Category Archives: Cosy Mystery

The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood @robthor Cosy #MurderMystery #FridayReads

Posted in Book Review, Contemporary Fiction, Cosy Mystery, Murder/Mystery by

51-9D+V2UmL._SX338_BO1,204,203,200_Author: Robert Thorogood

Published: January 2021 by HQ

Category: Cosy Murder Mystery, Book Review

four-half-stars

To solve an impossible murder, you need an impossible hero…

Judith Potts is seventy-seven years old and blissfully happy. She lives on her own in a faded mansion just outside Marlow, there’s no man in her life to tell her what to do or how much whisky to drink, and to keep herself busy she sets crosswords for The Times newspaper. 

Seventy seven year old Judith Potts was very happy with her life, living alone in an Arts and Crafts mansion on the banks of the Thames. She’d inherited the house from her great aunt, along with a modest portfolio of shares. Although she didn’t need to work, Judith had a job she loved, compiling crosswords for a national newspaper. No doubt her life would have carried on in this way but for the small matter of a murder.

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#ThrowbackThursday ~ The Curse of Arundel Hall by J. New, 1930’s #HistoricalFiction

Posted in Book Review, Cosy Mystery, Historical Fiction, Throwback Thursday by

This is the second installment of The Yellow Cottage Vintage Mysteries, featuring Ella Bridges in a cosy mystery series with paranormal undertones.

The ghost residing in the secret dining room beyond the pantry was causing Ella some problems in that Mrs Shaw, the housekeeper-cum-cook, refused to enter the pantry. Ella’s temporary solution was to move the food stuff into the kitchen proper, but she was determined to try and solve the mystery of who the woman had been and how she died. Ella decided she needed to visit her friend, Harriet, a local historian, to see if she could research The Yellow Cottage and shed any light on who the mysterious spirit was. Harriet is the founder of the local library and that’s where Ella finds her. It seems Harriet had found a connection between the cottage and Arundel Hall, now owned by Harriet’s old friend, Sir Robert Harlow. Harriet discovered that Ella’s cottage was once The Dower House belonging to the Hall.

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#ThrowbackThursday ~ Murder at the Bridge (Exham on Sea Mysteries 5) by Frances Evesham #CosyMurderMystery

Posted in Book Review, Cosy Mystery, Murder, Throwback Thursday by

Murder at the Bridge is part of a very enjoyable cosy murder mystery series, published in June 2017.

My Thoughts

Taking a moment to relax in the marquee after her son, Robert’s wedding to Sarah, Libby Forrest has a strange conversation with Belinda, the bride’s mother, interrupted by an unnerving man in a kaftan, causing Libby to prickle with discomfort and Belinda to make a hasty exit. Libby’s innate curiosity is aroused but before she could process her thoughts she is dismayed to hear an altercation break out over a supposedly stolen ring. 

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Mini #AudiobookReviews ~ Murder Under The Sun/Killing Time/Still Dead by @neilmustard & @katonahprod #Cherringham #CosyMurderMystery #FridayReads

Posted in Audiobook, Book Review, Cosy Mystery, Crime, Murder, Mystery by

Cherringham is a long running cosy mystery series of shorts, featuring Sarah Edwards and Jack Brennan and narrated perfectly by Neil Dudgeon. Each story is complete, with character development and lives evolving as the time frame moves on. Great for a quick listen and I enjoy catching up with the characters.

Jack, a retired NYPD homicide detective, relocated to the Cotswolds after his wife died and now lives on an old Dutch barge moored at Cherringham, with his dog Riley. Sarah Edwards, a web designer, returned to Cherringham from London with her two children when her husband left the family for his boss. She now runs her own company. She and Jack are Cherringham’s answer to private investigators, except they help out for free.

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High Wire in Nuala (The Inspector de Silva mysteries Book 9) by @harrietsteel1 #HistFic #BookReview for #RBRT #TuesdayBookBlog

Posted in Book Review, Cosy Mystery, Historical Fiction, Murder/Mystery by

Author: Harriet Steel

Kindle Edition

Category: Historical Fiction, Cosy Mystery, Book Review

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Much to the delight of the locals, a colourful Russian circus rolls into Nuala, but the fun ends abruptly when, on the opening night, a tragic accident takes place.

Shanti de Silva and his wife, Jane are among the crowd to witness the accident. Or was it an accident? Inspector de Silva senses murder, and soon, he’s juggling with the evidence. Will the trail lead to the circus’s dashing stunt rider and master of horse, Alexei Goncharov, or to Alexei’s brother Boris, its boisterous ringmaster?

The racecourse in Nuala was busy, but not for the racing. The Russian circus had come to town with its colourful wagons and big top. Excitement had built with the appearance of posters advertising trapeze artists, jugglers and high wire, even a snake charmer—de Silva’s dislike of the reptiles causing him to shudder at the thought—along with several other acts.

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The Postscript Murders (Harbinder Kaur #2) By @ellygriffiths #Cosy #MurderMystery #FridayReads

Posted in Audiobook, Book Review, Cosy Mystery, Mystery by

Author: Elly Griffiths

Narrated by Nina Wadia

Published: October 2020 by Quercus

Category: Cosy Murder Mystery, Audiobook, Review

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

PS: thanks for the murders.

