It’s winter in Cornwall and Maddie Penrose – amateur sleuth extraordinaire – is baking up a storm for the village Christmas fair. All is merry and bright… until there’s a murder!
Maddie Penrose has been head-to-toe in tinsel, organising a delightfully cozy Christmas market. She’s just whipped up a fresh batch of mince pies and is serving them at the opening when stallholder Steve Granger pops one in his mouth… and instantly drops dead.
Determined to clear her name, Maddie must find out who poisoned the pies. It quickly becomes clear that many stallholders at the market had a motive to kill. Could it be grouchy Ruby, whose tea blends Steve mercilessly copied and sold as his own? What about Daisy from the dairy – she isn’t pleased Steve was selling Cornish cheese to rival hers. And local butcher Connor Davis has an axe to grind too… has he been plotting to handle more than just Christmas turkeys?
But who would go as far as poisoning a mince pie? Maddie is starting to get closer to the truth when there’s another murder, this time in the village bakery. Can she unravel the clues before the killer strikes again? Or is she next on their list…?
If you love amateur sleuths and cozy festive mysteries then you will adore Fliss Chester’s totally gripping novel, perfect for fans of Fiona Leitch, Faith Martin and Agatha Christie!
Fliss Chester lives in Surrey with her husband and writes historical cozy crime. When she is not killing people off in her 1940s whodunnits, she helps her husband, who is a wine merchant, run their business. Never far from a decent glass of something, Fliss also loves cooking (and writing up her favourite recipes on her blog), enjoying the beautiful Surrey and West Sussex countryside and having a good natter.
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My thoughts: A festive murder with a mince pie as the suspected murder weapon! Except only one person died. It doesn’t add up and while the police are investigating, baker and sleuth Maddie Penrose is just going to chat to a few people, after all it was her gran’s barn he died in.
Having organised a Christmas fete to showcase the various local artisans, Maddie was hoping it would be a success. Unfortunately someone had a different plan and they used one of her mince pies to carry it out.
However there are so many suspects, almost every stallholder at the fete had a problem with the victim, who was variously blackmailing people, creating knockoff versions of their work and generally being a rather unpleasant sort.
But most of them weren’t thinking seriously about killing, so who could possibly have it in for him? Unpopular as he was. Maddie wants to clear her name but also rescue the village from its reputation as a murderer’s chosen spot. With the fete closed until further notice, she’s got time on her hands anyway.
It was nice to meet more of the community, even if it was while they were being accused of murder, Maddie’s fete sounded really good, until Steve dropped dead, accusing one of the assembled people of killing him. Luckily I don’t like mince pies so I wasn’t too perturbed by the killer’s methods.
This is getting to be a really fun series and I really like Maddie, her gran and their cats, Crumpet and Burnt Toast.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
