Fiona LeitchBesprekingen

Murder at the Grotto: A Bella Tyson Short Story (The Bella Tyson Mysteries) is a short story which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I loved the writing style with the occasional sarky comment which made me feel I could happily read more by this author.

recipes, festivals, pet-dog, ex-cop, local-law-enforcement, rural, caterer, verbal-humor, Cornwall, cozy-mystery, series, small-business, small-town, punny, foodie, food-truck, teens, relationship-issues, relationships, relatives, family, family-dynamics, lies, cold-case, entertainers, investigations, secrets*****

Great addition to a fun series. The music festival was a fun summer affair until the probable murder was discovered. Then former police Josie and her DCI fiance find that there is more to helping out a friend with his food truck besides naming all the pies after people and places relevant to the film DIE HARD. Have some grand groans and snickers while Josie's mom drives them nutz with her Glamping friends as you try to solve it before the constabulary.
I requested and received a free temporary EARC from HarperCollins UK/ One More Chapter via NetGalley. Thank you!
#NoseyParkerMysteriesBk7 #CozyMystery #Cornwall #Punny

Law-enforcement, verbal-humor, situational-humor, Cornwall, cozy-mystery, series, foodie, punny, relationships, relatives, murder, murder-investigation, small-business, small-town, caterer, family, family-dynamics, rural, cop's kid, pet-dog, lies, veterans, good-intentions, myths-legends, recipes, festivals*****

Auxiliary officer DS Jodie Parker of the CID was the daughter of a local cop and left her work at the Met Police. Now she is the single mom of a 13 yr/o daughter/dog owner/in a relationship with a local DCI (DCI Nathan)/ caterer.
All kinds of local madness with the Mermaid Festival that turns serious when a local man is found murdered. That brings in a lot of trouble, especially for the Parkers and the CID. Lots of good investigative work and a truly surprising twist at the end. I love all the characters and the ambiance of this rural seaside town. I do think that it can stand alone if needed.
I requested and received an EARC from HarperCollins UK/ One More Chapter via NetGalley. Thank you!

cosy-mystery, law-enforcement, verbal-humor, situational-humor, Cornwall, ex-cop, small-town, small-business, recipes, drag-queens, tv-film-industry, sabotage, family, filming, catering, murder, murder-investigation, baker, chef, contest, relationships, foodie, punny*****

Jodie (Nosey) Parker is a single mom/daughter/ex-cop/dog owner/in a relationship with a local DCI/ caterer. DCI Nathan says that when she is with her mother and 13 y/o daughter they are the "Number One Nosey Parker Detective Agency". Especially when they bring their Pomeranian, Germaine Grrr.
Jodie has been invited to be in the baking show from TV that is coming to Cornwall, and it is enervating. But then there is a murder and...
Come for the sleuthing, stay for the fun! Can hardly wait for the next one!
I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from HarperCollins UK/ One More Chapter via NetGalley. Thank you!

Jodie Parker has left London and the police force to return to her hometown with her daughter, Daisy. Jodie is opening a catering business. She happens upon a job catering a wedding for an old beau while shopping for a sofa. The fiancé does not appear keen, but Tony is gung-ho especially since the wedding is less than a week away. Jodie is prepared to work hard to show what she can do, but she is unprepared for a missing bride and a dead ex-wife. Jodie gave up policing to please her daughter who was worried about her safety. But old habits die hard. Jodie cannot help but do a little snooping. Murder on the Menu by Fiona Leitch is the first A Nosey Parker Cozy Mystery Novel. Murder on the Menu is set in Cornwall which means British terms and slang. There was not as much as I would have expected, and it is easy to discern the words based on the context. I wish the author had provided vivid descriptions of this beautiful area. I also wanted to know more about Jodie’s hometown, Penstowan besides it is small and there is a beach. The mystery was fun to solve. It is not a predictable mystery which was the best part of the book. The details are wrapped in the long reveal. Murder on the Menu is a lighthearted British cozy. There are humorous situations and remarks. The story does contain some mild profanity. There is a potential romance for Jodie with DCI Nate Withers. It is a good thing DCI Withers likes Jodie since she frequently gets in the way of his investigation. The nickname “Nosey” suits Jodie to a T. I have to wonder if Jodie’s heart is really in starting her new business. She spends her time investigating instead of getting her new business off the ground. There is a recipe at the end of the book. If you enjoy blithe and witty cozies with a British twist, then you will enjoy reading Murder on the Menu.

