1918 Italy When a deadly blizzard traps Fiona Figg and Kitty Lane in the Dolomite Mountains, it’s all downhill from here.Their hotel is snowed-in, and no one can get in or out. Then a man is found dead in his locked hotel room – and the killer is still on the premises. But with no murder weapon and too many suspects, their investigation is treading on thin ice. The colder it gets outside, the hotter it gets inside as Fiona squares off with both her beloved Archie and her nemesis Fredricks. With her love-life on a slippery-slope, Fiona risks everything in one bold move… As fast and twisty as a downhill slalom, this slick new cozy from Kelly Oliver will have you melting into a puddle of laughter. Snap in and enjoy the ride.
Kelly Oliver is the award-winning, bestselling author of three mysteries series: The Jessica James Mysteries, The Pet Detective Mysteries, and the historical cozies The Fiona Figg Mysteries, set in WW1. She is also the Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University and lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
My thoughts: still in pursuit of Frederick Fredericks, Fiona, Kitty, Charles and Poppy are now in the Italian Dolomite mountains, snowed in with a motley crew of soldiers, socialists and one Benito Musolini, the future leader of Italy.
After a soldier is injured and taken to the hospital next door, Fiona starts to investigate, something strange is going on in this lonely place and she’s determined to ensure it won’t affect the war and that Fredericks won’t get up to any more mischief.
As usual Fiona feels she’s got less information than everyone else, especially Kitty, and with her beloved Archie popping up out of nowhere, she’s suspicious. But she’ll put all her skills and knowledge into this mystery first.
Lots of fun, and with a few real people and events thrown in for good measure, Fiona is getting even better at investigating, and while her colleagues seem to be less than open with her, it is war and loose lips…
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Today is my first post on this epic tour covering all of Kate Rhodes’ Isles of Scilly Mysteries series, featuring DI Ben Kitto. Follow the hashtag #TeamScilly on social media for the other hosts.
DI Ben Kitto needs a second chance. After ten years working for the murder squad in London, a traumatic event has left him grief-stricken. He’s tried to resign from his job, but his boss has persuaded him to take three months to reconsider.
Ben plans to work in his uncle’s boatyard on the tiny Scilly island of Bryher where he was born, hoping to mend his shattered nerves. His plans go awry when the body of a sixteen-year-old girl is found on the beach at Hell Bay. Her attacker must still be on the island because no ferries have sailed during the two-day storm.
Everyone on the island is under suspicion. Dark secrets are about to resurface. And the murderer could strike again at any time . . .
THE ISLAND OF TRESCO HOLDS A DARK SECRET SOMEONE WILL KILL TO PROTECT.
Ben Kitto has become the Scilly Isles’ Deputy Chief of Police. As the island’s lazy summer takes hold, he finds himself missing the excitement of the murder squad in London. But when the body of professional diver Jude Trellon is discovered, anchored to the rocks of a nearby cave, his investigative skills are once again needed.
At first it appears that the young woman’s death was a tragic accident, but when evidence is found that suggests otherwise, the islanders close ranks. With even those closest to the victim refusing to talk, it seems that plenty of people might have had reason to harm her. As the islanders remain guarded, Ben Kitto suspects a killer is on the loose in Tresco.
Everyone is a suspect. Nobody is safe.
My thoughts: Ben Kitto has returned to the Scilly Isles off Cornwall’s Atlantic coast, the place he called home as a child. He hasn’t been back for a while and he’s on extended leave from the Met following his partner’s death.
More or less immediately after arriving on the island of Bryher, he’s drawn into the search for a missing teenage girl. When her body is found on the beach, he volunteers his services as a Murder Team detective to the local DCI. He’s a local and has the skills to catch a killer.
There’s not many people on the island and the killer has to be a local, in a tight knit community, this is devastating. When another teenager disappears, the DCI decides it’s case closed – the missing boy killed his girlfriend and then himself, but Kitto doesn’t believe that at all. His unorthodox methods and willingness to ignore orders put his life in danger, but he will find the truth.
I really like Ben, I like his silly dog Shadow too, even though Ben doesn’t want a dog. I like the islanders, they’re a tough bunch, isolated by tides and weather at times, dependant on fishing and tourism for much of their income, in a place famous for its historic smugglers and not known for violent crime. A murder sends shockwaves through the community, but they pull together and help Ben where they can.
