Murder, the start of an unlikely detective duo!

Synopsis

Once Upon A Crime…

Nancy Hunter and her grandmother Jane Hunter run the Dedley Endings Bookshop, selling crime, thriller and mystery books, in a small, quiet Cotswold village where nothing ever happens…

That is, until the wealthy and reclusive Roth family open up their mansion for the first time in twenty years, inviting the people of Dedley End to a lavish engagement party.

While everyone is thrilled to finally look around the mansion on the hill, the festivities are quickly cut short when beautiful Lucy, recently married to young Harry Roth, is found dead after being pushed over the first-floor balustrade.

But who among the guests could have been capable of her murder – and why?

Nancy and Jane decide to investigate – after all, not only do they own a crime themed bookshop, theywere also both named after famous literary detectives – but soon wonder if they’ve taken on more than they can handle. Especially when it seems the killer has worked out that they’re hot on their heels…

Can they catch the murderer before the murderer catches up with them? Or will there be a deadly ending to this story?

Join the unlikeliest detective duo for the killer opener of The Dedley End Mysteries series, by a major voice in women’s fiction.

My review

Nancy Hunter and her grandmother Jane run a peculiar bookshop in Dedley End. Living in a place with that name, it was Nancy’s father his idea to have a bookshop selling only crime, thriller and mystery books.
And after his death, Nancy wants to keep his dream alive.
Since his death several years ago, in strange circumstances, nothing else has happened in Dedley End.
That is until the Roth family decide to have an engagement party and the invitations are also for a lucky few of the village. This is a big event, as the Roths have been living rather reclusive.
But festivities are cut short as Lucy, recently married to Harry Roth, has been pushed over the balustrade and died.
Why has she been murdered? And who was the murderer? When Nancy and Jane start to investigate, they quickly realize that murder in real life is nothing like a murder in a book. And that the truth is far more complicated, especially when a prestigious family like the Roth family is involved.

This story was a whole different genre compared to what I’m used to read from this author. But as I loved all the read books, I wanted to read this one too.
Because something different doesn’t mean that it’s not so good!
Even if the genre is different, the warmth this author manages to add in each of her books, is so much present in this one!

Nancy and her grandmother are both so lovely characters, you just like them immediately. They have had some difficult times, events that were had to cope with, but the love between grandmother and granddaughter is so big, it sparks from each page.
Of course there are some moments where they don’t agree with each other, but the love and respect they have for each other is so heart – warming.

Only having a story about the relationship of these two characters would be enough to fill a whole book, but adding the mystery of a murder, made this even a better book!

Having a bookshop and they both liking a good thriller and crime, is a good enough reason for Nancy, with the help of Jane and her best friend Jonathan to do some sleuthing herself!

I loved to see how Nancy managed, sometimes even unknowingly, to reveal some secrets from the Roth’s family and was getting closer to unveil the truth.
I don’t think she would be a great asset for the police, with following all the rules, but just being herself, and her curiosity managed her to figure out what happened.

I had my own suspicions and was happy to see that I was having a good gut feeling, but the reasoning wasn’t what I expected! And even some mysteries of the past got the much wanted answer! At some moments the story even gave me some ‘Murder, she wrote’ vibes, making me turn into a Jessica Fletcher/ Nancy Hunter myself!

I truly enjoyed reading this funny, cosy mystery, with lovely characters, and a few not so nice ones (BOOH RICHARD!).
But if my gut feelings are again right, I know that this book will be the wonderful start of a series, with a lot of sleuthing, but also developing relations (I surely root for 1 relationship to become even more!).