I received an advance copy of this book via NetGalley.

In this first book in a delightful new series, Nosey is a 40-year-old former London policewoman, just moved back to her Cornwall hometown with her 12-year-old daughter. She's prepared to put investigative work behind her and focus on a new catering business, but in her first job catering a wedding for an old school chum, the groom's ex-wife turns up dead and the bride is missing. With her friend set up to take the blame, Nosey can't resist searching for the truth, in the process butting heads against the rather arrogant yet dishy DCI Withers.

I loved this book. It's a cozy mystery that touches on dark issues, but never goes too far--nor does it fall into whimsy. I can't help but be leery about the trope of a potential romance between a woman investigator and an arrogant cop, but here, it's handled beautifully. Withers isn't that much of a jerk, and two begin to respect and help each other through the investigation in a way that feels natural. Really, all of the characters feel nuanced and genuine, and that makes the mystery all the more enjoyable. The clues and revelations are paced just right, and while I guessed correctly about some aspects, the climax still delivered plentiful surprises.

Also, the setting of Cornwall is just fantastic. It's a place I've never been, so this is a chance to experience it vicariously! Also, the subplot of a catering business promises lots of food talk, which I always welcome (along with sausage jokes, which made me giggle as I read). The back of the book even has a recipe written in the voice of Nosey.

This is a smashing start to a new series! I hope the forthcoming books can live up to the fun of this one.

Jodie Parker and her catering team – consisting of her 13-year-old daughter Daisy, her mother and her right hand Debbie – have taken over a job at short notice at Bodmin Moor, an old abbey about to be turned into a guest house. Millionaire Isaac is hosting a Christmas party for kids with a Santa and all it needs to have a great event. The food is great and they all have a wonderful day. Yet, when they want to leave in the evening, it turns out that due to heavy snow fall, all roads are blocked. Thus, Jodie and her team, Isaac with his assistant and his son as well as Santa Steve have to stay overnight. Two knocks on the door bring more stranded people: a group of four Japanese women and a mysterious couple. They make the best of the situation, but when a dead body is discovered the next morning, they realise that a murderer must be among them.

I hadn’t noticed that “A Cornish Christmas Murder” is the fourth in Fiona Leitch series about the nosey ex member of the Met Police Jodie Parker. Yet, the cosy crime novel offers enough about her backstory to simply enjoy the case at hand. It is a classic setting with a group of strangers gathering in an isolated place where no mysterious intruder could have entered secretly to commit the deed. Thus, you know soon that one of the lovely bunch must be the culprit, only the questions of how and why remain of which the search for an answer is entertaining to follow.

It was especially that Agatha Christie-esque setting that drew me to the novel and I wasn’t disappointed. Christmas time is a jolly period which makes people especially unaware of the dark sides of the world. Despite the unwanted stay at the mansion, the night guests explore the premises and make the best of it. And the house has to offer some secret passages which open room for speculation about past times – and present times, too. Some late-comers about whom we do not learn too much add suspense to the circle of suspects.

The protagonist is a very likable down-to-earth woman – with quite a clever daughter – whom I liked immediately. The case offers some mysteries which are not too obvious to untangle but find a convincing end. A charming and diverting read perfect for the Christmas season.

I like my dead bodies up front and center when I read a cozy and this one didn't come until almost a third of the way. When the title has the word Christmas in it I expect to have all the Christmas frivolities and festivities included and, other than the entire story taking place right after a children's Christmas party, they were non-existent. And the way the murder happened - quite questionable in my opinion. But, I did very much enjoy the main group of characters and believe I will look into the first in this series to revisit them and there was a lot of really great humor that I found very enjoyable. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy and provide my honest opinion.

From the cute, silly, chatty end of the cosy spectrum, what I saw were aspects of Nell Forrest and Tabitha Darling, crossed with Helen Hawthorne delivered with a hefty hat-tip to Murder, She Wrote. But I'm not a close follower of cosy crime, so that probably reflects more about my limited reading than any particular expertise. MURDER AHOY! is the second novel in the Bella Tyson series, following on from DEATH IN VENICE. The author, Fiona Leitch, has another comic cosy series - The Nosey Parker Mysteries for fans of that style of story-telling.