I think his deputy, young detective Eddie, is a sweetheart, desperate to do a good job, delighted by his impending fatherhood, keen as mustard and with good instincts too, he’s the perfect foil for Ben’s jaded cynicism.
In book two, Ruin Beach, the tragedy is on another island, Tresco, but it’s still Ben and Eddie’s patch so off they go to investigate.
The victim this time is another woman, older than in their last case, mother to a small child and a well known diver. Born and raised on the island, she knows the waters well so her drowning is shocking.
Under the seas around the islands lay hundreds of shipwrecks, some ancient, and there are a lot of people keen to find the possible treasures still aboard. I always feel a bit uncomfortable about things like this, as those ships are also grave sites, a lot of sailors will have gone down with their ships and their remains rest at the bottom of the ocean.
But others have no qualms, and while taking anything without handing it over to the authorities is very illegal, people in nedd of money, like some of the islanders, might be willing to do desperate and stupid things. Did Jude and did her killer find out and murder her for her treasure?
As Ben and Eddie dig into the case, more people are put in danger as this very ruthless killer stops at nothing to evade the police and find the sunken ship, hoping to make their fortune. There’s a few red herrings, Jude seems to have fallen out with her brother and several others, and there’s a dodgy couple from the States hanging around, but after working his way through the suspects, can Ben stop anyone else from being harmed?
If anything, this was even more chilling than than Hell Bay, with the killer kidnapping people and leaving them to drown – a truly horrible way to die. Their desperation makes them do awful things, but Ben Kitto isn’t a man to let it go, and even risking his own life to save another, won’t slow him down.
Join me next time for more #TeamScilly crimes and don’t let them put you off heading to the Isles for a visit, they’re meant to be truly stunning and are on my list for the next time I head to my beloved Cornwall.
*I was kindly gifted copies of these books in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Dr B. McRannoch, a savvy and tough young woman, is staying in the Bahamas with her father. However, when Sir Bart Edgecome, a British agent who has been positioned with arsenic falls ill on his way back from New York, she becomes involved in a series of events beyond her wildest imagination. Drawn into an espionage plot with multiple suspects, it is only the presence of enigmatic portrait painter Johnson Johnson on his yacht, Dolly, that saves the day. But nothing is quite as straightforward as it at first seems.
Dorothy Dunnett (1923-2001) gained an international reputation as a writer of historical fiction. She moved genres and turned to crime writing with the acclaimed Dolly books, also known as the Johnson Johnson series. She was a trustee of the National Library of Scotland, and a board member of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. In 1992 she was awarded an OBE for her services to literature. A leading light in the Scottish arts world and a renaissance woman, Dunnett was also a professional portrait painter and exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy on many occasions.
My thoughts: if you’ve been around for a bit, you’ll probably know that I’m really enjoying this series and as we’re now on book 4, I don’t see that changing any time soon.
This time we’re in the Bahamas, before the recent change to a Republic, when it was still a British colony of sorts as part of the Commonwealth. So most of the white characters are wealthy and privileged beyond the native population. They travel to Nassau (the capital) to holiday, play golf, fish, swim and generally enjoy themselves.
Dr B. Donald MacRannoch works at the main hospital, she’s Scottish, but moved to the Bahamas to look after her father, The MacRannoch of Clan MacRannoch, chieftain and apparently a terrible asthmatic. She’s rather severe and remote, looking down on most people from her lofty scientific height. She needs to learn to relax and not be quite so uptight and unhappy. Her only pleasure is playing golf. I’m of the Mark Twain theory on golf – it is a long walk spoiled. I’d rather a park or jungle than the finicky water wasting greens of a golf course.
After saving a man’s life, Dr MacRannoch gets drawn into the world of espionage, the man she saved is a member of Her Majesty’s Secret Service, as is our familiar bespectacled friend Johnson Johnson, handily in town to investigate this attempted murder, on the good ship Dolly.
He confides immediately in the Doctor and recruits her into helping him prevent Sir Bart Edgecombe from being bumped off. She’s not exactly happy about it. But after several more foiled attempts, a threat or two, someone else gets killed, and her father is planning a clan gathering (and a wedding), which means she needs to be around a bit more than usual. Which handily means she can assist Johnson in solving this mystery.
