A Maypole of Deceit
by Victoria Tait
I am pleased to participate as part of the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Victoria Tait’s A Maypole of Deceit, the newest book in her Cotswold Antique Mystery Series. I have been an avid fan since I reviewed the first book in her Treasured Journey Mystery Series Antiques and Adversity in the Azores for a blog stop on my social media. You can find posts on this blog with a review of A Wicket of Lies and an author interview from last November when she released Pantomime of Peril. This time around, she has provided an author guest post discussing the process of creating a duel point of view narrative: Writing with Two Sleuths in A Maypole of Deceit
Also, the author is offering a tour wide GIVEAWAY for this tour. Her May Day Mystery Giveaway includes a copy of A Maypole of deceit and a $20 Amazon Gift Card. So make sure you enter the Giveaway at the end of the post.
About A Maypole of Deceit
by Victoria Tait
A Maypole of Deceit: A British Cozy Murder Mystery (A Cotswold Antique Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
5th in Series
Setting – Cotswold, England
Publisher : Kanga Press
Publication date : May 8, 2026
Number of Pages 224
Digital ISBN-13 : 978-1917168779 ASIN : B0G11QSWR6
Paperback ISBN-13 : 978-1917168786
Spring has arrived in the Cotswolds, and bunting flutters above the village green as Coln Akeman prepares for its annual May Day celebrations.
Antiques expert, Dotty Sayers, is busy at the auction house, and her friend, Keya Varma is run off her feet at her café. But when an elderly woman goes missing and a man’s body is found among the festivities, the joyful occasion takes a darker turn.
With clues as tangled as the ribbons on the Maypole, Dotty and her friends must work together to untie a knot of lies before mistrust tears their close-knit community apart.
A Maypole of Deceit, the next charming cozy mystery in Victoria Tait’s Cotswold Antique Mystery series, is a heart-warming tale of friendship, courage, and truth set in the heart of the British countryside. Perfect for readers who enjoy traditional whodunnits filled with village life, vintage treasures, and a dash of British humour.
Celebrate spring and uncover the truth with A Maypole of Deceit today!
Storybook Lady
Review
A Maypole of Deceit
Victoria Tait is one of my Must Read authors and I jumped at the chance to read A Maypole of Deceit, the latest entry in the Cotswold Antique Mystery series. She mixes Mayday festivities, murder and other mysteries in this fun novel.
Everyone is pitching in and preparing for the May Day festival when a body is discovered tied to the Maypole. Rather than cancel the festivities, Zach and Dotty arrange for the Antique Center to improvises a new setting while Keya and Sujin begin the forensics work onsite.
But the murder isn’t the only mystery. a senior citizen is missing and her house has been put up for sale. There also seems to be a series of missing items at the Waterwheel Cafe. On a personal note, both couples who have been house hunting are still searching, and Keya and Sujn have settled into married life. Tait ties everything together neatly in this character driven cozy mystery. Weather you have been a fan since the original Dotty Sayers mysteries or you have only recently started with one of the new spinoffs, this Springtime story will make a perfect cozy read.
AUTHOR GUEST POST:
By Victoria Tait
Writing with Two Sleuths in A Maypole of Deceit
Writing with Two Sleuths in A Maypole of Deceit
My two protagonists in the Cotswold Antique Mystery series are Dotty Sayers and Keya Kerr. They are friends but have different roles, skills and attributes which they use to solve cases together.
Dotty is the lead character in my Dotty Sayers Antique Mystery series, where she begins as a receptionist at Akemans auction house in the Cotswolds and works her way up to managing it. She is a true amateur sleuth with no formal training, and no official police connections except her friendships with local officers.
She has a kind manner which encourages other people to speak freely and sometimes confide in her. Her role as an antiques expert means she spots details others miss and has a knack of connecting clues. And because she has no connection to the police, she can go places and ask questions that an official investigator cannot.
Keya also appears in Dotty’s original series. She started in a supporting role but pushed her way into a more important part and eventually earned a series of her own. The Waterwheel Cafe Mystery series follows her as she investigates crimes in her own right.
