almost the end of the story to guess the murderer. I love the way Sarah uses the title of the book several times through the story. I also learnt details about the blue butterfly, of which I knew nothing. My thanks go to NetGalley and Embla books for an arc of this book. I would highly recommend it.