In almost every book someone tries to blow up Dolly, this is no exception. Thankfully Johnson and Spry, his loyal sidekick, are pretty good at keeping the yacht intact, otherwise they’d never be able to keep popping up all over the world, under the auspices of being a famous portrait painter. Into the mix this time are a Turkish ballet dancer, a Japanese golfer, a builder of bridges and an Army sergeant major, one of them might be the killer. And one of them might even end up married to the doctor. If they’re all alive at the end of it!
Enjoyable as always, with red herrings, plenty of suspects, eccentric characters, crazy carrying on and Johnson Johnson in the midst of it all, completely unruffled.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own
It was meant to be the start of quiet season in the sleepy Cornish village of Seal Bay, but not for sexagenarian librarian and wild swimming enthusiast Morwenna Mutton. Because when a local businessman is found on the beach with a bread knife is his back, bungling police officer DI Rick Tremayne is soon out of his depth. Morwenna knows it’s going to be down to her to crack the case. The list of people the victim upset is long, the evidence is slight, and an arrest illusive. Morwenna has plenty to occupy her time what with ghostly goings-on at the library and skullduggery at her granddaughter’s school, but she could never resist a challenge. And even the most ruthless of murderers should quake at the sight of this amateur sleuth getting on her bike to track them down. If you love Miss Marple and The Thursday Murder Club, then you’ll love The Morwenna Mutton mysteries. Purchase
Judy Leigh is the USA Today bestselling author of The Old Girls’ Network and Five French Hens and the doyenne of the ‘it’s never too late’ genre of women’s fiction. She has lived all over the UK from Liverpool to Cornwall, but currently resides in Somerset.
My thoughts: having walked up and down some Cornish hills, the maddest thing about Morwenna might be her cycling! The wild swimming, the long hair in her sixties, her colourful wardrobe are all fine but I cannot imagine anyone willingly going up and down Cornwall’s steep and crazy hills on a bike.
Apart from that, I think Morwenna’s great, she’s smart, brave and more capable than she might appear. After finding a local businessman dead on the beach at her daughter’s engagement party, and seeing how utterly hopeless the local police are at solving it, she decides to find out who murdered him herself. And as her family get drawn into the killer’s crimes, it’s up to Morwenna, with a little help from her friends, to save the day and stop anything else from happening.
I loved her mad librarian friends, who think a local ghost is giving them clues via the library books as well as making a rather smelly mess. Her mother, Lamorna, is a wonderful classic British (Cornish) eccentric (and shares a name with a delightful pottery) and then there’s her granddaughter Elowen. Who has an invisible dog called Oggy. I loved Elowen, I loved Oggy, and Oggy 2. She’s delightful.
This was a lot of fun to read and the twist as to who the killer is was very unexpected. Although there were clues, that I missed, throughout. I hope there will be more Morwenna.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
A Premier League bad-boy murdered at his newly refurbished home; a teenage runaway’s corpse uncovered on a construction site; a gunman shoots up the premises of the local gangland boss – all of them projects run by beleaguered builder Mark Poynter.
Can he fix it?
Things seem to be on the up for builder, Mark Poynter.
Mark’s got himself a nice little earner taking care of the sizeable property portfolio built up from the career earnings of former Premier League bad-boy and local celebrity, Danny Kidd.
But when Danny Kidd puts an interested party’s nose out of joint by using his star status to gazump them on a development site – the derelict Admiral Guthrie pub – things turn ugly and incendiary, leaving Mark to deal with the consequences.
Meanwhile local villain, Hamlet, uses his subtle persuasion to dupe Mark into unwittingly help him launder vast sums of dirty cash but when it drags the area to the brink of gang warfare, Mark’s help is needed to try and broker a truce.
At the Admiral Guthrie secrets from the past meet conflicts of the present – will the rising flames reduce Mark’s future to ashes?
Matthew Ross is the author of 3 published novels to date. His first novel, “Death Of A Painter” was selected by The Sun newspaper as one of its picks of the week. Matthew wrote his first novel after undertaking the prestigious Faber Academy 6-month novel writing course under the tutelage of Richard Skinner.
Prior to that Matthew wrote material for a leading British stand-up comedian for their live performances, corporate bookings, national theatre tours and their appearances on tv and radio shows such as “Have I Got News For You”, “Mock The Week” and “The News Quiz”.
