"Centred on a country estate murder, this captivating crime mystery is steeped in the intrigue of character and place."
Set around an historic country estate on the edge of an affluent Cotswolds village, Bonnie Burke-Patel’s I Died at Fallow Hall tingles with the measured tension of a murder mystery, and the lives of its two central characters — individuals who’ve come to the village for a fresh start whose backstories are richly complex, and whose futures might tangle together.
It’s cleverly suspenseful, with a compelling tone and perspective — we see Anna, the protagonist, through her introspective eyes, as she also looks outward, seeking to become part of the community she’s moved to. After retiring as a ballerina at the age of 27, Anna gardens for Lord Blackwaite, custodian of Fallow Hall.
It’s while gardening that Anna unearths the bones of a woman who’d received a gunshot to the head some decades ago, with the narrative slipping between the present-day, as a DI recently arrived from the big smoke investigates the case, and 1967, when the murder took place.
Courtesy of the DI’s grief-stricken character, and themes of identity, race and gender, additional layers come to light as I Died at Fallow Hall wends to an unexpected conclusion. For example, Anna knows “that women are always to watch themselves – to know precisely how they look as they cross the room. They are to watch their own lives and to perform their womanhood”, and so “she wants to put her fingers under the edges and peel it back”.
It’s also fair to say that with I Died at Fallow Hall Bonnie Burke-Patel has crafted an enthralling novel that peels back layers of mystery and emotional depth in a thoroughly satisfying, well-formed story.
