Bells, Tails & Murder: A Dickens & Christie Mystery Book 1 by @KathyManosPenn #CosyMystery set in the Cotswolds #RBRT #TuesdayBookBlog

Posted in Book Review, Contemporary Fiction, Cosy Mystery by Cathy

Author: Kathy Manos Penn

Published: February 2020 by Manos Penn & Ink

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

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Do you like heroines who’ve lived a little? Who’ve suffered life’s ups and downs but kept on trucking? Then you’ll love Leta Parker and her new friends in the Cotswold village of Astonbury.

When tragedy strikes Leta Parker’s life, the successful banker and closet sleuth chases a lifelong dream to retire to England. Leaving her friends and neighbors in Atlanta, she settles into Astonbury with her talkative dog and cat, Dickens and Christie.

Leta Parker’s life changed irrevocably when her husband was killed in an accident while they were out biking. Eighteen months later she had fulfilled her dream of retiring to England and has a pretty, restored and cosy cottage in the Cotswolds. All she needs now is to pick up Dickens, a dwarf Pyrenees and Christie the black cat, from the airport. They both have a moan (literally) and Christie particularly has plenty to say about being crated for the journey. Leta is a female Dr Doolittle and can actually communicate with animals. It’s a fun twist, I’ve often thought it would be perfect I could understand ‘dog speak’. I’m glad, however, that the animals were portrayed and treated as pets and not given human traits (apart from the obvious)

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7Sep2021

A Double Life: The Yellow Cottage Vintage Mysteries Book 5 by J. New #VintageCrime #CosyMystery #TuesdayBookBlog

Posted in Book Review, Cosy Mystery, Crime, Historical Fiction by Cathy

Author: J. New

Published: July 2020 by Phantom Press

Category: Historical Fiction, Vintage Cosy Mystery, Book Review

Autumn, 1936. Ella Bridges, Scotland Yard’s only female consultant is shocked to find a baby abandoned in Kensington Palace Gardens. With no adult in sight and a deadly storm brewing she has no choice but to take him home. The child is swiftly reunited with his parents and Ella believes that’s the end of the matter, but the next day a body is found under the Serpentine Bridge.

Ella Bridges is in London, staying with her brother and his wife for a few weeks. Out for a walk in Kensington Park gardens one day, Ella hears a strange mewling noise emanating from the bushes surrounding the statue of Peter Pan. Thinking it could be a kitten, she’s shocked beyond measure when she discovers an abandoned baby in a pram. Unable to locate the nanny or anyone else in the vicinity, Ella decides the best course of action would be to take the baby to her brother’s house and phone the authorities.

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16Jul2021

The Art of Betrayal: A Kate Hamilton Mystery by Connie Berry ~ Cosy #Murder #Mystery @conniecberry @crookedlanebks

Posted in Book Review, Cosy Mystery, Crime, Murder/Mystery by Cathy

Author: Connie Berry

Published: June 2021 by Crooked Lane Books

Category: Cosy Murder Mystery, Police Procedural, Book Review

Spring is a magical time in England–bluebells massing along the woodland paths, primrose and wild thyme dotting the meadows. Antiques dealer Kate Hamilton is spending the month of May in the Suffolk village of Long Barston, enjoying precious time with Detective Inspector Tom Mallory. While attending the May Fair, the annual pageant based on a well-known Anglo-Saxon folktale, a body turns up in the middle of the festivities.

I was a little concerned when asked if I’d like to review The Art of Betrayal as it’s the third book in a series. Thankfully, it works perfectly well as a standalone with enough background information woven through the narrative that I didn’t feel at a loss at any stage.

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7May2021

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

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

Author: Robert Thorogood

Published: January 2021 by HQ

Category: Cosy Murder Mystery, Book Review

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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4Mar2021

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

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

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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4Dec2020

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

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

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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18Aug2020

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

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

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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27Jul2020

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 Cathy

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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13May2019

Death at the Duckpond (Finch & Fischer Mysteries #2) by J. New #Cosy Murder/Mystery @newwrites

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

Author: J. New

Published: January 2019 by Phantom Press

Category: Contemporary Fiction, Cosy Murder Mystery, Book Review

When a much loved pillar of the community is found dead in the duck pond early one morning, the village residents are left reeling with shock.

Initially deemed a tragic accident it’s not until Penny receives a letter from the victim, dated one week before the death, that she begins to suspect a different motive.