The first instalment of Maggie Allswell’s Book Club Murders was published this week by Bookouture, and on the face of it, it looked like a regular cosy mystery.
It didn’t take very long at all for that notion to be dispelled.
Judy – over 60, mobility scooter user, funeral director – is a member of a local book club – The Serial Killers Book Club – that focuses on books featuring murder with a rag tag bunch of fellow book lovers, from different walks of life and bringing different perspectives to the table.
When she finds the local librarian dead at home, Judy is suspicious, and believes there’s more to the sudden death than meets the eye. On top of that, her middle aged daughter is head over heels with a new man, and he’s not passing scrutiny either.
The suspect is identified fairly early on, but what makes this different from other cosy crime series is that the focus is on a different type of justice. No gathering evidence and getting in the way of the police investigation for the Book Club – oh no, they have a different, and unexpected, plan…
Great storytelling with humour sprinkled throughout, I loved this take on the village cosy, and can’t wait to see the Book Club return! The characters are sparky and larger than life, making for very entertaining reading.
Blurb
What Judy’s book club doesn’t know about murder mysteries isn’t worth writing about. Nothing beats cracking a fictional case over some wine and salt and vinegar crisps. But can they put their puzzle-solving skills to the test when the local librarian dies in a real-life murder?
For widower Judy, her murder book club is the highlight of the month: she gets to hear all the local gossip and even discuss a good fictitious poisoning or two. But when local librarian Wendy disappears, Judy follows in the footsteps of her fictional detective heroes only to find her dead in her home, clasping a copy of Romeo and Juliet…
The police rule it a tragic accident, but Judy knows that her friend hated Shakespeare, and suspects foul play. Gathering her fellow book lovers together, soon they discover that several townspeople had motive to want Wendy dead. Was it Nigel from the tavern, who may have been Wendy’s secret boyfriend? Or could it be Bryan, the local bookshop owner, tangled in a bitter rivalry with the library?
The plot thickens at a charity murder mystery night held at Nigel’s tavern. Suddenly more murders come to light, both real and very badly staged. And when Nigel makes an astonishing revelation, the book club agree it’s a plot twist no-one saw coming. Can Judy and her book club solve the mystery before they too fall victim to a killer plot?
About the Author
Tracy Bloom, writing as Maggie Allswell, started writing when her cruel, heartless husband ripped her away from her dream job – shopping for rollercoasters for the UK’s leading theme parks – to live in America with a brand new baby and no mates. In a cunning plan to avoid domestic duties and people who didn’t understand her Derbyshire accent, she wrote NO-ONE EVER HAS SEX ON A TUESDAY.
It went on to become a No 1 bestseller and publishing phenomenon. So now Tracy has a new dream job, making people laugh and sometimes cry through her writing and has had many more novels published successfully around the world. She now lives back in Derbyshire with her now wonderful husband and two children!
Leave a Reply