Cosy Crime

Christmas Crime

/ Eleanor Jane / Leave a comment

Now that December is well and truly upon us I am beginning to want to read all the Christmas books. However, although I am listening to A Holiday by Gaslight – which is utterly charming – my main reading has actually been very much focused on cosy crime. Apparently that is what I want from Christmas right now!

I have just finished Josephine Tey’s The Franchise Affair. I have been slowly working my way through her books as until a year or so ago all I had read was Daughter of Time. I loved that book so much but for some reason had never moved on to any other, maybe because I was worried that it was the Richard III theme which appealed and not the writing itself. It turns out that – unsurprisingly – Josephine Tey is a great writer and I very much enjoy her books.

The Franchise Affair is possibly my favourite so far – except for Daughter of Time of course. I was hooked very early on and all my spare thoughts were occupied by it. Inspector Grant actually featured very little but I loved Robert Blair and was completely invested in his story. Plus that of the Sharpes of course.

In short, I loved this book and I am very much looking forward to the next.

Christie Immersion

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Over the past couple of days I have been exploring round Dartmouth and enjoying it very much. There are so many gorgeous houses on the edges of the town – and over the river around Kingswear – and what with those and the palm trees I feel as if I am in an Agatha Christie novel. I can practically see people walking to tennis parties. This is the heart of Agatha Christie country after all

Unfortunately whenever I am here there seems to be an awful lot of building work going on. The walls and fences springing up around those houses make them look more like fortresses and I am convinced they looked much more welcoming in their heyday. I appreciate that the owners don’t want people all over their lawns but four private notices on one gateway does seem excessive. All the pretty blocked up gateways make me very sad too – and it doesn’t help at all that most of the houses are not lived in all year round.

However, I try not to dwell on that and just enjoy the sea air and gorgeous views. I neglected to take a Christie book with me but I did have A Tourist’s Guide to Murder by V M Burns which – completely fortuitously – involves a trip to Dartmouth and so was very appropriate. It is definitely the perfect place for reading cosy crime.

Indecisive Reading

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It turns out that, although the autumn has made me crave some more serious reading, I am not able to read just the weightier books. Over the past few days I have been reading A Gossip’s Story by Jane West and at the same time listening to Rebecca. Neither of them are particularly difficult reading but when I finished Rebecca I had to immediately start something much lighter – the latest in the Needlecraft Mystery series by Monica Ferris was exactly the palette cleanser I needed.

I am very much enjoying A Gossip’s Story – which I have been wanting to read for years because of the idea that it may have helped inspire Sense and Sensibility. However, as with many eighteenth century novels, it is interspersed with long (33 pages) sections of poetry which do not advance the plot and do not always hold my interest. I appreciated the fact that the author said it was easy to see where the narrative resumed so I could skip the poem but I am definitely a completionist and I couldn’t bear to do that. Therefore, on my day off – when I really needed to be sucked into a story – I picked up another cosy crime book – this one the next (for me) in V M Burns’ Mystery Bookshop series.

This series is a lot of fun and – although I find some aspects of the sections which are from a 1938 cosy crime book set in England a little grating – I keep being brought back for more. I only have one more book to go before I catch up with the author now!

All of which goes to show that it is very important – at least for me – to have a variety of books on the go. I am such a mood reader that I never know what I will want from one day to the next!

Book Reveiw – The Appeal

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Last week I received a reading copy of The Appeal by Janice Hallett and I knew I had to read it immediately. I adore The Documents in the Case by Dorothy L Sayers and this sounded like it had a similar premise. In fact, it goes much further and is a collection of a whole range of documents about this particular case.

Publisher’s Blurb

Dear Reader – enclosed are all the documents you need to solve a case. It starts with the arrival of two mysterious newcomers to the small town of Lockwood, and ends with a tragic death.

Someone has already been convicted of this brutal murder and is currently in prison, but we suspect they are innocent. What’s more, we believe far darker secrets have yet to be revealed.

Throughout the Fairway Players’ staging of All My Sons and the charity appeal for little Poppy Reswick’s life-saving medical treatment, the murderer hid in plain sight. Yet we believe they gave themselves away. In writing. The evidence is all here, between the lines, waiting to be discovered.

Will you accept the challenge? Can you uncover the truth?

I could not put this book down. As each of the documents were fairly short it was very easy to keep reading ‘just one more’ and before I knew it a whole hour had gone (I was very nearly late for my virtual orchestra rehearsal). All the time I wasn’t reading it I was puzzling over the snippets of information I had gleaned, trying to work out what had happened and then who had made it happen.

