The Campervan Detectives - Maeve Haran

 Fearless, feisty and at the wheel of her bright orange campervan, newly-single Sadie is about to enter a new era… as a detective?!

It’s never too late for a second chance, and when Sadie Sutton’s marriage implodes spectacularly, she jumps into her vintage VW campervan and heads for the twisty cobbled streets and sea views of her childhood in the little seaside town of Winching. But her fresh start comes to an abrupt stop when she trips over a dead body, turning an ordinary walk with her faithful dog Sam Spade into a murder investigation!

Having failed to stop a balaclava-wearing suspect disappearing from the scene into the night, Sadie can’t help but take matters into her own hands. The victim, retired headmistress Charlotte Woolf, was well known around Winching for her sharp tongue – rumours suggest she was particularly disliked by her own husband! But he swears he doesn’t even like killing snails by mistake…

With the enthusiastic help of three women at the campsite who have all embraced Van Life, Sadie starts sleuthing. Who was sending Charlotte anonymous bunches of flowers that had her rattled? Do the members of the local sea swimming club hold a vital clue? Sadie and her friends are on the right track… until their prime suspect ends up dead in his garden shed!

Can Sadie get to the root of the problem and stop the killer before the next person is buried? Or will her fresh new chapter end with her driving her campervan back the way she came?

First in a brilliant new series from bestselling author Maeve Haran, this warm, witty and absolutely unputdownable cosy crime novel is perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, The Thursday Murder Club and Robert Thorogood.

My Review

I love the idea of this murder mystery. After finding her husband and best friend in bed together, Sadie sells her car, buys a camper van and disappears off to the small town she used to visit when she was a child. Who wouldn't want to just give up on everything like that and escape? It all goes a bit wrong when she stumbles across a dead body on her first night there.

I loved the way that Sadie meets up with and befriends a group of women who all live in their campervans. Not only does she have a whole group of women she can rely on, but they work together to solve the mystery. I loved that. 

This is the first book in the series and I'm looking forward to seeing what's next for Sadie and her friends. 

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.