Month: Oct 2024

Finders keepers, losers . . . Dead?

Checkout girl Bea Jordan has a knack for stumbling into trouble. Even so, nothing can ruin her picnic in the allotment with her best friend, green-thumbed Ant.

With the annual Kingsleigh Flower and Produce Show approaching, she feels he’s had little time for her. Especially with the drama of a prize-winning tomato thief on the loose.

But a grizzly discovery is waiting for them by the pumpkin patch . . .

The body of Dylan Bradley, their old history teacher. Someone stuck a trowel in his head and left him for dead.

But who would want to hurt Dylan? Bea has a feeling it has something to do with the ruby ring he dug up in the allotment.

Then the discovery of a second body throws the townsfolk into full-blown turmoil. Now Bea must juggle small-town secrets, rivalries and murder with her growing feelings for Ant.

Can she dig up the truth before the killer strikes again, or has Bea finally planted the seed for her own demise?

AN ABSOLUTELY GRIPPING COZY MYSTERY FULL OF TWISTS AND TURNS AND LOVEABLE CHARACTERS.

Meet the workers of Kingsleigh Costsave. There’s Bea, a maths whizz with a heart of gold. Ant, a hapless high-school drop-out. And wisecracking Dot, in her late fifties and always beautifully coiffed.

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I’m a fiftysomething author of psych thrillers and cosy crime books for adults and thrillers for young for adults. I live in Bath, England, and have a husband, two grown up children and two dogs. I’ve been a full-time writer for 10 years, before which I had ‘sensible’ jobs.

I’m now writing crime for adults. My cozy crime series, The Supermarket Mysteries, is now published as ebooks with Joffe Books. The first novel in the series is The Missing Checkout Girl Mystery.

My debut psychological thriller, Safe With You, is published by HQ Digital and is out now.

For young adults, I have published the Numbers trilogy, The Drowning and Water Born with Chicken House UK. The first book came out in the UK in 2009 and the USA in 2010. My Numbers books explore the gift of being able to see death dates. If you looked in somebody’s eyes and saw the date of their death, would it change the way you felt about people? They’ve been published in 26 countries and optioned for film.

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My thoughts: I like this series, I like Bea and Dot very much, but it was interesting to have a book that was focused a bit more on Ant and the other male staff members at Costsave, as well as some of the other characters.

Ant and Bob have been helping their friend Charles out with his allotment, and getting giant marrow Marvin ready for the local produce show and competition. Ant has been spending a lot of time there after work and bonding with the other growers, especially retired teacher Dylan. His genuine horror at finding Dylan’s body, locked in his shed with a trowel to the skull is awful. But he determines to find out who killed his friend and why. 

Bea doesn’t want anything to do with it, understandably, but gets drawn into the case anyway. Dylan was a local councillor and wanted to open a town museum to showcase the history. She’s fascinated by this aspect of his life and agrees to find out more.

The whole gang become part of the investigation and the allotments are central to what they uncover as is Dylan’s passion for local history. The town might not seem like an interesting place to many, but all the intrigue and murder they uncover suggests otherwise!

A smart and witty crime novel with really great characters, always a pleasure to read.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.