Lovely cosy mystery.

A Spoonful of Murder was a joy to read, perhaps a little slow to start but once things got going it whizzed past. Three retired primary school teachers bump into an old friend in the garden centre, she seems confused, and the next thing we know, she's dead.
A lovely romp succeeds with the three friends trying to work out what has happened. Fun lof twists and turns this is a great debut with some wonderful characters.

With thanks to the publisher and net galley for the opportunity to read and review.

A cozy mystery with an intriguing plot and setup- I enjoyed so much about this book and found the characters to be endearing.
I did find it a little difficult to keep track of all of the characters as we jumped around a lot, and would often be confused that we had changed point of view. For a cozy mystery we definitely had above average amount of characters

“It’d be better all round if she was dead…”

☕️🥄☕️🥄☕️

A Spoonful of Murder by J. M. Hall, published 17 March from @AvonBooksUK. Thank you for my early copy via @NetGalley.

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The last thing Liz, Thelma and Pat imagined was that they would become involved in a murder.
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Title? Great.
Cover? Nice.
Blurb? I’m intrigued.
Reviews? Cosy, light, murder mystery.

My experience? One of the worst reading experiences I’ve had in a very, very long time. This book just done nothing for me. I wanted to DNF it so many times but I’m just not that person. It was so much hard work getting through this book - and reading should never have to feel like a chore or an unenjoyable experience.

We follow three retired school teachers attempt to figure out what happened to their old colleague who they seen alive & (somewhat) well the previous week.

I wasn’t really a fan of Richard Osman’s TTMC (however the sequel was much better), which this book is very much like, but it’s far too similar but not as well done. It even has another DC Donna - just like TTMC.

I struggled with all of the three leading characters, there wasn’t really any distinctive characteristic differences between them and I couldn’t tell who was who even by the end of the book.

There’s so many extra characters in this book, it was so hard figuring out who was who, the book dragged like nothing I’ve ever felt. I just wanted it to end so badly! There’s so many subplots and so many words which seemed to be there just to increase the word count.

I’ve more qualms about this book, but I feel like I’m just ranting and not reviewing so I’m just gonna stop now.

I was so aggravated with this book by the end, I was just like: really, I’ve went through all these pages… just for this?

I sadly wouldn’t recommend this book, nor would I pick up the sequel.

⭐️ (Harsh? Not when I had such a bad reading experience).


MINOR **SPOILERS** AHEAD

I was not having a good time with this book by the time a revelation about Liam came to light that I just got so angry over the smallest decision of the words chosen.

Liam is the son of Pat(?? I think, could be Liz) and we come to learn he is “outted” as gay on Facebook by someone from his school. And I got so worked up over the authors choice of language when they write that Liam’s mother “will love him no matter what choices he makes” … being gay is a choice???? And then I think it’s Thelma who says later something along the lines of “I prayed for him/ that family” after finding out he’s gay and I was just not here for this rhetoric.

Blurb:

Retirement can be murder…

Every Thursday, three retired school teachers have their ‘coffee o’clock’ sessions at the Thirsk Garden Centre café.


But one fateful week, as they are catching up with a slice of cake, they bump into their ex-colleague, Topsy.

By the next Thursday, Topsy’s dead.

The last thing Liz, Thelma and Pat imagined was that they would become involved in a murder.


But they know there’s more to Topsy’s death than meets the eye – and it’s down to them to prove it…

An enjoyable cosy crime with some brilliantly observed characters. I think all my primary school teachers were represented here. So good to see middle-aged women given the spotlight and the North East too. The turns of phrase brought many a smile to my face in what was a properly satisfying mystery.

This book definitely fits the bill for the definition of a cozy mystery! In a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, the dynamic trip immediately regret running into Topsy and her over dramatic daughter. When they decide to check on her, things go from bad to worse, and they find themselves caught been doing right by Topsy and solving the case, or getting far away from the whole situation. It's a fun, quick read, that's perfect for an afternoon curled up by a fire!

I really struggled to get into this book. I don't think the overly descriptive writing was for me. I'm new into cozy mysteries so I'm still trying to figure out what I enjoy in them, I think this one lacked a hint of humor to make it more enjoyable on my end. But I know a lot of other readers will be able to enjoy this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon Books for this ARC in exchange of my honest review.

I was really keen on this book when I read the small synopsis, but it just didn’t hit the mark for me.

It is practically identical to Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club - a group of retirees meet on a Thursday to investigate a murder. Even the policewoman has the same name - Donna. I did not enjoy Osman’s book (although the sequel was wonderful) and I enjoyed this one even less. It didn’t grab me, I felt it was a bit pedestrian and I found myself skipping bits.

