Fun beach read

Anyone who has ever read a British mystery or watched one on-screen knows that if there is a festival, a village fete or a jumble sale for that matter, a body is bound to turn up. Fiona Leitch’s The Cornish Campsite Murder, the sixth installment of her Nosey Parker Mysteries, is no exception.

Former Met police detective Jodie Parker and her betrothed, DI Nathan Withers, are helping out a friend, manning a Cornish pie van called Pie Hard for a camp-out weekend music festival, just down the coast from her home in the fictional Penstowan.

I liked Jodie from the start — her sense of humor, her family and her detective’s curiosity. In The Cornish Campsite Murder, a body of a former lead band member of one of Jodie’s favorites is found by the beach and her teen idol is one of the prime suspects.

I could relate to the universal feeling of actually getting to meet/speak to your teen idol and fearing they won’t live up to your expectations or if they do, that you’ll make a fool of yourself. But what if they are murderers or you falsely accuse them, ruin their reputation and they hate you? That’s the dilemma in which Jodie finds herself.

Fiona Leitch offers a humorous mystery with some fun twists, a host of colorful characters and a satisfying ending. What more could you ask for in a summer read? How about a recipe for a leek and sausage pie at the end of the book? (Having enjoyed a leek and potato pasty on a train ride from Cornwall to London, the Pie Hard’s Die Hard-themed pies sounded both delicious and a little adventuresome. I can’t wait to return for another authentic Cornish pie.)

I highly recommend The Cornish Campsite Murder for British cozy mystery fans, humorous mystery fans and beach readers. This one fits the bill for all of the above.

I received this advanced reader copy of The Cornish Campsite Murder from One More Chapter, an imprint of Harper Collins UK, courtesy of NetGalley.

Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Review by Di Prokop, More Mystery Please

Meet my new favorite crime-solving duo

A Collection of Lies, A Kate Hamilton Mystery, by Connie Berry book cover
While USA Bestselling author Connie Berry’s A Collection of Lies is the fifth of her Kate Hamilton Mystery series, the story, the characters, the case to be solved works so perfectly as a standalone but with enough tease to the back-story that you’ll want to read the entire series. So much so that I have already ordered two of the earlier four installments.

In A Collection of Lies, we find American antiques dealer Kate Hamilton and her new husband, DI Tom Mallory, on their honeymoon in Devon, in southwest England. As a favor to a colleague of Tom’s, Kate agrees to put her antique textile expertise to the test exploring whether an old, bloodstained, lace dress could possibly be linked to a long-cold-case murder.

With the discovery of long-held secrets, a shooting at a local history museum gala and a very warm murder of a Victorian You-Tuber, to which Tom assists the local constabulary to solve, and the newlyweds are soon hot on the trail of a mystery with plot turns that keep you guessing.

My new favorite crime-solving duo, I love Kate and Tom’s rapport not to mention their abilities to follow clues and their senses to solve a satisfying caper. I can’t wait to go back and read their origin story in A Dream of Death.

I highly recommend A Collection of Lies to fans of traditional cozy mysteries, British mysteries, and partners in crime-solving duos.

I received this advanced reader copy of A Collection of Lies from Crooked Lane Books, courtesy of NetGalley. Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Review by Di ProkopMore Mystery Please

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