Ursula Smart is astonished when Spear proposes to her. The pair try to avoid the angst of wedding planning by heading to Finland for a small ceremony with close family. But things do not do smoothly when the Smart women are involved!
Murder Most Cold is the 5th book in the Smart series of cosy murder mysteries. I have read and reviewed the previous book in the series, A Book of Murder.
Ursula and her dysfunctional family are quite delightful. The style of writing is a little quirky but also very personal as we witness Ursula’s first person experiecnes. She is shocked to receive a marriage proposal from Spear but is hopeful for the future and the pair plan their nuptuals in Finland. Well, actually, it is their mums driving the wedding plans forward!
There is a lot of build up to the wedding and murder, both of which finally occur a third of the way into the book. The family are snowed in as the number of bodies grows while the possible suspects decrease. Options are limited but I was still kept guessing until the very end.
There are plenty of moments of humour and I enjoyed the banter between Ursula and her family. Her mum is a real tour de force and I loved her but would hate to meet her! I had to suspend my disbelief and incredulity as there were supernatural elements and confused experiences. The ending was tense and completedly unexpected.
Murder Most Cold has wedding jitters, murder, laughs and huge twists: something for everyone!
MURDER MOST COLD by Victoria Dowd
DISCOVER THE FIENDISHLY TWISTY, UTTERLY ADDICTIVE CRIME FICTION OF VICTORIA DOWD.
**FROM THE WINNER OF THE PEOPLE’S BOOK PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021 AND SHORTLISTEE OF THE CWA DAGGER AWARD 2023**
A winter wedding.
A mysterious disappearance.
A body under the ice.
Handsome Spear proposes marriage and Ursula Smart suddenly has a glimpse of the sort of happy life she had never imagined for herself. Beginning with a small winter wedding, on the edge of a secluded, frozen lake, away from it all.
But trouble is never far from the Smart women, especially when the atmosphere is already so frosty.
Tensions start rising as soon as they arrive and it’s not just Ursula’s mother Pandora getting cabin fever.
Poisoning. Stabbing. A mysterious disappearance. Who’s targeting the wedding party?
Then on a midnight jaunt, Ursula sees a face trapped under the ice, eyes staring in frozen horror. And her happy future begins to fall apart.
Weddings should be joyous occasions. But there’s a murderer at this one.
A GOLDEN AGE MURDER MYSTERY BROUGHT BANG UP TO DATE.
Funny and shocking in equal turn, Victoria Dowd’s brilliant whodunnit is perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Anthony Horowitz, Liane Moriarty, Faith Martin, Frances Lloyd and Stuart Turton.
READERS LOVE VICTORIA DOWD AND THE SMART WOMEN
‘A modern take on the classic whodunnit!’ Anja Jager, bestselling author of A Cold Death in Amsterdam
‘Original, intriguing, great fun. Can you tell I loved it? Hugely recommended.’ CWA Silver Dagger winner, Barbara Nadel
‘A rip-roaring murder mystery that grabs the reader from the start.’ Louise Mumford, bestselling author of Sleepless
‘Witty, dark and gripping. I could read the Smart Women every second of every day and still want more.’ Tim Ewins, author of We Are Animals
‘A pacey, atmospheric and deliciously creepy murder mystery, laced with laugh-out-loud humour and a cast of larger-than-life characters. Loved it!’ Philippa East, author of Little White Lies and Safe and Sound
‘A little literary delight.’ Liz W., NetGalley
ALSO BY VICTORIA DOWD
SMART WOMAN’S MYSTERY
1: THE SMART WOMAN’S GUIDE TO MURDER
2: BODY ON THE ISLAND
3: THE SUPPER CLUB MURDERS
4: A BOOK OF MURDER
5: MURDER MOST COLD
VICTORIA DOWD
After graduating from Cambridge, Victoria was a criminal law barrister on the London circuit for many years, where many of her cases were much stranger than fiction.
Victoria is now an award winning writer, having won the Go Gothic Short Story Award for 2019. She has had short fiction published in places such as Aesthetica: A Review of Contemporary Artists and was chosen as the runner up in The New Writer’s writer of the year award. Her work was Highly Commended by The Writers’ Forum and long-listed for The Willesden Herald International Short Story Competition. She has had short stories published in the BTS Literary and Arts Annual, Dream Catcher arts journal and Gold Dust Literary Magazine.
Victoria lives with her husband and two children. She writes full time, splitting her time between London and Devon, where she can indulge her passion for all things Agatha Christie.
FOLLOW VICTORIA ON
A criminal family turned good. A police officer as best man. But one of the guests is planning a murder….
Murder at the Wedding is the 9th book in the Rina Martin series. I have read and reviewed the previous book in the series, Murder at the Willows.
The book begins with a gangland killing and the escape of an undercover officer. The plot then jumps forward to the upcoming nuptuals of Bridie and Fitch, a chance for a new future on the right side of the law. But there are issue with a will and someone is prepared to murder in order to gain success and power for themselves.
There is plenty of build up to the murder which doesn’t occur until after the wedding, a third of the way through the book. Even Rina is almost a secondary character in this opening third as she enjoys the wedding preparations. Mac, a police officer has a better idea that something dangerous is brewing as he has been asked by his boss to keep an eye on proceedings, leaving him the difficult task of juggling the personal and professional.
As with the previous book, I felt a little overwhelmed by the number of characters and their pre-established relationships. I definitely think that the whole series should be read in order to understand the development of character profiles and their relationships.
I liked the claustrophobic atmosphere of the remote wedding venue which increase the tension. There were multiple layers of plot and I enjoyed the different viewpoints of the wedding location and guests.
Murder at the Wedding is a enjoyable murder mystery but a little slow at times as it relies on prior knowledge of the characters.
MURDER AT THE WEDDING (Rina Martin Murder Mystery Book 9) by Jane Adams
If you love Miss Marple or Agatha Raisin, you’ll love Rina!
Meet Rina Martin, a retired actress with a taste for tea, gardening and crime solving.
She played a TV sleuth for years, but now she has to do it for real.
Rina’s friend Bridie Duggan is tying the knot! At a majestic country house on a private island. Rina and thirteen other guests row out for the ceremony.
One of them has murder in mind . . .
The next day, Rina’s out exploring the island when she hears a blood-curdling scream. She races down the twisty steps to shore — to find a dead body!
This guest didn’t fall to their death. They were pushed.
A storm is rolling in on Bridie’s perfect day. Now there’s no way on or off the island.
Rina can’t stand by and wait for the police to come to their rescue.
But what if Rina’s snooping just moved her from the guestlist to the kill list?
If you love Agatha Christie, Jeanne M. Dams, Glenda Young, Stella Cameron and Frances Evesham, prepare to be hooked by this page-turning whodunnit mystery.
THE DETECTIVE
Determined and compassionate, Rina Martin on a mission is an unstoppable force. When Rina retired from acting, she bought a B&B in Frantham on Sea. There, she has a quirky cast of full-time boarders, including wannabe magician Tim. She only wanted a quiet life. Instead, events propel Rina into full investigation mode, and she gets a taste for sleuthing. Can she help it if crimes just keep turning up on her doorstep?
THE SETTING
Tucked away in a charming little bay on the Jurassic coast, Frantham on Sea is a typical Victorian seaside town, with a picture-perfect promenade, B&Bs, and a grand hotel perched atop the headland. At the end of the promenade is the police station, where the officers’ days have always been short and uneventful — until Rina comes to town, and things take a turn for the sinister.
JANE ADAMS
Jane Adams is the author of more than thirty published crime novels. The first, The Greenway, was nominated for both the Authors’ Club award and the CWA John Creasey for best debut novel.
Jane is constantly amazed at where life has taken her. Writing had never been on her ‘possible careers’ list, but she says once stories take root in your brain, they just have to be told – and she feels very fortunate that people want to read them.
In addition to writing, Jane teaches creative writing, read and mentor for The Literary Consultancy, and is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow and FRSA.
FOLLOW JANE ON
TRIGGER WARNING: child murder and abuse
A little girl is missing so when a body is found in the grounds of the cathedral DI Lottie Parker fears the worst. But it is a different little girl so is even worse than she had believed possible…
The Altar Girls is the 13th book in the DI Lottie Parker series but would work as a standalone book as there are no spoilers about old cases. Lottie’s private life has developed over the series but it is easy to catch up.
8 year old Willow is missing but it is her classmate and fellow chorister Naomi instead. Thankfully they are able to identify the body quickly but this still means a child is dead for an unknown reason and the other is still missing. Deaths of young children are naturally abhorrent but it becomes clear they also suffered neglect which is also repugnant.
The chapters are short and this drives the plot along quickly. There are plenty of suspects with potential motives to be investigated. Some of the details about the maltreatment of children is difficult to read but the tone is softened by Lottie’s personal and emotional response.
As well as the police investigation, the book also features elements from Lottie’s personal life. They significantly threaten her focus on the case: her mother has dementia and there is still no progress on finding Boyd’s son who has been spirited away by his ex. These serve to make her more human by revealing her softer side.
The Altar Girls is a gripping police procedural with sensitive content.
Book Description:
The little girl looked like an angel in her thin white robe, her long black hair spread around her head like a dark halo on the snow. Her hands rested on her chest, fingers interlaced as if she had fallen asleep while praying. But she would never wake up again…
When Detective Lottie Parker receives news that a child’s body has been found in the frozen grounds of the cathedral, a shiver runs down her spine. She’s terrified it will be eight-year-old Willow Devine, reported missing that morning.
But when she arrives at the cathedral, holding a photo of Willow with her blonde ponytail and gap-toothed smile, she gets a terrible shock. The body is a young girl, wrapped in a white shroud, a rosary clutched in her frozen fingers. But her hair is dark, not fair. This girl isn’t Willow but another eight-year-old, Naomi.
Desperate to find a connection between the two girls and to find Willow before it is too late, Lottie speaks to the girls’ families and discovers that both girls were altar servers at the cathedral. The charismatic priest Father Maguire has a watertight alibi for the time the girls went missing, but Lottie suspects the confused old lady traumatised by the discovery of Naomi’s body is hiding something…
A day later, Willow’s little body is found wrapped in a white robe in the snowy grounds of a church across town. Lottie is devastated, convinced now that she can’t trust anyone, least of all the girls’ parents. Why did Willow’s mother claim the girls didn’t know each other? And why are there no photos of Naomi in her mother’s shabby house?
But when a little boy from the choir goes missing too, Lottie realises she must spread her net wider. Can she stop this twisted killer before another precious life is stolen?
A completely compelling page-turner from bestselling author Patricia Gibney. If you like Rachel Caine, Kendra Elliott and Robert Dugoni, The Altar Girls will have you hooked.
Author Bio:
Patricia is the million-copy bestselling author of the DI Lottie Parker series. She yearned to be a writer after reading Enid Blyton and Carolyn Keene and even wanted to be Nancy Drew when she grew up. She has now grown up (she thinks) but the closest she’s come to Nancy Drew is writing crime!
In 2009, after her husband died, she retired from her job and started writing seriously. Fascinated by people and their quirky characteristics, she always carries a notebook to scribble down observations.
Patricia also loves to paint in watercolour and lives in the Irish midlands with her children.
Buy Link:
You can sign up for all the best Bookouture deals you’ll love at: http://ow.ly/Fkiz30lnzdo
The manager of a vineyard arrives at work and checks over the premises as he does every morning. But on this day he hears a baby crying and his search finds a woman’s body with a distraught toddler beside her. Both are wearing angel wings. DI Lexi Bennett is called to the scene and a murder investigation begins…
The Innocent Angels is the third book in the Lexi Bennett series. I have previously read and reviewed the first two books, The Girls on Chalk Hill and The Girl’s Last Cry.
Lexi and her team are instantly under pressure as the vineyard owner complains about the financial cost of loss of production. The same man states he doesn’t recognise the victim but the following day declares the baby is his own. But another man also claims the baby is his so Lexi thinks there is a personal motive for the murder. Until another woman is discovered dead with her child beside her…
The writing has such a natural feel that the characters and plot felt authentic and I was instantly drawn into the scenario. The suspects were easy to dislike especially as further secrets are revealed. Drama and pace develop quite rapidly with plenty of twists as the case progresses. The involvement of young children has a strong emotional pull which engages us with the plot and makes us root for the police’s success in ending the killer’s activities.
The Innocent Angels is another engaging book in this police thriller series and I’m definitely loking forward to the next book.
MEDIA PACK
Book: THE INNOCENT ANGELS
Author: ALISON BELSHAM
Pub Day: NOVEMBER 7th 2023
About the Book:
A body in a cave. A family full of secrets. And time running out before the killer strikes again…
The case is one of the strangest Detective Lexi Bennett has ever seen. In a cave beneath a vineyard, ayoung woman wearing angel wings lies dead, her baby daughter crawling nearby.
Among the green vines and the rolling hills, Lexi finds no shortage of motives. The owner of the vineyard claims to be the father of the victim’s child, and his wife was clearly furious with her rival.
But when another woman is found dead in angel wings, her baby abandoned beside her, Lexi is certain the killer is following a strange and personal ritual.
Under pressure to arrest the obvious suspect and out on a limb, Lexi ignores her boss and follows her gut, deep into the past. When she’s attacked, she knows she’s on the right track. But the killer already has his next victim in his sights… and Lexi will have to risk everything to stop him.