The action is set in the locked room scenario of a luxury liner Murder Mystery cruise that Famous (I feel like it needs to be capitalised) crime writer Bella Tyson has been hired to co-host. Booked into a deluxe cabin with her new husband, Will, Bella, a woman of a certain age (late forties thank goodness, women do have active sex / love lives over the age of 25 after all... but I digress), is not best pleased to discover that her fellow co-hosts are ex-husband Joel Quigley and fellow crime writer Louise Meyers. (How you come to sign up for a co-hosting deal and not hear a whisper of your fellow contributors I'm not sure, but I digress again, the style of this novel is catching...). Anyway, Joel's a philandering bastard, and Louise is some sort of nasty goddess in Bella's eyes, and Bella's more than a bit over-heated and reactionary as a result. Not helped when bodies start appearing and she is instantly in the frame for offing one of her least favourite people in the world.

So the plot's of the over-heated rushing about style, as you'd expect, and the chatter easy to hear in a very high-pitched voice, and the whole thing is a bit on the manic side, with Bella being perfectly pitched as the sort of grating, high-maintenance / no-nonsense if you're on her side, mildly deranged woman that many fans of this sub-genre are going to absolutely love. Doesn't hurt that she's on the older side - the world has more than enough heroines that are younger than some of the much treasured clothes hanging in our wardrobes, but enough with the digressing.... Of course, with all these things, humour is very much in the eye of the beholder, so I suspect readers are going to either be cheering for Bella or hoping like hell somebody upends her over the nearest railing.

Definitely a series that fans of this style of storytelling should have a look at - if for no other reason than to decide whether you're pro Bella or part of the over the railings with her group.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/murder-ahoy-fiona-leitch

I liked all the characters in this book. I found them to be likeable, engaging and fun! I even laughed out loud in some parts, a rarity for me. And the mystery was quite good. I just wish the story was 100 pages shorter because at the half way mark, the story started to drag and I found myself fast losing interest. It seemed needlessly stretched out and full of filler. So much filler. Booooooooorrrring!

I wanted to just skip to the end to find out the killer but I plowed on although it was a chore to do so. Is there some silly rule that a story has to have a certain word count? No matter what? Pity because some parts of the book were quite good and the final denouement was very surprising but it took so long to get there. Slow as molasses. Boooooooorrrrring!

cosy-mystery, England, law-enforcement, verbal-humor, Cornwall, ex-cop, investigation, catering, murder, sabotage, actors, filming, situational-humor, small-business, small-town*****

This is the first I've read by this author/series but it does well as a stand-alone.
Jodie (Nosey) Parker is a single mom, daughter, ex-cop, dog owner, and caterer (who can't decide which of two friends she is more attracted to), and finds herself as an extra on a movie set. But there are a lot of pseudo accidents on the set, culminating in a death. Trying not to repeat the blurb or do spoilers but I really enjoyed this one!
I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from HarperCollins UK/ One More Chapter via NetGalley. Thank you!

Here is one for those who would like to be in on the start of a new cosy series. Ex-police Jodie "Nosey' Parker is trying to set herself up as a cook for hire, when she meets up with an old boyfriend desperately looking for a caterer for wedding which is imminent. And then his ex-wife is killed, his wife-to-be goes missing, and eventually another body is found. And Jodie finds that she hasn't lost the urge to investigate. The groom is the main suspect and Jodie is convinced that the police are barking up the wrong tree.

Very readable.

Told in the first person by best selling author, Bella Tyson, who is suffering from writer’s block. One day she receives a mysterious invitation to stay in Venice, along with a book about Venetian folklore. Deciding to take up the offer, she travels to Venice where she meets Will Carmichael, an Interpol agent. Together they end up trying solve some rather gruesome and bizarre murders which seem to link to the book Bella has been sent.

What to say! It starts out really well. The writing style is engaging and the narrator’s voice, which is lighthearted and very conversational, pulls you in. The story is entertaining, fast paced and quite humorous. It’s an intriguing read and I was quite eager to keep turning the pages to find out what happened next. However, it does contain some ‘Hammer House of Horror’ moments (probably showing my age here) and then it gets a little dark, darker than dark! I wasn’t always convinced by some of the events and parts of the story made me cringe. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it in a weird way and the twist at the end was a surprise. Could there be a moral to this story?

The descriptions of Venice are spot on, very easy to visualise. It’s a magical place to visit. Just don’t read any macabre mythological stories before you set off. You never know what might come true!½