Undermined by Ripley Hayes

Reading this made me so nostalgic because I used to watch a lot of UK police procedurals with my parents, and this had a very Midsomer Murders-but-set-in-Wales vibe to it. The hero, Daniel, is sent to a small Welsh village to help investigate a murder since they're short staffed, so he's been enlisted to help out with a murder case: a woman named Suzanne has died, and it seems like she might be a meddlesome busybody with a mean streak who messed with the wrong person.

He immediately notices how attractive the other CDI, Kent, is. But Kent is very grumpy and seems to resent his presence and him. This isn't grumpy x sunshine so much as grumpy x awkward but I really liked their dynamic a lot, particularly as they started to open up to each other. This small village environment manages to be both charming and claustrophobic and I liked how the author addressed the difficulty of being out in a conservative leaning place that is so mired in the past and still knows ALL your business. Yikes.

I liked the mystery and the romance and the writing was good on the whole, although an entire half chapter was duplicated in chapters 19 and 20 in my edition (the part where they're going for a drive and Kent asks about Daniel's tree tattoos). I did such a double take because I thought I'd accidentally skipped back on the Kindle.

That said, I'll definitely be reading more in this series. I really enjoyed the tone and the vibe.

4 out of 5 stars