Welcome to the beautiful English village of Inkbury. Tucked deep in the North Wessex Downs, its only claim to fame is the picturesque riverside that once appeared in a Richard Curtis movie. That is, until the murder…
Former stand-up comic Juno Mulligan has been suffering a serious sense-of-humour failure. Not only has she lost the love of her life, but she’s having to relocate to the (admittedly idyllic) village of Inkbury to watch out for her elderly mother, who she’s genuinely worried might be marrying a wife-killer.
She hopes that her old friend, disgraced-journalist-turned-novelist Phoebe Fredericks can help her crack the case of whether her mother’s perma-tanned, iceberg-smiled, three-times-a-widower fiancé is hiding a murderous past.
But before they have a chance, the local art dealer washes up distinctly dead in the village’s famous river. His lover is in the frame, but Juno and Phoebe suspect that there is a deeper secret… One that relates to Phoebe’s own past and Juno’s present.
Will the unofficial Village Detective Agency solve the mystery before the killer strikes again? In sleepy Inkbury, as they soon discover, living one’s best midlife can be murder.
Fiona Walker is the million copy bestselling author of joyously funny romantic comedies. Most recently published by Head of Zeus, she will be turning to cosy crime for Boldwood. The first in her new Village Detectives series, The Art of Murder, will be published in May 2024.
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My thoughts: this was a really fun read, I loved Phoebe and Juno, and obviously Mil the waiter with his motorbike and crazy fake deaths.
When local art dealer Si drops dead and falls into the river outside Mil’s pub, Juno decides the friends should investigate his death, having the local insight and being the ones who found the body.
Is it his partner in business and life, Oliver? His mother, as suggested by one of his sisters, a professional rival or is it someone from his past?
As they investigate, asking questions and looking into who Si was, Phoebe is trying to finish her next book, and Juno is convinced her mother’s boyfriend is a serial killer – all three of his previous wives died in strange circumstances and he might be after her mum’s money as she’s suddenly selling the family home and moving into a retirement community.
They’re all a little eccentric and I just really enjoyed reading the book, which hopefully bodes well for the rest of this series – murder in an English village is a subgenre I particularly like reading (although I can’t stand the phrase “cosy crime”) and with these characters, it will be lots of fun.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 