A Beginner's Guide to Murder - Rosalind Stopps

 

Description

Grace, Meg and Daphne, all in their seventies, are minding their own business while enjoying a cup of tea in a café, when seventeen-year-old Nina stumbles in. She’s clearly distraught and running from someone, so the three women think nothing of hiding her when a suspicious-looking man starts asking if they’ve seen her.
 
Once alone, Nina tells the women a little of what she’s running from. The need to protect her is immediate, and Grace, Meg and Daphne vow to do just this. But how? They soon realise there really is only one answer: murder.
 
And so begins the tale of the three most unlikely murderers-in-the-making, and may hell protect anyone who underestimates them.

Review

Trigger warnings for:  Kidnapping, rape, physical and emotional abuse

I'm always keen to read a book celebrating older people, but this just didn't do it for me. 

Three ladies in their seventies are minding their own business in a coffee shop when a young girl (Nina) comes in and asks for their help. If I had known what Nina was running from I would probably not have chosen to read this book. 

Whilst I applaud the older characters and their fight to show they are not to be written off by society the parts of the book that followed Nina made for gruesome and all too realistic reading. While it might have been slightly comedic at times for most of it I found it to be a very dark book. 

I did enjoy the friendships that were forged in the face of adversity and each of the three women all had a reason for helping Nina from their past.  However the plot was dragged out for too long in my opinion and I got a little bored with all the going back and forwards over the time line. The ending was dramatic but for me it came far too late.

I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.