She was a police officer at Cirencester Police Station, first as a constable and then as a sergeant, before leaving to fulfil her dream of opening a cafe next to Akemans. She also took on a part time community engagement role with the police. When her team was disbanded following restructuring at Cirencester, she retrained as a crime scene manager. She is now married to Sujin, who works in forensics, and together they provide the technical and forensic side of any investigation.
In A Maypole of Deceit, a body is found tied to the maypole on the morning of the village’s annual May Day celebrations, Keya is drawn into the investigation in an official capacity. She and Sujin work the crime scene and liaise with Inspector Lynn Lockwood and her team at Cirencester. Although Dotty is friends with Lynn and respected by her, it is Keya who has the official channel into the ongoing police investigation.
Meanwhile Dotty is helping Norman and a group of his friends who work at Akemans to search for their missing friend Mabel. It is while doing this that she uncovers information which turns out to be directly relevant to the main investigation.
At one point Keya asks Dotty to help her speak to a particularly prickly suspect. Dotty’s friendly manner and lack of any police connection make her the better choice for that conversation. Lynn agrees to the arrangement.
Writing two protagonists requires discipline and a clear head. I need to keep their voices separate, so it is clear from whose viewpoint we are seeing the action unfold. I don’t switch within a scene but write each chapter solely from either Dotty’s or Keya’s point of view. Dotty is still my lead, and the story follows her instincts. But in this book, which has a strong forensic and police thread, Keya drives the investigation forward.
The practical challenge is managing what each of them knows at any given point. I am a discovery writer. I have an outline, I know the crime and I usually know who committed it, but I decide where the story goes next only after I have written each scene. That means I have to track carefully what Dotty has learned, what Keya has learned and what neither of them yet knows. I go back regularly to check this before I weave their separate threads together as we move forward towards the resolution. I do get confused and often check specific points but I hope I have caught everything and that the books work logically as well as being a satisfying and enjoyable read.
The reason two sleuths work, when it is done carefully, is that they see the same puzzle differently. Dotty looks at people. Keya looks at evidence. The truth, when it finally emerges, requires both. My readers have enjoyed reading about them separately in their individual series and are now enjoying seeing the friends work together in the Cotswold Antique Mystery series. I hope you do too.
A Maypole of Deceit is available now.
About Victoria Tait
Victoria Tait was born and raised in Yorkshire, England, where she discovered a passion for mystery fiction and storytelling. Inspired by the works of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Midsomer Murders, she writes British cozy mysteries infused with her signature British charm.
Her determined and hard-working female sleuths are joined by colourful but realistic teams of helpers, and her settings are vivid and evocative. With intrigue, surprises, and gentle humour, Victoria’s page-turning stories offer engaging whodunits, best enjoyed with a cup of tea and a slice of cake.
Victoria’s books avoid graphic content and profanity, focusing on character, logic, and the steady work of uncovering truth.
Victoria has recently been exploring the world, drawing inspiration for her books from remarkable places including the Azores, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Morocco, and Malta.
Read the FREE prequel to her Dotty Sayers Antique Mystery series at her website, VictoriaTait.com.
Learn More about Victoria Tait
Find out more about Victoria and her books at VictoriaTait.com
TOUR PARTICIPANTS
May 9 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
May 9 – fundinmental – SPOTLIGHT
May 10 – Books1987 – SPOTLIGHT
May 10 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
May 11 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – SPOTLIGHT
May 11 – Storybook Lady – REVIEW, AUTHOR GUEST POST
May 12 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
May 12 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
May 13 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – REVIEW
May 13 – Reading Is My SuperPower – SPOTLIGHT
May 14 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW, AUTHOR INTERVIEW
May 15 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
May 15 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
May 16 – Elizabeth McKenna – Author – SPOTLIGHT
May 17 – Sarandipity’s -CHARACTER GUEST POST
May 18 – Salty Inspirations – AUTHOR GUEST POST
May 18 – bibliophile_foodie -REVIEW
Want to read more of my reviews?
Interested in my reviews of Victoria’s other books? Check out my Goodreads Victoria Tait shelf. I also have a Goodreads shelf dedicated to Cozy Mysteries. Want to read my reviews for books in other genres? I’ve got you covered. There are almost two thousand reviews on Goodreads. Just check out Julie Ditton on Goodreads.
May Day Mystery Giveaway
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