A spoonful of murder us a cosy type of mystery centring around 3 retired school teachers who meet for coffee each week, and feel something is really wring when an old colleague suffering from dementia is found dead in her chair one day. The 3 women have quite different personalities and I love their asides/ private thoughts which are really dry and incredibly funny. There are several quite clichéd characters, such as Kerry Anne the pink-wearing blonde daughter and Rocky, the male stripper which detracted from the book for me. I thought the plot was rather clunky and laboured and I found it a bit of a struggle to get to the end.

A quirky, funny, interesting and mysterious cosy murder novel which I quite enjoyed. Although I did find it a bit long winded I did find the characters, three women (ex colleagues) quite fun.

These three women come together to try and solve the murder of yet another female colleague and the story goes from there. There are many twists and turns and lots of the expected fun of being of a certain age. Cardigans, tea and plenty of secrets.

There were parts that were too informative, to wordy and started to bore me but when I skipped through those parts I quite enjoyed the overall theme, story and humour in this cosy mystery. If there were less characters and less padding out of the story this would have been a great book.

Overall it was fun and entertaining.

Really enjoyable mystery. Loved the three main characters, they felt very real. It was light mystery with a touch of darkness. Would definitely recommend. A quick exciting story. I Will pick up the next book in the serious.

Copy received via net gallery

I did like this book though it took me awhile to get into the story. I did skip ahead a few times because some of the story seemed like filler and didn't interest me. Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced read.

This is a slow burner. I felt that the premise was really interesting and the twists kept coming.

However, this book really requires you to pay full attention. There’s so many different characters to keep a track of, and even by the end of the book I was still confusing the three main characters and who they were married to.

There are many different subplots and storylines to follow that I felt the excessive characters really muddied the waters.

The pace was ok, but it only really felt like I was sucked into the story about the half way mark. The narration could be a bit confusing if you hadn’t fully remembered who was who.

i will say that the novel was clever and witty, there were nuggets of information hidden amongst the text the entire way through that were all brought together by the end of the book.

For me though, it felt like too much work and the end was a little bit of an anti climax.

This cozy mystery was rough starting with three main characters all sharing the point of view. Jumping the point of view among such similar characters made it hard to keep up with who was thinking. There was a lot of narrative in the beginning chapters and not much dialog to help keep the point of view straight either.

In an effort to get to know Liz, Thelma, and Pat, we follow them throughout their days as they work to solve the mysterious death of their former coworker with dementia. We hear their thoughts on their families and lives (often in distracting parenthesis) but these lengthy reflections have nothing to do with solving the murder. It’s an attempt at character development that fell flat for me. Many unnecessary characters are mentioned and in a mystery there’s a big difference between a red herring and crowding the story.

An ordinary evil would have been a fitting title and there was a good story underneath the slow pace and all the distractions. Once we were halfway in, the pace picked up and the threads tied together.

There are heavy overarching themes in this cozy: dementia, elder care, parenting, childlessness, aging, friendships. The setting, a northern England village, is well described, and witty and insightful lines are throughout, but they never shone through so many distractions and asides.

Side note, Liz’s grandson sounds autistic and every dismissive or frustrated mention of his quest for fairness and need for routine and of his special interests and his behavior challenges infuriated me. Someone give Jacob a hug and fire his teacher.

I received an ARC from NetGalley

I was intrigued and hopeful when I read the introduction to this novel on Netgalley. The main characters sounded interesting and I like a mystery. However, no matter how I tried, I couldn't get into it. The writing style, with so many elements of the story in parenthesis had me asking the question, "Can I skip it? Is it additional information that I can choose to read, or will it turn out to be important later." I found it confusing and distracting.

Then the day-to-day detail around the characters lives felt intrusive rather than complementary to the storyline. I just couldn't get past 20%.

I see there are many very encouraging and positive reviews of a A Spoonful of Murder by others, which is wonderful. It just wasn't for me.

With thanks to Netgalley, Avon Books UK and the author for my Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book follows ex colleagues Liz, Pat and Thelma as they meet up every Thursday to catch up on each other’s lives. One Thursday they bump into another one of the old colleagues, Topsy, and her daughter. It turns out that Topsy has been diagnosed with dementia that has been getting progressively worse since the death of her husband, and the only person in her life she has caring for her is her daughter. During this surprise encounter the girls are concerned for Topsy after she shares some insights into her life that aren’t quite right.

The girls decide to visit Topsy at her home to check up on her and see what exactly is going on, while there they discover that she has lost all of her life savings and has been a victim of fraud. When Topsy is found dead the girls know there is more to this than meets the eye. The girls take it upon themselves to investigate Topsy’s death and digging into what happened with the bank fraud and her death. So who is responsible for Topsy’s death? Does her daughter have something to do with it? You’ll have to read the book yourself to find out!

