A welcome return to this cosy mystery series with friends Pat, Thelma and Liz, where they are once again pulled into investigating an unusual occurrence. This time it is when a friend tells them about a disappearing shop.
With its of little twists and turns and absolutely delightful characters, the reader is carried along as the ladies pursue the clues to uncover what exactly is happening.
Another enticing read buy J. M. Hall.

A Clock Stopped Dead was a great cosy mystery. It had interesting characters and an enjoyable storyline.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for my ARC.

This was my first foray into this series with these characters and I can tell you now I’ll be going back and reading the first two in this series! What an enjoyable read! I couldn’t put it down!
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Thank you to the publisher for an early read of this one!!

What a amazing cosy mystery story with great storyline and great characters. Really liked the writing style and the cover is beautiful will definitely read more from this author.

A Clock Stopped Dead is the third in a cozy mystery series that revolves around our 3 main characters, Liz, Pat, and Thelma. They are retired school teachers who live in a small town in England. It’s all very cozy until you take into account that they consider themselves amateur sleuths and involve themselves in local murders!

I really enjoyed the first 2 books in this series, but found that this one was a bit too slow for me and it couldn’t really hold my attention. I would still really recommend this series!

Thank you to Avon Books for my copy of this!

Retired teachers Pat , Liz and Thelma are back and they don’t disappoint.
Marguerite a friend of the sleuthing trio has a strange experience where a charity shop suddenly disappears!
The experience of Marguerites is hard to believe but the trio don’t hang about and try and get to the bottom of the weird incident.
There are amateur dramatics and a car crash to add in to the mystery which makes the cosy mystery a perfect read .
I really like the dynamic between Pat , Liz and Thelma and the characters have grown throughout the series and I enjoy learning more about the home lives and their families.
An easy to read book which kept me gripped.
Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK.

It's a welcome return to the retired teachers who meet in a garden centre cafe and it's JM Hall's best yet.

A Clock Stopped Dead is an entertaining cosy murder. It's a pleasure to catch up with Liz, Pat and Thelma at Thirsk Garden Centre cafe, Yorkshire.

This is the oddest mystery to date. In this third outing for the retired teachers, they are confronted with a bizarre event. A charity shop apparently goes missing. There's quite a bit of suspicious activity at play and a death and it keeps you guessing until the end.
Alongside the mystery we also have more insights into Liz, Pat and Thelma, who, being retired teachers you can see how they connect together well, as well as leading their separate lives. They're very well written.

A Clock Stopped Dead is a curious, unique read and that's where its qualities lie.

If cosy mysteries are your bag, then give how about giving this a try.

It may be a third outing, after A Spoonful of Murder and a Pen Dipped In Poison, but it can still be read as a standalone.

Another great instalment from retired teachers Pat, Liz and Thelma and their sleuthing ways around Thirsk
This time it’s the great mystery of the disappearing charity shop, their friend Marguerite claims to have encountered a charity shop at an abandoned place on a foggy night, which has since disappeared - which I personally found a little too far fetched, with too many sub plots and I ended up confused.
However as this is the third book in the series, I love that we are really getting to know the characters and their families, especially their husbands.
Thanks @jm_hall_writer, @avonbooksuk & @netgalley for a perfect, witty, cosy mystery series

Pat, Liz, Thelma and Marguerite are retired teachers. When Marguerite experiences a haunting encounter one foggy night, Pat Liz and Thelma set off to investigate the paranormal, only to find themselves sleuthing a potential murder mystery.

This was a whodunnit that was full of twists and turns and tangents and red herrings. We have the central story of the investigation into Margeurite's paranormal experience; we have the murder mystery; we have the side plots of Pat and Liz' children coming home, and all of the threads knitting together to come to the final conclusion.

The friendship between the three main characters, Pat, Liz and Thelma, was warm and genuine, and relatable, however I did find the constant references to them being "women of a certain age" got a little tiresome (we didn't need references to Pat's LBL when she laughed). The husbands, villagers and supporting cast however, were very one-dimensional characters, and their tangents and threads lead nowhere.

There was a LOT going on at all times in this book, which I think muddied the story, and made it all just a little too convoluted and the final outcome a little too contrived for me.

It was an ok read for me, but others who are more into twisty Miss Marple/Midsomer Murder mysteries may get more enjoyment out of it than I did.

