Stranger in the Village - Malvern Farm Mystery #2

Stranger in the Village is the second Malvern Farm thriller(ish) mystery by Kate Wells. Released 30th June 2024 by Boldwood Books, it's 359 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free. The other books in the series are also also currently available on KU. 

Jude is again drawn into investigating a spate of unsettling occurences including a hit and run outside the pub and a mysterious stranger walking her fields at night. She and DS Binnie again collaborate to get to the bottom of things. It's a testament to the author's command of character that all of the characters, including the secondaries are well delineated and three dimensional. Each is quite distinct from the others and readers won't have any trouble keeping them straight.

The author is also quite adept at setting, and the whole is effective and engaging. The mystery itself is well engineered and culminates in a satisfying and twisty way. The plotting is -excellent- and the mystery is very clever.

It's the second book in the series and although it works well enough as a standalone, the continuing characters' interrelationships develop throughout;  readers should expect some minor spoilers if read out of order.

Four and a half stars. It's not at all derivative, but fans of Faith Martin, P.F. Ford, and J.R. Ellis will likely enjoy this one. With three books extant in the series and a fourth out from the same publisher in first quarter 2025, it would be a good candidate for a binge/buddy read. The author seems to be on a semi-annual publishing release schedule, so there are books coming out regularly.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.