Category: reviews

Mrs. Sidhu – unofficial Aunty to everyone, caterer, and amateur sleuth from Slough – spices up the lives of Berkshire’s elite with both her mouth-watering dishes and her sharp detective skills. But when she stirs up trouble among the rich and ruthless, she finds herself an outsider in her own community.

Banished to the kitchen by her boss and sentenced to an endless loop of aubergine bhajis, Mrs. Sidhu seizes the opportunity to whip up a new recipe for success – getting a job as a private chef at an exclusive celebrity rehab retreat. But when a therapist is found dead in the quiet village, Mrs. Sidhu’s appetite for mystery is rekindled.

As the plot thickens, it becomes clear that the killer is picking victims through a twisted raffle at the village fete. Is a vengeful spirit returning to exact a horrifying revenge, or is there an impostor among the residents hiding a deadly secret?

Suk grew up along the M4, the draughty corridor that connects London to Slough. The son of immigrants, his upbringing was filled with discipline, love and aunties. At an early age, he got his head stuck into books and escaped into other worlds. He has long believed that one of his aunties would be the perfect crime solver.

Suk Pannu has written for some of Britain’s best-loved Asian shows including Goodness Gracious Me and five series of the award-winning The Kumars at No 42. He has also contributed to radio shows like The News Quiz and Armando Iannucci’s Charm Offensive, and he has had several successful series and pilots of his own. This is his debut novel.

My thoughts: first of all it took me ages to get the pun in the title because I say scone with an ‘e’ like stone not gone. But that’s a me issue (me and a lot of other people!)

Anyway, I didn’t know this series from the radio, but my mum did, so I now need to seek it out online and listen. But I thought the book was hilarious and I loved Mrs Sidhu, she reminded me of a lot of my friends’ mums and aunties, always feeding everyone, always worrying and a lot smarter than you might think.

Mrs Sidhu knows people, and that’s her secret talent, she can read them, she’s sure everyone else is looking in the wrong place, at the wrong suspect, and missing the clues. And of course, she’s right.

But even her detective friend overlooks her theories, and lets others lead him the wrong way. They’re all fascinated by the “Dr” who runs the rehab centre, and celebrities in recovery, missing the quietly odd cult still existing in their midst. But not Mrs Sidhu, who follows her own path, solves the murders, and a few other mysteries along the way. All the time cooking up a storm and producing perfect scones for the fete. More please!

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

For Matt Forrester, The Forrester Detective Agency is going from strength to strength: they’ve expanded their office space and even hired a new office manager – a qualified and astute woman named Carol.
What starts as a simple burglary case soon turns into something darker. The victim of said burglary soon turns up dead, after engaging in threats with the local yobs she believed to have been responsible.
But it soon becomes clear that there’s more at play here, and Matt – alongside sister Hermia, partner Steve, and life partner Karen – will have to put all their skills to the test, even if it puts them in
danger…
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Anita Waller is the author of many bestselling psychological thrillers and the Kat and Mouse crime series. She lives in Sheffield, which continues to be the setting of many of her thrillers.

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My thoughts: the Forrester Detective Agency is getting plenty of work, mostly of the cheating spouse kind, when there’s a burglary round the corner. It’s one of Karen’s official police ones, but Matt casts an eye over it, hoping he can help.

While Steve has a landscaping client whose garden has been trashed, and as well as putting it right, he offers to look into the incident.

A brilliant new receptionist, in the shape of scone baking, file sorting, super capable Carol, helps them get the office into shape and creates a database, WATSON, to keep their cases organised.

A strange woman, claiming to be an old friend of Matt’s dad, has appeared but no one has heard of her, but Carol offers to dig through the files for a trace of her. What does this woman really want?

As the team work on their cases, there’s still time for family, although Harry is struggling, and needs his dad more than ever with a new baby sister in the picture.

Another gripping and intelligent thriller that might keep you awake if you read it too late!

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

On the morning after his thirtieth wedding anniversary Stewart Harding is found dead. He was an arrogant and thoroughly unpleasant man and there is no shortage of suspects, but all of them have firm alibis. In any case, everything points towards it being an opportunistic killing linked to a robbery.
Newly promoted DI Mark Webber is assigned as the SIO with Gillian Marsh overseeing the investigation. However, when her mother dies, she takes leave of absence and lets Webber continue on his own.
Webber is making good progress until his colleague – and secret lover – DC Erin Macfadyen disappears without trace. Webber’s world falls apart.
DCI Marsh cuts her bereavement leave short to take over the investigation into Stewart Harding’s death and to track down her missing officer.
There is no doubt that she will find Harding’s killer, but will she find Erin and are the two cases connected?

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Anna Legat is a Wiltshire-based author, best known for her DI Gillian Marsh murder mysteries. Murder isn’t the only thing on her mind. She dabbles in a wide variety of genres, ranging from dark humour, through magic realism to dystopia. A globe-trotter and Jack-of-all-trades, Anna has been an attorney, legal adviser, a silver-service waitress, a school teacher and a librarian. She has lived in far-flung places all over the world where she delighted in people-watching and collecting precious life experiences for her stories. Anna writes, reads, lives and breathes books and can no longer tell the difference between fact and fiction.
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My thoughts: another gripping case for DI (now DCI) Gillian Marsh and her team. When a man is found dead in somewhat strange circumstances the day after celebrating his thirtieth wedding anniversary, the team start to dig. His family don’t seem too upset, especially his wife.

But with two likely suspects first on the scene – was it a burglary gone wrong or something else?

Then Erin goes missing and the team set aside everything else, the case, Gillian’s mother’s sudden death, to look for her. Is it connected to their case or something personal? As time runs down, will they find the DC alive?

I was hooked from the start, although it can be hard to feel sorry for such an unpleasant victim, especially when he behaves so awfully just before he’s killed.

There was a lot going on in the team’s personal lives too – Webber finally got custody of his children, Gillian’s mother dies very suddenly, not that she seems too emotional to the upset of her family, Erin has a secret. This really moved the story along, and it was interesting to see how they juggle their professional and personal situations, especially when one of their own is at risk.

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