~ Many thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review~

NOTE: I also listened to the audiobook of this through Audible. The narrator Julie Hesmondhalgh gave a fantastic reading, infusing warmth and vibrancy into all the different characters.

It was so lovely to catch up with Pat, Thelma and Liz and their Thursday morning coffee get-together at the Garden Centre to set the world to rights. A mutual friend, Marguerite experiences a strange out of this world event. She thinks she has been locked in a charity shop with a clock stopped at 14.50. All is not what it seems when she tells the ladies her story!! This leads the retired school teachers on one of their investigations into the event. All in all, this was a great read, well written and very descriptive. It is full of twists and turns with a red herring or two thrown into the plot. I couldn't stop reading! I recommend this book.

Another brilliant and gripping story that really kept you going until the end. I absolutely loved it.

What a joy to return to the lives of retired teachers Pat, Liz, and Thelma. They have another mystery to solve with an apparent supernatural and spooky twist. A really enjoyable, cozy mystery, where we learn more of our heroines characters and families and their joys and sorrows. This series always puts a smile on my face and I look forward to the next instalment. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the AOC of this novel in return for an honest review.

Not a book I would have chosen browsing the shelves in a bookshop, but thought I would give it a go. Certainly a different read for me but was very enjoyable.

** “You can think one thing only to find out it’s not true at all.” **

J.M. Hall delivers another quirky mystery featuring a trio of retired schoolteachers in “A Clock Stopped Dead.”

When Marguerite — good friend to Pat, Liz and Thelma — tells them of the incident where she sees a charity shop while waiting for her train on a foggy night, they’re intrigued. Especially when they find out the shop has disappeared into thin air. And a fatal car accident occurred near the site immediately after Marguerite’s experience.

They quickly look into the situation, with the help of the accident victim’s sister Brid. What follows is a wacky and intriguing tale that gets more and more mysterious the more the ladies dig.

Hall does a great job of developing the fun and plucky Liz, Pat and Thelma, as well as other quirky and mysterious characters. He creates a plot that leaves readers guessing what the connections are between various situations and characters.

Fans of series like Richard Osman’s “The Thursday Murder Club,” Robert Thorogood’s “The Marlow Murder Club” and Peter Boland’s “The Charity Shop Detective Agency Mysteries” will love “A Clock Stopped Dead.”

One disclaimer: this novel does contain some usage of coarse language, most of all which occurs in the final quarter of the book.

Five stars out of five.

Avon provided this complimentary copy through NetGalley for my honest, unbiased review.

I am really enjoying this series. The characters are so likeable, the mystery is clever. Even if you haven’t read the others you can still follow along. Such an easy read with a great plot. Highly recommend this one. Thank you #net galley

I have read books by this author before and enjoyed them, but this one was just a bit too absurd. I was expecting a cozy mystery, but it was too pseudo-supernatural. The dialogue was too long and rambly, like having to listen to an elderly relative. I couldn’t finish it

EXCERPT: 'Your train was cancelled yesterday, so you went for a walk and found this weird charity shop, saw a strange clock, got locked in and then got out again?'
Marguerite's podgy hand flew to her mouth, almost batting the tantric crystals clean across the scuffed floor tiles of Mrs Hall's Pantry. 'Oh goodness gracious me,' she said, and gave a neighing peal of laughter. 'You must think I'm a complete numpty!'
Pat smiled faintly, making a considerable effort not to look as if she agreed.
'I went back,' said Marguerite. 'I wasn't working this morning, so I went back to the charity shop. I wanted to go back and see how much this clock I saw cost. At that point I hadn't twigged that it wasn't real.' She paused dramatically.
'And?'
'It wasn't there!'
'The clock?'
'No, the whole shop. When I went back this morning, the whole shop had just vanished!'

ABOUT 'A CLOCK STOPPED DEAD': Retired schoolteachers and amateur sleuths Liz, Pat and Thelma are giving up their coffee morning for a brand-new mystery. The perfect cosy crime story for fans of The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman

Retired teachers Pat, Liz and Thelma are happiest whiling away their hours over coffee, cake and chat at the Thirsk Garden Centre café.

But when their good friend Marguerite claims to have uncovered a mysterious charity shop that has since vanished, they simply can’t resist investigating.

Before long, our trio of unlikely sleuths find themselves embroiled in a race against the clock to get to the bottom of this mystery – but who has a secret to hide and how far will they go to keep it concealed?