The plot had many twists and turns I wasn’t expecting – although I worked out some answers I didn’t get them all and there were several moments that took me by surprise. I’ve read a lot of crime recently but this is the first one in a while which has really got my brain working to try to solve the problem rather than just enjoying the story and character development.

It was a great book and one I have recommended many times in just a few days. I know I will be reading it again – I wanted to restart it as soon as I finished just to see if I could pick up on the clues I missed the first time round! Thank you so much to Viper Books for sending the review copy.

Book Details

The Appeal by Janice Hallett

Publisher: Viper Books

ISBN: 9781788165303

RRP: £8.99

Audiobook Month

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Apparently June is National Audiobook Month and I couldn’t let it pass without saying something about it. It is no secret how much I love audiobooks – I’ve been listening to them since I was tiny and I doubt I’ll ever stop.

For the past couple of months Daisy Dalrymple and Detective Chief Inspector Fletcher have been my almost constant companions. I have been listening to their stories in the car, in the stables and in the studio painting. I had read a few of them before but mostly later books in the series and not in any kind of order. Now I am working my way through from the beginning and – as well as enjoying the cosy crime – I am loving seeing their characters and relationship develop. So much so, that when I have to wait a few days for the next book to become available from the library I feel utterly bereft.

I have had a few issues with listening rather than reading. Accents haven’t always come off and some words have been given very strange pronunciations. My favourite moment was when the name of a town near where I grew up was completely mangled. None of that matters though and I am still lost in Daisy’s world and when I can’t listen I spend a lot of time wishing I could.

Audiobooks have always been a big part of my life and I look forward to much listening in the future.

Comforting Cosy Crime

/ Eleanor Jane / 2 Comments

Lately I have been reading a lot of cosy crime books. It has always been a favourite genre of mine but for the past week or so it’s been almost the only thing I want to read. The trouble is that – although I am always happy to re-read favourite books – at the moment I am very much feeling a need for new stories. I really want to experience the suspense which is never quite the same when you already know whodunnit!

I have therefore scoured my bookshelves for any unread cosy crime languishing in a corner (there was not a lot), borrowed another from my sister and, as I just had a week off work, I treated myself to a few holiday reads. The second book in the Kate Shackleton series by Frances Brody (A Medal for Murder) was excellent and of course I thoroughly enjoyed The China Governess by Margery Allingham. I am getting alarmingly close to the end of that series though. I also read the first book in the Miss Seeton series by Heron Carvic – Picture Miss Seeton. At first I was very unsure about this one but I actually really enjoyed it and will definitely be reading more.

Much of my time last week though was taken up with the Sophie Sayers series by Debbie Young – two novels and three novellas. I first discovered these books when Debbie spoke on a crime panel at the Crediton Book Festival last year – she spoke so well that I immediately had to buy the first book. I have been steadily working my way through them and am now almost up to date – I am very impatient to get my hands on the new book!

Right now I am in the middle of A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey. Again, it was pretty inevitable that I would enjoy this one. This is the last one I own that is unread though – a trip to the library is becoming very necessary. Any recommendations are welcome!

Lockdown Take Two

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As we head into a second lockdown I find that I am more anxious than I was last time. Primarily I think that is down to the combination of the waiting and the uncertainty. Last time lockdown just started – although we knew something would happen – whereas now we have had a few days warning. As I have spent those constantly speculating about how it will affect me personally (I know it doesn’t help but I can’t stop!) I have been very on edge all week.

So much so that my reading – especially in my breaks at work – has suffered. I just can’t concentrate on my book when I’m in the staff room! I am doing much better at home – but there I am sticking to cosy, comforting reads. That definitely seems to be the way forward for me.

Therefore, my plan over lockdown is just to read whatever I feel like at the time. If a book isn’t working I’ll put it down and try something else. Children’s books or cosy crime are probably going to be the best – I am seeing a lot of Betsy-Tacy, LM Montgomery and Margery Allingham in my future. Of course, my cat will also be there to keep me company!

On a side note, when I couldn’t read this week the thing that worked best for me was decorating envelopes for my penpals. It is something I always enjoy doing but I have never been quite so obsessed as I have been this week!

Book Review – The Thursday Murder Club

/ Eleanor Jane / 2 Comments

In the early days of lockdown, my Mum and I found our own way of coping – every weekday we sat down together to watch Richard Osman’s House of Games. It was a small bit of routine which really helped – and, crucially, it made us laugh.

