Anna Deerin moves to a remote Cotswold cottage to become a gardener, trying to strip away everything she’s spent all her life as a woman striving for, craving the anonymity and privacy her new off-grid life provides.

But when she clears the last vegetable bed and digs up not twigs but bones, the outside world is readmitted. With it comes Detective Inspector Hitesh Mistry, who has his own reasons for a new start in the village of Upper Magna.

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Drawn in spite of herself to this unknown woman from another time, Anna is determined to uncover her identity and gain recognition for her, if not justice.

As threats to Anna and her new life grow closer, she and DI MIstry will find that this murder is inextricably bound up with issues of gender, family, community, race and British identity itself – all as relevant in decades past as they are to Anna today.

My Review

I didn’t really know what to expect from this book apart from the fact that it’s set in Gloucestershire where I live, and Cirencester is about 15 miles down the road. Detective Inspector Hitesh Mistry has left London to take up a post there. I’m pretty sure that Upper Magna is fictitious, though there is one in Shropshire, while Chew Magna is a village in Somerset. From the Latin, ‘Magna’ just means big or great in village terms.

Anna Deerin moved to Upper Magna about 18 months previously, to become a gardener and live her life off-grid. She doesn’t even have a phone. With it comes a remote, rent-free, one-bed cottage, but she has to grow her own food, which she sells at the local market. It takes self-sufficiency to a whole new level.

The cottage is set in the grounds of Fallow Hall, so when she digs up a skeleton along with the carrots and turnips, she is certain that the dead woman – who she refers to as her ‘Fallow sister’ – had something to do with the hall. And she is not going to let it go. This anonymous woman deserves respect and recognition.

It’s at the market that she meets Hitesh and you can see that they are going to become friends and co-conspirators. They both have reasons to be here, away from the hustle and bustle of London.

There are a lot of other interesting characters, but I was particularly drawn to Reverend Watts, the vicar of the local church, and his Golden Retriever David (named after the Biblical king). I love a human name for an animal – I knew someone who called his Golden Retriever Elizabeth, and someone else whose cat was called Colin.

I can’t even begin to describe how much I loved this book. I just wanted to keep reading. I needed to know who the woman was, but I didn’t want it to finish. I kind of guessed who she probably was, and how, but I only got the last part half right.

I also better mention the deeper themes at play here – ‘of gender, family, community, race and British identity itself – all as relevant in decades past as they are to Anna today.’ And also to Hitesh of course.

But it’s the writing that will stay with me. The author has a unique voice and style that is overwhelmingly beautiful. It captured something in my very soul. I Died At Fallow Hall is one of my favourite books of the year so far.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours

About the Author

Born and raised in South Gloucestershire, Bonnie Burke-Patel studied History at Oxford. After working for half a decade in politics and policy, she changed careers and became a preschool teacher, before beginning to write full time. She lives with her husband, son, and needy cat in south east London, and is working on her next crime novel about fairy tales, desire, and the seaside.