About the Book

In the quiet seaside town of Tamarisk Bay,the police appear to be doing little to find Zara.  Her friend Janie decides to make it her mission to track her down.   It’s the ‘swinging sixties’ and Janie fears that Zara may be mixed up with drugs, alcohol, or worse.  As Janie explores the strange circumstances of Zara’s disappearance, she starts to question the truth about Joel’s death.

Janie runs the mobile library and has a passion for crime fiction, especially Agatha Christie.  Can Poirot help Janie solve the mystery of Zara’s disappearance?

As she looks for clues Janie comes across some unsavoury characters who each have a reason for wanting Joel dead.  Can she untangle the web of lies and find out the truth?

 

My Thoughts

Janie is a young woman who reconnects with her old friend Zara but then soon after something terrible happens and Zara disappears. Janie then makes it her mission to discover what happened to her. Janie is passionate about crime and mystery novels, in particular Agatha Christie, so she uses her knowledge gleaned from these books to help her solve Zara’s disappearance!

I listened to this book on audio (from Audible) and I was very quickly drawn into the story. I felt like the narrator, Penny Scott-Andrews, really captured Janie’s spirit and personality and brought her to life. Janie is young, and a little naive, but she’s also enthusiastic and wants to be a part of things. Early in the novel we learn that Janie has recently re-connected with her old school friend Zara and the two women begin having fun getting to know each other again. I felt like Janie really was in awe of Zara and it brought out the younger side of her as she was back looking up to Zara and wanting to be confident like her. Janie is happily married and Zara has a boyfriend Jamie and all seems great until something terrible happens and Zara retreats into herself. Janie immediately goes to Zara’s aid and helps her through the heartache but then one day Zara disappears, and leaves no trace of herself behind.

Janie quickly becomes frustrated with how little the police appear to be doing to find Zara and so she starts to follow her own leads, inspired by her beloved Poirot! I loved this part of the book because Janie is the kind of amateur detective that I think I would likely be. She finds clues and pieces together elements of what might have happened but she struggles to put it all together. I think in part due to her naivety over what some people are actually capable of. She is such an endearing young woman though and I loved reading about her.

There is a real sense of time and place in The Tapestry Bag, which I also adored. It’s set in the 60s, which I hadn’t been aware of when I started listening but I soon felt like I was immersed in that time period. The location is a small seaside town called Tamerisk Bay and I felt the novel captured what it is to live in a small town. It really worked as Janie tries to uncover what happened to Zara whilst also not wanting all and sundry to know she is playing amateur detective! This all added to my love of this novel.

As I was coming to the end of this book I was delighted to realise that there is another book featuring Janie and I already cannot wait to read, or listen, to it. It’s wonderful to discover a new (to me) author whose writing was exactly what I needed when I read it, and who now is going to be a must-buy author!

The Tapestry Bag is a brilliant and gripping mystery novel, which I utterly adored and I highly recommend it!

Many thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

The Tapestry Bag is out now on audio book and is available here.

 

About the Author

Isabella Muir is the author of a popular Agatha Christie style crime series – the Sussex Crime Mysteries. These Agatha Christie style stories are set in in the sixties and seventies and feature a young librarian and amateur sleuth, Janie Juke, who has a passion for Agatha Christie. All that Janie has learned from her hero, Hercule Poirot, she is able to put into action as she sets off to solve a series of crimes and mysteries.

Her latest novel – The Forgotten Children – takes her writing into another genre.  Still focusing on events in the 1960s The Forgotten Children tells the story of the injustices experienced by thousands as a result of the British child migrant policy.

Isabella has been surrounded by books her whole life and – after working for twenty years as a technical editor and having successfully completed her MA in Professional Writing – she was inspired to focus on fiction writing.

Aside from books, Isabella has a love of all things caravan-like. She has spent many winters caravanning in Europe and now, together with her husband, she runs a small caravan site in Sussex. They are ably assisted by their much-loved Scottie, Hamish.

Social Media Links –

https://www.facebook.com/IsabellaMuirAuthor/

https://twitter.com/SussexMysteries

https://isabellamuir.com/

 

About the Narrator

Penny Scott-Andrews trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. For many years she performed in The West End, as well as on the fringes of London, Brighton and Edinburgh. She also has plenty of touring experience playing leading roles, such as Gwendoline in The Importance of Being Earnest, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Olivia in Twelfth Night. However, she is at her happiest in the recording studio and has had the pleasure of recording dozens of audiobooks and radio dramas.

Twitter: @penandrews

 

Giveaway to Win 1 x Audiobook of The Tapestry Bag (Open Internationally)

*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/33c69494221/?

 

You can find the rest of this tour at the following blogs: