REVIEW
No trip to Cornwall is complete without a visit to a tea shop for a cream tea, and Maddie Penrose is baking up a storm at her gran’s farm tea room. Having grown up visiting the farm, Maddie has relocated from London to make Pendragon Bay her permanent home, wanting to make the tea room a success. As she re-familiarises herself with the village and its residents, it allows Fliss Chester to introduce us to her cast of characters naturally. While this is the second novel of this cosy series, it can easily be read as a standalone, the writing feels inclusive for all readers, new and returning alike.
It doesn’t take long for the drama to start, as there’s a body on the beach before the first chapter is out. The local bookshop owner washes up on shore, with a knife in his back, and a mysterious map soon follows in with the tide. From the very beginning, the story flows beautifully to the tense and action packed ending, with plenty of suspects and red herrings along the way.
With members of the local book club being bumped off one by one, Maddie begins to uncover the book club’s darkest secrets and conflicts, and rumours of hidden Arthurian treasure abound.
The storytelling is top-notch, and the characters feel like friends that I just adore spending time with. I love the family bond between Maddie and her gran, and there’s a wonderful sense of community in Pendragon Bay. The action and tension are broken up with moments of sweetness and humour, and the baking descriptions are to die for.
Addictive and entertaining Cornish cosy.
About The Author
Fliss Chester lives in Surrey with her husband and writes historical cozy crime. When she is not killing people off in her 1940s whodunnits, she helps her husband, who is a wine merchant, run their business. Never far from a decent glass of something, Fliss also loves cooking (and writing up her favourite recipes on her blog), enjoying the beautiful Surrey and West Sussex countryside and having a good natter.
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BLURB
Join Maddie Penrose, scone baker, book lover and amateur sleuth, in her new home by the Cornish seaside. A member of her local book club has been murdered, and she’s on the case!
Maddie Penrose is settling into Cornish life with her fun and feisty grandmother, Nor. She throws herself into getting to know the locals, helping out at the village book club and enjoying the occasional G&T in the pub with handsome police officer DI Tom Trevelyan. But one sunny morning, her newfound peace is shattered when she spots Quentin, a member of the book club… dead, with a knife in his back.
To Maddie’s surprise, it transpires that almost all the other members of the book club have a motive to murder Quentin. Quentin’s own wife, a fellow reader, seems to be hiding something. The local romance author isn’t all sweetness and light, and another writer is keeping secrets. But is one of the book lovers in the sleepy seaside village really responsible for Quentin’s untimely death?
No sooner has the ink dried on the page of the first killing, another takes place – and the second victim is also a member of the book club! As Maddie frantically scrambles to get her clues down in black and white, she unearths a discovery connected to Nor. Is her gran the next victim on the list?
Can Maddie rescue Nor before her story ends in murder too? Or will the killer have the last word?
What readers are saying about Fliss Chester:
‘Perfect… I was hooked from the first line!… I was guessing until the very end, I found myself smiling and gasping throughout!‘ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘I loved this! Found myself going to bed earlier and earlier so I could devour another few pages.’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘I was totally captivated from the very beginning… I was holding my breath… I can’t praise this book enough.’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘I devoured it in one sitting… Absolutely fantastic… Will keep you turning the pages and guessing right up until the end!!’ Bookworm86, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘Absolutely amazing… I devoured this… Wham the ending totally blindsides… Wow, I absolutely did not see that coming… Fantastic.’ Page Turners, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘I whipped through it in a matter of hours… Grips from the very beginning… Fabulous… Superb… Knocked it out of the park.’ Bookish Jottings, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
‘So much fun. Think Wooster and Jeeves meets Downton Abbey doing a mystery. I was laughing out loud… Just super.’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
‘Loved loved loved… Fantastic… Couldn’t put it down… Gripping!!’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
‘Very Agatha Christie-esque… I was always on the edge of my seat.’ Fiction_Books, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
‘What a rip-roaring adventure!… Kept me hooked from start to finish.’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
‘Exceptional… Nail-biting… A terrific crime caper… Wonderful.’ Bookish Jottings, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
‘I absolutely loved it… Clever, funny, charming.’ T.E. Kinsey, best-selling mystery writer of the Lady Hardcastle series
Many thanks to Bookouture for the advance eArc for review.
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