I would like to thank Netgalley and Joffe Books for an advance copy of The Castle Mystery, the fourth novel to feature travelling cook Jenny Starling.

Jenny has accepted a post with Lord and Lady Avonsleigh where she immediately and happily feels at home. That is until Ava Simmons, the Avonsleighs’ granddaughter Roberta’s tutor, is brutally murdered in seemingly impossible circumstances and “Lady Vee” Avonsleigh drafts Jenny in to help the police.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Castle Murder which is another light, frothy cosy with a good mystery and a sense of humour. As ever the who and how are at the heart of the novel and while I guessed bits and pieces of the how I had no idea of who or why and, yet, the clues are all there. Jenny makes it all seem effortless. It is very much an old fashioned novel as it is all done by deduction with no need for new fangled forensics or any kind of technology. As a result I didn’t learn anything new but I was greatly entertained, especially by Henry the tortoise.

Jenny Starling is very reminiscent in character to Ms Martin’s other protagonist DI HIllary Greene with the same keen intellect, sense of the absurd and tall, hourglass figure. Really, the only difference is their profession.

The Castle Mystery is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

Miss Jenny Starling, the junoeque cook extraordinare. Her cooking is exceptional, but you'd be looking around wondering who was going to die. She has the same effect as having thirteen at a dinner party. It is said that she 'helps' the police find murderers, but really she finds them and explains it all to the police afterwards. Like Miss Marple with her knitting cooking gives Jenny plenty of time to think.

I enjoyed the book