Still waters run deep in this baffling new case for the Charity Shop Detective Agency!
Wild swimming in February? No, thank you . . .
To Fiona, Daisy and Partial Sue, the retired
ladies behind the counter at Dogs Need Nice Homes charity shop, it sounds like torture.
Still, no one ever died of plunging themselves into the icy sea waters.
Until now.
When the body of Colin Barclay — retired PE master and wild-swimming fanatic — washes up in a secluded cove, the ladies begin to realize just how dicey this wellbeing trend can be.
Especially when a shifty new customer comes calling at their charity shop. Is this where you solve murders? She asks, her eyes darting wildly round the shelves of bric-a-brac. I think I have one . . .
This woman knows Colin better than most. And she’s convinced his death was no accident. It was murder.
But she’ll need the ladies to dive in and help her prove it . . .
After studying to be an architect, Pete realised he wasn’t very good at it. He liked designing buildings he just couldn’t make them stand up, which is a bit of a handicap in an industry that likes to keep things upright. So he switched to advertising, writing ads for everything from cruise lines to zombie video games.
After becoming disillusioned with working in ad agencies, he switched to writing thriller novels (or was it because he just wanted to work at home in his pyjamas?). He soon realised there’s no magic formula. You just have to put one word in front of the other (and keep doing that for about a year). It also helps if you can resist the lure of surfing, playing Nintendo Switch with his son, watching America’s Next Top Model with his daughter and drinking beer in a garden chair.
My thoughts: The Charity Shop Detectives are back, and this time with a strange case that’s been ruled death by misadventure, but a friend of the victim insists it must be murder.
So Fiona, Partial Sue (I love Partial Sue) and Daisy start learning about wild swimming, tides, currents and surfing as they look into the death of a member of the local wild swimming group (those rather crazy people who swim in the sea when it’s freezing cold) who supposedly drowned.
Fiona takes up swimming with the group, all of whom seem to be rather nice. She also talks to the owner of the local surf shop, not exactly a successful business, but another fairly benign person. Daisy’s neighbour, a surfer, helps them out with some technical knowledge (and eats a lot of cake).
It’s a really clever case that requires a lot of local knowledge and understanding of human nature. When the trio put together the clues, and the information they’ve gathered to crack the case and find a killer.
Another brilliant outing from the Charity Shop Detectives.
*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 
Thank you so much for being a part of the tour x
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