In addition, he was commissioned to provide material and sketches for several comedy series that were broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
My thoughts: I felt sorry for Mark, as soon as something seems to be going right for him, things start going wrong. He’s gone into business with the Kidd brothers, former footballer Danny and Stuart. They’ve bought an old pub to turn into flats, Mark’s going to do the work with his Uncle Bern and Co, but someone doesn’t want them anywhere near the place. There’s a furious Scot called Donaldson who keeps popping up and Danny’s feuding with a rapper online.
Lots of grim things keep happening, not least what’s unearthed at the old Admiral Guthrie. Now the police are involved and Mark’s trying to keep the work coming in. He might need to ask local kingpin Hamlet for help, which his girlfriend Perry isn’t pleased about.
This is a blackly comic novel, as Mark and his friends stumble from one disaster to another, there’s murder, arson and he keeps ending up with guns pointed in his face. The building game in Kent’s Medway towns is not exactly all friendly. But thankfully Mark’s got good, if interesting, friends and it might all be ok. This time. Great fun and with lots of twists and turns.
Click on the image for more on the tour
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Julia Bird loves the village pub quiz, but it seems one of her team won’t make it to the next round alive…
On the first Tuesday of each month, Julia Bird and her Agatha Quizteam teammates take part in Berrywick’s village pub quiz. They take it seriously – what’s the point of playing, after all, if you aren’t in it to win it? But it seems someone connected with the quiz night has taken the competition to a whole new level when Lilian, the local police constable and all-round general knowledge expert, is found fatally stabbed after the evening’s final round.
With local DI Hayley Gibson stuck home with a broken leg and an incompetent Superintendent brought in from the nearby town, it’s up to Julia to make sure the investigation stays focussed – whether they like it or not! While the police are convinced that the murderer is linked to Lilian’s professional life, Julia turns her amateur sleuthing eye to suspects much closer to home. Perhaps Lilian’s personal life could have something to do with the dreadful crime?
When another quiz team member is attacked, Julia is finally put on the right track. But what could possibly be important – or dangerous – enough for two attendees of the pub quiz night to meet such foul ends over? Could the culprit really be among them on that busy Tuesday night? As Julia’s race to identify the killer ramps up to desperate heights, she wonders, where will the murderous spree end?
Perfect for fans of M.C. Beaton, Faith Martin and Betty Rowlands, Murder at the Inn is a brilliantly compelling English cosy mystery.
Katie Gayle is the writing partnership of best-selling South African writers, Kate Sidley and Gail Schimmel. Kate and Gail have, between them, written over ten books of various genres, but with Katie Gayle, they both make their debut in the cozy mystery genre. Both Gail and Kate live in Johannesburg, with husbands, children, dogs and cats. Unlike their sleuth Epiphany Bloom, neither of them have ever stolen a cat from the vet.
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My thoughts: who knew pub quizzes can be so dangerous!?!? I love a pub quiz, and so does Julia, whose team Agatha Quizteam (excellent team name fyi) are in a weekly competition against several others. But one team, containing two detectives, seems to be the target of a particularly ruthless individual. After several accidents and murders, does the answer lie in the past or is someone out to win the pub quiz league the bloody way?
Julia is on the case as DI Hayley Gibson is laid up with a broken leg, and the superintendent drafted in is an idiot. Can Julia’s knowledge of human weaknesses and the connection between the victims lead to a killer? Another cracking case for Julia, and there’s an inter species romance brewing for the naughtiest dog around too.
I don’t think I’ll be moving to the Cotswolds and joining a quiz team any time soon. Just in case.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
A brand-new cozy crime series set in gorgeous Tuscany…It’s murder in paradise! A lazy weekend in the country… Dan Armstrong and the new love of his life, Anna, are heading to a hotel deep in the gorgeous Tuscan countryside for a long weekend, looking forward to some time away from the stresses of their day jobs. With the beautiful and historic city of Siena just around the corner, it promises to be relaxing and enjoyable. What could possibly go wrong? A mutilated body… But when a mutilated body is discovered in the hotel grounds Dan is called in to help with the investigation. But who or what could have been responsible for such a vicious attack? Was it the work of wild animals, or is there a brutal murderer at large? A killer who cried wolf? Dan knows he is dealing with a clever killer – whether whether two- or four-legged! And as he sets out to solve the case he begins to worry about his own loyal canine companion. Could Oscar be in more danger than any of the other hotel guests or is a murderer trying to cover their tracks? It’s another case for Dan and Oscar to solve! Purchase
T A Williams is the author of over twenty bestselling romances for HQ and Canelo and is now turning his hand to cosy crime, set in his beloved Italy, for Boldwood. Trevor lives in Devon with his Italian wife.
