Skip to main content

A Spoonful of Murder - J M Hall

 

Description

Introducing the three unlikeliest sleuths you'll ever meet…

Every Thursday, three retired school teachers have their ‘coffee o’clock’ sessions at the Thirsk Garden Centre café.

But one fateful week, as they are catching up with a slice of cake, they bump into their ex-colleague, Topsy.

By the next Thursday, Topsy’s dead.
 
The last thing Liz, Thelma and Pat imagined was that they would become involved in a murder.
 
But they know there’s more to Topsy’s death than meets the eye – and it’s down to them to prove it…

Sit down with a cup of tea and this perfectly witty, page-turning cosy crime novel. Fans of Agatha Christie, Death in Paradise and Midsomer Murders will be hooked from the very first page.

This audio edition includes an exclusive interview between J.M. Hall and Julie Hesmondhalgh.

Review

I listened to the audio version of this book. 

I loved Julie Hesmondhalgh narrating this book It really added to the cosy crime aspect and the subtle humour present throughout which she brought through so well when reading. Also it gave a different slant I think to the voices I would have had in my own head reading the book. 

All the characters were so believable and certainly were in my experience true to type for their ages. It wasn't until the book ended that I realised the author was a man. The voices of the women were so well written he has closely observed mannerisms and figures of speech. I found out at the end of the book that he is a primary school teacher and so he obviously drew a lot on that with the ladies all being retired teachers.

The book also relates to dementia and scams against the elderly. Again so very well written and true to life. I've been to most of the towns described in the book and I really liked that I could visualise where they were. 

If I had one tiny criticism about the audio is that I kept getting confused with who was speaking out of the three ladies. The name was soon mentioned though and I was able to follow the story. I would sum up this book as Agatha Christie meets Victoria Wood.

At the end of the audio the author read the acknowledgements and I really enjoyed this part and also the interview between him and the narrator. It brought so much more to the book and I hope other audios include something similar in the future.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars and my thanks to netgalley for the ARC of the audio to review.

The book is published 17 March 2022.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The C Word - An anthology of murder, mystery, death & destruction

  Great to be on the book tour today for this book today especially as 100% of all royalties from The C Word will be donated to NHS Together Charities. Description So, what do writers do during Lockdown? They create murder, mystery, death and destruction of course! The C Word is a collection of short stories collated during the COVID-19 pandemic to raise money for NHS Charities Together. A plethora of wonderful stories created by a wide variety of writers, each with their own unique style. Some you will know already and some we’ve yet to introduce you to. However, we’re sure you’ll want to hear from each and every one of them again as we leave 2020 behind us. With contributions from Steve Mosby, Sophie Hannah, Elly Griffiths, Sarah Hilary, Rob Scragg, Trevor Wood and many more. Review A great collection of short stories and certainly written for our times. Some of these stories were a little too dark for my usual reading tastes, but as they were short I stuck with them. There could...

The Ghost Cat - Alex Howard

  Description Early morning, 1902. In a gloomy Edinburgh tenement, Eilidh the charlady tips coal into a fire grate and sets it alight. Overhearing, a cat ambles over to curl up against the welcome heat. This is to be the cat's last day on earth. But he is going to return... as The Ghost Cat, a spirit-feline destined to live out his ghostly existence according to the medieval proverb of "The Cat with Nine Lives" - For Three He Plays, For Three He Strays, For Three He Stays. Follow The Ghost Cat as he witnesses the changes of the next two centuries as he purrs, shuffles and sniffs his way through the fashion, politics and technological advances of the modern era alongside the ever-changing inhabitants of an Edinburgh tenement. As we follow our new spirit-feline friend, this unique story unearths some startling revelations about the mystery of existence and the human condition and provides a feel-good read full of charm for any fan of history, humour and fur-ridden fun. Revi...

The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

Description THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER. YOU DON'T KNOW HER. BUT SHE KNOWS YOU. Rear Window  meets  Gone Girl , in this exceptional and startling psychological thriller Review I must be one of the last people to read this book. I did apply for a review copy but unfortunately wasn't successful. I then waited for the book to come down in price which it didn't - so I decided I would buy it and read it straight away! I'm sure it will be a film and before anyone gives away what happens I felt I really needed to get it read, so it jumped the TBR queue. There is not much plot outline from the publisher as you can see in the description above, so there wasn't a lot to go on when I began to read the book. First of all the book jumps around date wise - past and present and also between the main characters. I did have a little trouble remembering who was who and which time frame we were in - but that soon settled down. I also had to re-read the beginning because I th...