3.5 Stars from me
Welcome indeed to sleepy Inkbury a quaint, charming, idyllic English village – picture-perfect and full of all the necessary elements to create an artful, and entertaining murder mystery.
Former stand-up comic Juno Mulligan has returned home with her tail between her legs, to seek a re-start on life and to keep a suspicious eye on her mother – or rather her mother’s new beau. While her mother may be smitten and somewhat swept off her feet – Juno and best friend Phoebe question his motives, not least because he is a widow three times over!
Alongside this, her friend Phoebe is writing a murder mystery of her own in a desperate attempt to avoid family bankruptcy, and a local art dealer is found dead in the village river.
Within a quintessential English village – and to a backdrop of many an artistic comment, the unofficial village detectives set about trying to find the murderer before they strike again – with a whole host of red herrings and dead ends along the way.
This book is perfect for fans of cosy crime and The Art of Murder is hopefully the first in series. My thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources, the author and Netgalley for an ARC in return for an honest review as part of the blog tour.
Blurb: Welcome to the beautiful English village of Inkbury. Tucked deep in the North Wessex Downs, its only claim to fame is the picturesque riverside that once appeared in a Richard Curtis movie. That is, until the murder…
Former stand-up comic Juno Mulligan has been suffering a serious sense-of-humour failure. Not only has she lost the love of her life, but she’s having to relocate to the (admittedly idyllic) village of Inkbury to watch out for her elderly mother, who she’s genuinely worried might be marrying a wife-killer.
She hopes that her old friend, disgraced-journalist-turned-novelist Phoebe Fredericks can help her crack the case of whether her mother’s perma-tanned, iceberg-smiled, three-times-a-widower fiancé is hiding a murderous past.
But before they have a chance, the local art dealer washes up distinctly dead in the village’s famous river. His lover is in the frame, but Juno and Phoebe suspect that there is a deeper secret… One that relates to Phoebe’s own past and Juno’s present.
Will the unofficial Village Detective Agency solve the mystery before the killer strikes again? In sleepy Inkbury, as they soon discover, living one’s best midlife can be murder.
An utterly gripping cozy crime mystery, from million-copy bestselling Fiona Walker, guaranteed to absolutely delight fans of Richard Osman, Janet Evanovich and the Reverend Richard Coles.
Read and Rated 