Murder at the Cornish Book Club - Fliss Chester

 Join Maddie Penrose, scone baker, book lover and amateur sleuth, in her new home by the Cornish seaside. A member of her local book club has been murdered, and she’s on the case!

Maddie Penrose is settling into Cornish life with her fun and feisty grandmother, Nor. She throws herself into getting to know the locals, helping out at the village book club and enjoying the occasional G&T in the pub with handsome police officer DI Tom Trevelyan. But one sunny morning, her newfound peace is shattered when she spots Quentin, a member of the book club… dead, with a knife in his back.

To Maddie’s surprise, it transpires that almost all the other members of the book club have a motive to murder Quentin. Quentin’s own wife, a fellow reader, seems to be hiding something. The local romance author isn’t all sweetness and light, and another writer is keeping secrets. But is one of the book lovers in the sleepy seaside village really responsible for Quentin’s untimely death?

No sooner has the ink dried on the page of the first killing, another takes place – and the second victim is also a member of the book club! As Maddie frantically scrambles to get her clues down in black and white, she unearths a discovery connected to Nor. Is her gran the next victim on the list?

Can Maddie rescue Nor before her story ends in murder too? Or will the killer have the last word?

My Review

This may only be the second in the Maddie Penrose series, but I already feel as though we know Maddie, her gran and 'her' policeman quite well. This is a great series, set in beautiful Cornwall. Maddie herself is both intuitive and chaotic, and that adds to her charm and likability.

This time, Maddie finds herself thrown into another murder investigation after the discovery of a body at a dawn swim. It seems that many people have reason to want the dead man out of the way, but it's not immediately obvious if any of them would want it enough to actually commit murder.

I love Maddie's less-than-perfect approach to trying to figure out what happened. She scribbles notes in her grandmother's recipe books in a way that I'm sure only she might be able to make sense of them.

This is a great series, and I'm looking forward to finding out what might be next for this cook and amateur sleuth.