MY THOUGHTS: I quite enjoyed catching up with this trio of ex-school teachers, but I didn't love it as much as I wanted to. I think, because there is simply too much dialogue. Far too much. Understandable perhaps with the author being a playwright first and foremost. So I shall temper that comment by saying 'far too much dialogue for a novel.' I find it very hard to get a sense of place or character with so much dialogue and so little of anything else.

I do love the characters, Pat, Liz and Thelma. There's a little conflict between them in this installment that leaves Pat wondering if, after twenty-five years, give or take, they were all growing apart now that the common bond of teaching that had drawn them together was gone.

There are adjustments to be made all round. Two of the women have their adult children return home unexpectedly, Pat has to come to terms with her aging, and Thelma has something to learn about her husband.

There are some beautifully humorous moments such as when Pat's husband Rod is trying to plan a holiday for them, and the feud between Polly, Thelma's workmate at a (different) charity shop, and the manager of said shop. The window display scene is priceless.

But the mystery . . . the mystery is messy and hard to follow. There are psuedo-supernatural elements that only cloud the issues, too many extra characters and simply too much going on with all the different side-stories. The author seems to have thrown everything but the kitchen sink into this - but wait, I may be wrong, he may well have thrown the kitchen sink in as well - I'm sure there was a mention of dishes being done . . .

To be quite honest, I was more interested in what was going on in the lives of these three women than I was in the mystery.

I do love the lead ins to each chapter, a la Winnie-the-Pooh, e.g. CHAPTER FIVE Two friends don't fall out and a plan is hatched

My least favorite book of the series so far.

⭐⭐⭐.5

#AClockStoppedDeadJMHall #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: J.M. Hall is an author, playwright and deputy head of a primary school. His plays have been produced in theatres across the UK as well as for radio.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Avon Books UK via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of A Clock Stopped Dead by J.M. Hall for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

It’s so nice to be reunited with Liz, Thelma and Pat in another mystery. This story has a bit of a darker, paranormal side, by no means did I find it scary, it was good to read a slightly different kind of mystery, I think the different approach made it harder to figure out what happened and solve the mystery. I love the ordinary lives of the three women, and the family tales which are written or the blunders the women make add an entertaining or comical element to the plot. Although this is one in a series, I don’t feel they need to be read in order, JM Hall has a great way of subtly recapping the women’s lives and how they know the other characters.

Bizzare, marvellous and a little unnerving in a good way. I didn’t see that one coming…
One of Pat’s friends, stumbles upon a creepy charity shop that suddenly disappears, a psychic connection is assumed but Pat, Liz and Thelma suspect foul play… The one thing for me, is that J M Hall never plays it safe - here is novel number three and we are given something completely fresh, no none of the plain old murders here. Instead, we are introduced to the bizarre case of the missing charity shop. The psychic themes rather put me in mind of the way Agatha Christie uses it within a Poirot episode. In A Clock Stopped Dead, the plot trope is given a new twist. It could have become a trifle over theatrical and incredulous, but given the characters it worked.
It is a great skill to be able to write so many unique voices and bring them to life on the page like this. I must say that through this series I could imagine being in a room listening to all the characters. It’s great to hear northern voices.
The ladies, Pat, Thelma and Liz have the ability to cut through to the truth in a motherly sort of fashion. As usual one of the highlights for me was the continuation of the back storyline of our main characters. This novel, like the others, veers off into each of the main character’s heads, though central plot line is never far away. Each chapter looks at the crime as part of a jigsaw piece that when it came together left me wanting more.

This third visit to North Yorkshire and retired primary school teachers Pat, Thelma and Liz certainly didn’t disappoint. The three best friends once again find themselves embroiled in another mystery, alongside a good dose of family drama. There’s plenty of twists and turns along the way that kept me guessing to the end and I thoroughly enjoy watching the cogs turn in their minds as they slot together the pieces of the puzzle. As a retired primary schoolteacher myself, having grown up in Yorkshire and even taught in North Yorkshire, I often find myself grinning and nodding along at the little quirks and quips of our three teachers and bringing to mind pupils I’ve taught. Once a primary school teacher, always a primary school teacher and Pat, Thelma and Liz are those real gems that you’d find in those Yorkshire schools. A really good yarn for fans of cosy mysteries and I do hope we’ll be back in the garden centre with ladies with coffee and cake very soon.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Avon Books UK for an arc in exchange for a review.