My thoughts: Dan and Anna are supposed to be on holiday with their friends but staying at their hotel is a conference on ecology and the scientists are an interesting bunch. There’s a tangled web of sex and intrigue, they all seem to be sleeping with each other or hate one another. After one of them is killed Dan and Virgilio get drawn into the case to assist the local police with translating and their impressions of the biologists.
There are wolves in the hills around Siena, and while the experts at the hotel insist they wouldn’t attack a human, local farmers want the wild animals gone. Is someone framing the wolves to get them removed or to throw suspicion on someone in particular? As another scientist meets a grisly end, Dan and the police realise there’s a really messy situation unfolding and that the conference is covering up a ring of adultery and sexual jealousy. Can they find the killer/s before they go home?
Another great fun outing for Dan and obviously Oscar, who once again finds vital clues that the human detectives miss. Trust a dog’s nose to find the important stuff. He can also tell whether the chilling howls in the night are wolf or human, more than Dan can. Someone get him a K9 cop badge! Anna is also growing as a character and Lina, Virgilio’s wife, is also a bit more involved, which is nice, Dan’s community is important as he grows his PI business, he can only expect Oscar to do so much, he doesn’t do filing.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
With gorgeous prose, European glamour, and an expansive wanderlust, Christine Mangan’s The Continental Affair is a fast-paced, Agatha Christieesque caper packed full of romance and suspense.
Meet Henri and Louise. Two strangers, travelling alone, on the train from Belgrade to Istanbul. Except this isn’t the first time they have met. It’s the 1960s and Louise is running. From her past in England, from the owners of the money she has stolen — and from Henri, the person who has been sent to collect it.
Across the Continent — from Granada to Paris, from Belgrade to Istanbul — Henri follows, desperate to leave behind his own troubles. The memories of his past life as a gendarme in Algeria that keep resurfacing. His inability to reconcile the growing responsibilities of his current criminal path with this former self. But Henri soon realizes that Louise is no ordinary mark. As the train hurtles toward its final destination, Henri and Louise must decide what the future will hold — and whether it involves one another
Christine Mangan is the author of the national bestsellers Tangerine and Palace of the Drowned. She has her PhD in English from University College Dublin, with a focus on 18th-century Gothic literature, and an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Southern Maine. She lives in Detroit.
My thoughts: this was an interesting read, as Louise and Henri travel across Europe to Istanbul, Turkey, on what I think is the Orient Express or certainly something very similar, their story unfolds. Henri has been following Louise since Madrid. Where she stole a small fortune in a moment of opportunistic luck. However the money belongs to some criminals Henri, a former police officer, now works for, and they want it back.
Henri isn’t even the only person following Louise. And they’re both in danger. Neither is happy with their lives, both are running from things they’d rather forget. On this strange journey across Europe, as they meet and part in different places, they start to reconcile with themselves and discover who they are now.
It’s a strange book, there’s a slightly dreamlike quality to some of the events, Louise is often disconnected from what’s happening around her and is more honest with Henri than anyone else. She’s on a journey with no real destination in mind, and suddenly in possession of a small fortune. Henri is a man struggling with grief and regret, he’s fallen into this job and is reluctant to complete it, especially after Louise starts spending the money. Their relationship is odd, but somehow they connect and reconnect as they travel, and perhaps heal.
I enjoyed it, I love an adventure story with some peril and complicated characters, and this is definitely that. The ending left me with more questions than answers and I wanted to know what became of our unusual travel companions. Did Henri go back to Algeria? What did Louise do after Istanbul? Will they meet again? I wonder.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
“I speak of magic, Mr. Holmes.” Mr. Percy Simmons, leader of London’s Theosophical Order of Odic Forces, is fully aware that his is not a case which Mr. Sherlock Holmes would ordinarily take up. These are not ordinary times, however. For something, some unquiet demon within Holmes stirs into discomfiting wakefulness under the occultist’s words. The unassuming Mr. Simmons has spoken of good and evil with the sort of certainty of soul that Sherlock yearns for. A certainty which has eluded Holmes for the three years in which the world thought him dead. While, for all intents, constructions, and purposes, he was dead. But six months ago, Sherlock Holmes returned to Baker Street, declared himself alive to friend and foe alike, took up his old rooms, his profession, and his partnership with Dr. J. Watson—only to find himself haunted still by questions which had followed him out of the dreadful chasm of Reichenbach Falls: Why? Why had he survived when his enemy had not? To what end? And had there ever, truly, been such a thing as justice? Such a thing as good or evil?