I really enjoyed this fun read, and I felt the pacing of the plot was okay for the length of the book and the amount of detail we’re given while reading. I was hooked right up until the end and I had many guesses as to who was responsible for Topsy’s death, and what was going on.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

A treat of a read! J M Hall has written a fabulous, cozy, mystery story. When three retired school teachers bump into an ex colleague, Topsy, and her daughter, KellyAnne, during their weekly coffee and catch up at the local garden centre, a chain of events is started that ends up with Thelma, Liz and Pat investigating Topsy’s unexpected death…….. was it an accident? Was it murder? And if it was murder, who is the murderer? Along the way the trio uncover fraud, affairs, dodgy builders and family difficulties. A wonderful debut and I really hope that there is a second book for these fabulous ladies. Absolutely perfect for fans of Richard Osman! Highly recommended.

Money is missing from a woman’s account, quite a lot of money. Does that have anything to do with her death? After all, she was in the early stages of dementia, her daughter, who normally took care of her, was away for the weekend, and many senior citizens in the area had been targeted by a scam to get their money.The difference, none of them have died in the process.

When her former colleagues, three retired teachers, learn of her death and the other problems she has been having, they become concerned. However, they are regularly reassured by her daughter that she was constantly muddling her pills and her death is really just an unfortunate accident, one she brought about by taking the wrong pills. The police seem to be content with the explanation that all was just a mistake, and after doing some investigating, the death is declared an accident.

Still, her friends are uneasy. There are too many other things that aren’t quite right. Who is the man in the older van who keeps hanging around her house? Why is the young man, a friend of the dead woman’s daughter and her friend, constantly hanging around her house? What part in all this did the bank clerk, a former student, play, if any?

In addition to these questions, each of the friends has her own issues that range from needing to lose weight to remembering an old incident that could have resulted in terrible consequences, to dealing with a son who is withdrawn and moody and a grandson who is having trouble in school to name a few. All of this rolls together to create multiple questions that need to be answered, some of which are related to the main plot and some of which are not.

The friends decide to investigate, but this investigation isn’t exactly a joint effort. Often, one of the friends goes off on her own, makes inquiries, and then comes back to the group to share her latest discovery. Some of these investigations are regarding the main issue of how their friend died, others are related to personal issues or issues that seem to pop up as they become more involved with individuals they meet in the course of their investigation.

There is an over-arching plot of whether or not the friend was murdered and if so, by whom? There are multiple subplots that seem to take away from this question and serve to create a less than direct investigation. For this reason the plot seems somewhat uneven, as the story jumps from one issue, or one character to another. The overall plot is a good one, and provides a good mystery, although it may be too easily solved by the reader to be the only storyline in the book. The book might benefit from sticking with the main plot and the few sub-plots that are directly related to it rather than following the larger number of tangents included.

In summary, Hall has done a credible job of presenting a mystery that has several interesting components. It would be a smoother read if the book were limited to these plot lines in the book. It’s possible these additional plot lines are Hall’s method of developing her characters, but there might be ways to do that without muddying the main plot and investigation.

My thanks to Avon Books UK for an advance copy of this book for review. The opinions here are entirely my own.

One for fans of Richard Osman, A Spoonful of Murder is a cosy mystery following three retired school teachers who believe their friend and former colleague Topsy was murdered.

Although it took me a little while to get into, this is a clever story with heart, depth and a touch of drama.

Each character has their own personality, their own back story and their own thoughts on what happened to their friend, but all come together over tea to share their latest updates in their investigations.

Similarities between this and The Thursday Murder Club cannot be ignored but if you enjoyed that you will probably enjoy this. This is slightly less humorous, with the characters not always being of the same opinion. Still, its an enjoyable read, and I did not predict the outcome.

Charming and entertaining, how a cosy mystery should be.

I received this ARC via Netgalley and Avon Books UK, in return for an honest review. This is a cozy Yorkshire mystery that delves into the challenges of dementia and aging so be aware if those are trigger issues for readers. Three retired UK teachers meet weekly for tea and cake. At their latest meeting, they’re surprised when Topsy, a former colleague, and her daughter join them. Well, Topsy’s daughter leaves her with them while she goes shopping. When Topsy informs the three women that ‘they’re trying to kill me’, neither Thelma, Pat or Liz know quite what to make of her pronouncement. When Topsy dies, the three women start cautiously looking into the circumstances and soon are immersed in discovering the ‘ordinary evil’ in their hometown. This debut novel is well-written with some clever aspects, like the chapter titles. It does take a bit to get into the story but preserve as the ending is worth the effort.

I loved this book so much
Three old work colleagues meet at a garden centre to catch up.
One day they catch up with another old friend, Topsy but she is not the same
When Topsy dies in slightly suspicious circumstances our three heroes begin to investigate.
This book is about growing older but it’s about finding confidence again
Great chapter titles and a clever plot