For fans of Angela Marsons, Karin Slaughter and Val McDermid, The Innocent Angels will keep you hooked from the first page to the final shocking reveal.
Author Bio
In 2016, I entered and won Bloody Scotland’s Pitch Perfect competition. This secured me an agent and a three-book publishing deal with Orion for my police procedural series set in the world of tattoos and tattooing. My first novel, The Tattoo Thief, was translated into 15 languages, was a No 1 bestseller in Italy and is the first instalment of the internationally acclaimed Tattoo Thief trilogy. I also write in collaboration with my brother Nick Higgins – Canelo has published our action thriller series set in Afghanistan, Death In Kabul and Death in Helmand. Now I’m embarking on a fresh crime series with Bookouture. It’s set in Canterbury, featuring DI Lexi Bennett, newly appointed to lead the Major Incident Team after a spell working with the FBI’s specialist serial killer unit.
I divide my time between London and Edinburgh, where I am a co-founder of the Edinburgh Writers’ Forum, providing professional development and networking for writers.
To learn more about me and the books I write, visit my website at www.alisonbelsham.com
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Eve’s friend Simon is in desperate financial straits and needs his latest venture to be a success. He has launched a new arts centre in Saltwater Cottages and arranged a high profile artist to give classes. But Nena has enemies and is soon found dead. Can Eve catch the killer and save her friend’s business…?
Mystery at Saltwater Cottages is the 11th book to feature Eve Mallow who combines obituary writing with amateur sleuthing.
Eve is trying to support her friend Simon and organises to write an article for the magazine she works for. She is usually an obituary writer and her skills for that genre of news is soon required. Nena Field is a famous artist who grew up in the local area and has now returned. She is having an affair with a married man and causing upset wherever she goes. No one expected her to be murdered though!
There are a host of suspects established in the opening chapters as Nena puts noses out of joint and upsets others. This also means there are several potential motives as well for Eve to uncover. She is ably assisted by her beloved dog Gus as always, but her boyfriend Robin is away in London so she can only phone him for support.
I was kept guessing about the culprit and their motive, and enjoyed watching the case unfold. Eve is a great character and I like the way she has developed her investigating skills over the series of books.
Mystery at Saltwater Cottages is an enjoyable cosy murder mystery.
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Book: Mystery at Saltwater Cottages
Author: Clare Chase
Pub Day: Nov 6th 2023
About the Book:
Saltwater Cottages, Saxford’s new arts and crafts centre, is as pretty as a picture. But when murder makes a blot on the landscape, Eve Mallow must draw on all her detective skills to solve the case!
When beautiful Saltwater Cottages opens, offering art courses in charming surroundings, Eve Mallow and best friend Viv sign up straight away. Viv’s brother Simon is in charge, and they all want him to succeed.
But from the start, Eve finds herself in a sticky situation. Famous guest artist Nena Field is a complete nightmare, painting everyone in a bad light. So when Eve finds her body in Blind-Eye Wood, there’s no shortage of suspects. But who could have hated her enough to take her life? Was it the curiously over-qualified cook, the secretive manager, or the chatty receptionist, mysteriously missing at the time of the murder?
Determined to find the killer and save Simon’s business, Eve sets to work sketching out a theory of the crime. Nena was working on a secret painting when she died, which has now vanished without a trace, and Eve is convinced it holds the answers she needs. But when all her best suspects seem to have alibis, Eve is forced back to the drawing board.
Then Eve has her own brush with death, and realises she must be on the right track. But what did she see or hear at Saltwater Cottages, and can she find the killer before they paint her out of the picture?
An utterly delightful and page-turning English cozy mystery, perfect for fans of Faith Martin, J.R. Ellis, and Agatha Christie.
Author Bio
Clare Chase writes classic mysteries. Her aim is to take readers away from it all via some armchair sleuthing in atmospheric locations.
Her debut novel was shortlisted for Novelicious’s Undiscovered Award, as well as an EPIC award post-publication, and was chosen as a Debut of the Month by LoveReading. Murder on the Marshes (Tara Thorpe 1) was shortlisted for an International Thriller Writers award.
Like her heroines, Clare is fascinated by people and what makes them tick. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked in settings as diverse as Littlehey Prison and the University of Cambridge, in her home city. She’s lived everywhere from the house of a lord to a slug-infested flat and finds the mid-terrace she currently occupies a good happy medium.
As well as writing, Clare loves family time, art and architecture, cooking, and of course, reading other people’s books.
You can find Clare’s website and blog at www.clarechase.com
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