Today I am delighted to be sharing my review of A Womb With A View by Mark Tilbury. this book is a bit of a departure for this particular author with Twisted Tilbury taking a slight sidestep away from the darker side of fiction to bring us a little bit of comedic crime fiction. My thanks to the author for the advance copy. Here’s what it’s all about:
Release Date: 19 January 2023
Publisher: Tilbury Publishing
About the Book
Private investigator, Bob Blundell, is asked to undertake a seemingly routine surveillance operation at Featherstone Manor. Claudia Pennington believes her husband, Eugene, is having an affair, and she wants Bob to catch him in the act while she’s away in Africa.
But Eugene is not the only one up to no good. With his psychopathic nephew, Reuben, running amok in his own warped fantasy world, Chef’s heavily pregnant wife, Wassana, displaying episodes of feral behaviour and the baby appearing to talk inside her womb, and Eugene’s sister, Nancy, resentful of her brother because he inherited the manor, Bob finds much more than infidelity lying behind the drab stone walls of Featherstone Manor.
A Womb with a View is a chaotic, comic tale, underpinned by revenge, greed, and betrayal.
My Thoughts
Well this book did make me titter. It’s nice to see Mark Tilbury venturing away from the really dark side for a change, and allowing his natural flair for humour to take the lead. That’s not to say that there aren’t some of the author’s trademark dastardly twists to this book, as there are, but it is dominated more by some of the madcap and certainly unexpected elements of a story that starts with a suspected affair and takes a very deadly turn.
In A Womb With A View we meet Bob Blundell, a former police officer turned Private Investigator. He has been hired to try and detect the infidelity of Eugene Pennington, to aid his wife, Claudia, in her plans for a rather humiliating, and expensive, divorce. It’s fair to say that Bob is not the most accomplished of Detectives, in fact following this particular case, I think I’d call him blundering Bob. His appearance is immediately seen as suspicious by Eugene and Claudia’s nephew, Reuben, a wannabe spy and soon to be a massive thorn in Bob’s side. I quite liked both Bob and Reuben. Bob because of his very believable desire to get aware from a troublesome mother-in-law and inept attempts to set up covert ops in a stable, and Reuben because of his flights of fancy and his unwitting interference in what is, eventually a very serious case.
In fact, it’s the characters who really make this book rather special. You have Bob and Reuben obviously, then unfaithful Eugene and his mistress Rose. Add into the mix, Eugene’s sister and her new partner, Chef and his feral wife, Wassana ( and yes – I do mean feral), and little terrier, Mitzy who is besotted with Bob, and the scene is set for some very amusing and entertaining action. There are plots afoot, and its up to readers to see if they can guess the full why and wherefore of what is being planned. Some of it is out in the open – courtesy of Reuben and one of Bob’s planted bugs – some of it less so, Mark Tilbury throwing in a good few twists to keep the mystery alive. Far from being able to prove adultery, it becomes a race against time to prevent a murder, or maybe more, and that leads to more than the odd bout of laughter as the plot it gradually revealed.
I don’t want to say too much about the plot, or some of the more madcap moments of the novel as the fun is in reading them for yourself. I will say that if I ever needed another reason not to eat lobster, this book has probably provided it. And between Reuben and an expected but unconventional arrival on Christmas day, I’m also feeling glad not to have kids …
Fun, fresh and entertaining, fans of the author, and even lovers of cosy crime, if you don’t mind the odd infusion of swearing, will really get something out of this new style from Mr Tilbury. Less twisted and more tongue-in-cheek this time and it works.
About the Author
Mark lives in a small village in the lovely county of Cumbria, although his books are set in Oxfordshire where he was born and raised.
He’s always had a keen interest in writing and after being widowed and raising his two daughters, Mark finally took the plunge and began self-publishing. Mark’s writing has earned him the name #TwistedTilbury due to the dark and twisted nature of his books. He’s published 12 books to date, and his 13th, A Womb With A View, will be published 19th Jan 2023
When he’s not writing, Mark can be found playing guitar, reading and walking.
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