I have been a fan of Richard Osman for quite some time, so when I heard that he had written a crime novel I knew that I had to read it. I was therefore incredibly excited to find that I had been sent a reading copy by Penguin Books.

Publisher’s Blurb

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders.

But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case.

Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it’s too late?

I loved this book. It is a great cosy crime novel (and we all know how much I enjoy those!) and the characters really lived for me. It is just as funny and clever as you might expect – the plot takes some brilliant twists and turns.

Very excitingly for me, Richard Osman had an event at the Appledore Book Festival last week. For obvious reasons all of the authors signed their books before the events and couldn’t meet the audience members. One of the perks of working there though was that I could meet him from a safe distance and get my copy personally signed. He was just as nice as he seems on television and I am now eagerly awaiting book two.

Book Details

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Publisher: Penguin Books

ISBN: 9780241425442

RRP: £14.99

Comforting Cosy Crime

/ Eleanor Jane / 2 Comments

I’ve realised that I have been talking a lot about cosy crime books recently – it seems that in times of stress I really do find them comforting.  I generally revert to old favourites – Margery Allingham, Catherine Aird, Dorothy L Sayers…  At the moment I am mostly (but not exclusively) reading familiar authors but have been seeking out new to me titles.  They have the double advantage of seeming comfortingly well known whilst still being exciting new stories.

I am not alone either.  I remember early on in lockdown reading a piece by Robin Stevens about how the reading of crime fiction always increases in times of crisis.  Apparently it is because it is (perhaps subconsciously) reassuring to read a book which has very human problems we know will be neatly solved by the end.  I think we can all see the appeal of that!

For me, there are some stricter rules.  I do not like books where it turns out the narrator – or someone whose thoughts we can follow – is the murderer.  That breaks one of the rules of golden age detective fiction, although it is one Agatha Christie was happy to break – she is well know for breaking many of them!  I do hate getting emotionally attached to the villain.

I also like to have a fair chance of solving the murder myself. All the detective’s clues should be available to me otherwise it just isn’t fair. I love Ngaio Marsh but Alleyn has a terrible habit of saying something along the lines of, ‘I’ll tell you on the way.’ to Inspector Fox and we never get to see that scene. It’s a bit infuriating sometimes.

I do also have an issue with books where it turns out the murder was in fact a suicide. This is a problem which is very specific to me but I just don’t enjoy those stories nearly as much.

I have however been having a lovely time indulging my taste for cosy mysteries.  They are a balm I can highly recommend.

Book Review – The Plot is Murder

/ Eleanor Jane / 2 Comments

I am always on the lookout for new (to me) cosy crime books.  They are just so comforting and the best kind of relaxation so when I heard about the Mystery Bookshop series by V M Burns I had to try it out.  It is set in a mystery bookshop after all!

Publisher’s Blurb





Samantha Washington has long dreamed of owning a mystery bookstore.  And as she prepares for the grand opening, she’s realizing another dream–penning a cozy mystery set in England between the wars.  While Samantha hires employees and stocks her shelves, her imagination also gets to work as her heroine, Lady Penelope Marsh, long-overshadowed by her beautiful sister Daphne, refuses to lose the besotted Victor Carlston to her sibling’s charms.  When one of Daphne’s suitors is murdered in a maze, Penelope steps in to solve the labyrinthine puzzle and win Victor.

In the meantime, however, the unimaginable happens in real life.  A shady realtor turns up dead in Samantha’s backyard, and the police suspect her–after all, she might know a thing or two about murder.  Aided by her feisty grandmother and an ensemble of enthusiastic retirees, Samantha is determined to close the case before she opens her store.  But will she live to conclude her own story when the killer has a revised ending in mind?

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I very much enjoyed this book.  It is light, easy reading which is perfect right now.  The mystery kept me guessing and I especially loved reading about Nana Jo and the girls.  I only hope I’m half as active and resourceful as them when I’m their age!

I hadn’t realised that half of the text  would be taken up by the crime novel which Sam is writing.  That did throw me a bit to start with but I actually really like the way it was woven into the main plot.  There were however some aspects of the portrayal of life in 1930s England which grated and I did feel that perhaps some more research could have been done here.

Overall though, I thought it was a fun book and I will definitely be reading more in the series.

Book Details

The Plot is Murder by V M Burns
Publisher: Kensington Publishing
ISBN: 9781496711816
RRP: £11.99