M. K. Wiseman has degrees in Interarts & Technology and Library & Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her office, therefore, is a curious mix of storyboards and reference materials. Both help immensely in the writing of historical novels. She currently resides in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
My thoughts: I quite enjoy this author’s take on the Sherlock Holmes stories, she sticks to the feel of the original stories well and to the style Arthur Conan Doyle used so they seem authentic. This one was interesting to read as it’s narrated by Holmes, not Watson, so there’s more of the great detective’s inner life, something that isn’t always there in the original stories. Holmes is struggling with the events of Reichenbach Falls and after, the years he was supposedly dead. He’s not a killer, rarely using any weapons, preferring his great intellect and his involvement in the death of Moriarty and his followers haunts him.
He rejects religion so is unable to find comfort in prayer or faith, unlike his creator who was a famous spiritualist, so when he meets the leader of the Theosophical Order of Odic Forces, a Mason-like order of those who believe in a form of magic, he is intrigued. He envies their faith and certainty in something other than what he can see. But something has stricken several of the order’s members, and they’re dying. But it’s no ordinary illness of the flesh. Mr Simmons believes they are under a spiritual attack by a hostile magician and he needs Holmes and Watson’s help to stop this enemy.
It’s a very interesting bent to take, Holmes prides himself on his rational mind and struggles with the concept of a hidden world beyond ours, that magic exists and can be wielded to cause harm. Having identified a possible suspect, he is too late to prevent another death. But can he stop more? With his faithful Watson and his medical bag at his side, Holmes searches for a rational cause, but refuses to believe anyone is capable of magic. Could the mysterious Mr King merely be an illusion?
A clever and enjoyable addition to the Holmes continuation, giving us an insight into the mind of the consulting detective at a strange point in his life, back from the dead but not yet feeling truly alive.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
When English teacher Gemma Lamb’s school flat is wrecked by storms, maverick headmistress Hairnet insists the girls must fund its repair by setting up their own businesses – the start of a series of hilarious unintended consequences. Meanwhile Gemma’s worries are compounded by the arrival of bossy new girl Frieda Ehrlich, sponsored by a mysterious local tycoon whose wealth is of dubious origins. Fearful for the school’s reputation, Gemma recruits an old friend to help investigate the tycoon’s credentials, jeopardising her romance with sports teacher Joe Spryke. What is Frieda hiding? Why is her sponsor living in a derelict manor house? Why is his chauffeur such a crazed driver? And what has become of McPhee, Hairnet’s precious black cat? With a little help from her friends, Gemma is determined to solve these mysteries, restore her flat and save the school. For anyone who loved St Trinian’s – old or new – or read Malory Towers as a kid. St Brides is the perfect read for you! Purchase
Debbie Young is the much-loved author of the Sophie Sayers and St Brides cosy crime mysteries. She lives in a Cotswold village where she runs the local literary festival, and has worked at Westonbirt School, both of which provide inspiration for her writing. She is bringing both her series to Boldwood in a 13-book contract. They will be publishing several new titles in each series and republishing the backlist, starting in September 2022.
My thoughts: this series continues to be utterly delightful, with more mysterious goings on and one day maybe we’ll learn the truth about Max Security’s past! Turns out, he speaks German, so that’s something Gemma can add to her information about him.
This term at St Bride’s the roof has finally given up the ghost and now Gemma and Oriana are having to stay in the old servants quarters, not as nice as their flats at all, but better than wet walls! Time to get making some money and the eccentric headmistress has decided that the girls should start their own businesses to raise the cash. Cue pet detectives, cake bakers, an art show and all sorts of hijinks.
There’s also a strange new student in the Sixth Form, she’s a bit off as far as Gemma can tell, and she’s determined to figure her out. Her dad works for a new local businessman, except he doesn’t seem to have a business. Very odd. Are these new faces a risk to St Bride’s? Gemma’s on the case.
Lots of fun, intrigue and whizzing around the local lanes in fast cars ensues. It’s all highly enjoyable and entertaining. There’s little real jeopardy, although McPhee has disappeared and without their mascot, the headmistress is in a bit of a tizz.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 