The death of a ninety-year-old woman with a heart condition should absolutely not be suspicious. DS Harbinder Kaur certainly sees nothing to concern her in carer Natalka’s account of Peggy Smith’s death.

But when Natalka reveals that Peggy lied about her heart condition and that she had been sure someone was following her…

Although Peggy Smith is ninety with a supposed heart condition, living in sheltered accommodation, she has all her wits about her. Her flat looks out over the bay in Shoreham-by-Sea and she enjoys nothing better than keeping an eye on goings on, sitting in her armchair in the bay window with binoculars to hand, sometimes  making detailed notes of who she sees and what they appear to be doing. She is visited on a daily basis by carer Natalka, who works for the Care4You agency. This particular morning Peggy notices something out of the ordinary that piques her interest.

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A Perfect Storm: A Sgt. Windflower Mystery by Mike Martin #CosyMystery #CrimeFiction @mike54martin

Posted in Cosy Mystery, Crime, Fiction by

Author: Mike Martin

Published: September 2020 by Ottawa Press and Publishing

Category: Cozy Mystery, Crime Fiction, Book Review

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sgt. Windflower is back, untangling another swirling mystery, this one bringing the meth crisis and biker gangs to the quiet Newfoundland town of Grand Bank, feeling the sting of their deadly tentacles reaching all the way from the United States. He’s working with his familiar crew of RCMP characters — but wait, are some of the faces changing? There are new challenges for Jones, an unknown side of Smithson reveals itself, and what ever happened to Tizzard? In the midst of putting the pieces of the puzzle together, Windflower and his beloved Sheila also find themselves navigating sorrows and surprises on the family front.

Changes are afoot in the quiet town of Grand Bank on the Newfoundland coast. Eddie Tizzard has left the RCMP and is in Las Vegas training to be a private detective. That was the idea anyway, until he found himself on the wrong side of the law, held as a suspect in a holding cell. After returning to his hotel he had found a large amount of money spread around the room and bloodstains on the bed, not to mention a body in the bathroom. Unfortunately for Eddie, it seemed the dead man had a connection to Grand Bank and the FBI were involved.

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Listed Dead by @Jancoledwards ~ A Bunch Courtney Investigation, Book 3 #HistoricalFiction #RBRT #TuesdayBookBlog

Posted in Book Review, Cosy Mystery, Historical Fiction, Murder by

Author: Jan Edwards

Published: July 2020 by Penkhull Press

Category: Historical Fiction, Cosy Murder/Mystery, Book Review

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

November 1940. The Battle of Britain has only just ended and the horror of the Blitz is reaching its height.

Two deaths in rapid succession on the Sussex Downs brings Bunch Courtney and Chief Inspector Wright together once more. What could possibly link a fatal auto accident with the corpse in a derelict shepherd’s hut? The only clue the pair have is a handwritten list of the members of a supper club that meets at London’s Café de Paris. Two of those on that list are now dead and the race is on to solve the mystery before any more end up on the mortuary slab.

Listed Dead is the third in the Bunch Courtney series and told from her perspective in the third person. There’s much more insight into the Courtney sisters’ background, the environment in which they grew up and the family dynamics in this book. Things have changed drastically for Bunch since the start of the war. The family home, Perringham House, has been requisitioned by the military and Bunch is left to run the estate with the help of Land Girls, while living at the Dower House with her Granny Beatrice.

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Death by Windmill: A Mother’s day Murder in Amsterdam by Jennifer S. Alderson #BookReview for #RBRT #CosyMystery

Posted in Book Review, Cosy Mystery, Murder by

Author: Jennifer S. Alderson

Published: May 2020 by Travelling Life Press

Category: Cosy Murder/Mystery, Book Review

A Mother’s Day trip to the Netherlands turns deadly when a guest plummets from a windmill. Was it an accident or a murder? For Lana Hansen, the answer will mean freedom or imprisonment for someone close to her…

Lana Hansen is scheduled to lead the Mother’s Day tour of the Netherlands despite her boss Dotty Thompson’s reservations. Lana and her estranged mother, Gillian, haven’t been close for the past ten years, since Lana was sacked from her job as an investigative reporter for the Seattle Chronicle. Dotty is determined to bring them closer together and has a plan.

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Taken in Nuala (Inspector de Silva Mysteries Book 8) by @harrietsteel1 #HistoricalFiction #CosyMystery #TuesdayBookBlog

Posted in Book Review, Cosy Mystery, Historical Fiction by

Author: Harriet Steel

Published: April 2020

Category: Historical Fiction, Cosy Mystery, 1930s Ceylon, Book Review

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When an American millionaire and his glamorous daughter visit Nuala, the splendour they bring to the town’s high society is soon tragically tarnished by a vicious crime. With many avenues of inquiry to follow, including the involvement of a mysterious fortune teller, Inspector de Silva will need all his resources to unravel the evidence and avert further disaster.

A grand party is taking place at The Residence, hosted by the assistant government agent and Inspector Shanti de Silva’s superior, Archie Clutterbuck and his wife, Florence, raising funds for the orphanage and introducing their American guests, the Tankertons and their daughter, Phoebe. Inspector de Silva and his wife Jane join the list of invitees. Also staying at The Residence is Hank O’Halloran and his daughter Marie.

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