A truly cosy, old fashioned style whodunnit read! I love the parallels with the extremely popular Thursday Murder Club! Although more calm, there is plenty of twist and turns of different mysteries in this debut. It starts steadily, but picks up pace and I was then very drawn in to solving the different problems of the main characters with them. I liked how there wasn't just 1 mystery to solve but how all the sub plots of the characters lives, alongside the crimes played out. It really brought to life the people and gives you a great connection to them.

One of the local school's retired teachers gets dementia and... ends up dead. Nothing to see here. Is there? Oh well, yes, there is plenty to see.
Interactions between a group of retired colleagues-friends, dealing with age and issues that come with it, mothers-daughters relationships and their dangers (yes, I got the word right).
A Spoonful of Murder is a cozy mystery set in an English town where three friends meet at a cafe in the middle of the garden center. A very prosaic setting for a very prosaic event (a person with dementia passes away)... But bit by bit several dark secrets and nefarious events get uncovered.
A very enjoyable read.

Not my usual book choice, but an ok read nonetheless. This cosy mystery has an interesting premise and the main characters were well written, however the story fail to really catch and keep my attention (*I will say that I read it at a very stressful exam filled time so that may have been due to my state of mind at the time.) There were also too many characters and it took rather long for the story to unfold. All in all, it was just an ok read. 2.5 stars.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

A Spoonful of Murder by J.M. Hall

This is one that can only be described as a slow burn. A slow, slow, very slow burn. Is burn even the right word? No. A slow slow, very slow *glow*. I came very close to not finishing this one, and honestly if it weren’t for the plane rides to Memphis, I likely wouldn’t have.

Three retired teachers meet for their weekly coffee. One week, they run into an old colleague, Topsy. A few days later Topsy is dead. She had Alzheimer’s, sure, but these retirees suspect that there’s more to the story of her death. Through multiple POV, the book weaves together the narratives of those involved in a whodunit-type fashion.

Two main things deterred me from this one. The first is that I felt like it was difficult to keep track of the characters. Each of the retirees has their own people, and by the time a secondary character was mentioned again, I had forgotten who they were. I think this was exacerbated by my second complaint, which is just that it was so. darn. boring.

It felt to me like a lot of the descriptions and backstories didn’t contribute much to the plot. The one thing that felt clever about it (whether on purpose or not) was how it felt very day-to-day boring, like how a bored retiree might feel. I think this was supposed to help bolster the drama of a potential murder in their lives. For me, though, it just didn’t deliver because I felt no reason to care about any of the main characters. By the end, I barely cared to know who did it. Thankfully, it does pickup near the end.

Perhaps I’m not the right audience for this one, or it just didn’t catch me at the right time. I think it demands more attention than I could give it. If you’re someone into slow-paced mysteries, then it might be worth a shot. Some lines did make me chuckle. But overall, this one just fell flat for me.

Honestly i found this book quite hard to follow, the characters were quite confusing and as a whole i was very confused reading this book

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for an e-ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Sorry, but couldn’t get in to this book and did not finish. I found that I didn’t really care for the character who died.

I absolutely loved this book right from the very first page! The character descriptions and the attention to detail really captivated me and I love the writing style.

Not my usual read, I was thoroughly impressed with how much I enjoyed this and it was refreshing to read a novel with older protagonists rather than twenty/thirty-somethings which usually dominate today's writing.

Highly recommended!

Not my cup of tea at all, although the plot was appealing. Three retired schoolteachers, Pat, Liz and Thelma, get caught up in the mystery of how their former colleague, Topsy, died. Although Topsy appeared to have dementia, there were many loose ends that created a questions as to what happened. There were too many superfluous characters, and the story took too long to unfold. I liked that the main characters were older, but the frenetic nature of the activities in each chapter were not for me. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Every Thursday retired schoolteachers Liz, Thelma and Pat meet for coffee and cake at their local garden centre. Which is where they bump into their ex-colleague Topsy. One week later Topsy is dead. They know there’s more to Topsy’s death than meets the eye but can they prove it?

This is very similar to Richard Osmans Thursday Murder Club - which I loved. It has the same sense of humour, suspense and light-heartedness. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

Thanks to NetGalley and all for an ARC in return for an honest review.
I enjoyed the plot line of this book but unfortunately not much else. I found the language in the first 1/2 of the book hard to follow. I didn't find the characters very distinctive and it was hard to tell them apart. The point of view changed often and the timeline would skip ahead without clear notice which I found to be a bit jerky and confusing at times.

A cosy crime and a lovely read. I wanted to know what would happen next but it wasn't an edge of the seat page turner. There were lots of clues along the way, including lots of red herrings which kept me guessing. There were a few twists and turns but most of them you could see coming. I would read another book by this author.

This book was right up my alley and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a wonderful debut novel! Three friends come together to find out who killed one of their former colleagues. You get some back story on the ladies which was a little slow to get going. I would love to have them as my friends. I would highly recommend this one!! Thank you netgalley for the ARC!!

3⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Thankyou #netgalley #jmhall #avonbooks for the arc copy of this book for a honest review.
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Hmm. Almost a 3 stars. I would give a best one for the British humour on this book. The story plot was very light, cozy . The story was flat as I was expecting it to more twisty or a little dark as per title itself but it was a great effort .

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❤️Shaye.reads

I like the originality of the characters and storyline in this cosy style mystery. There is an engaging balance of humour and poignancy and a good mystery to solve. As the story progresses, the reader gets to know the amateur sleuths' past lives, and they have a good dynamic.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

A group of retired educators use the sixth sense that only a teacher has to solve a murder. The pacing was a little slow and the text repetitive in parts.

A interesting premise with many interesting characters. There is a good book contained within the text, but perhaps a little more editing would have really made it sing.

A Spoonful of Murder is a murder mystery surrounding a group of retired teachers. When one of their former colleagues dies (supposedly as a result of her dementia), the three main characters decide something doesn't sit right with the event and each begin their own style of inquiry into the matter. I did appreciate the interesting choice of the less-common protagonist and the problems that these middle-aged women deal with. Initially, I found the writing style quite cute and, for lack of a better word, "quirky". It had hints of Lemony Snicket too it (very very vague hints though) and I thought I was going to really enjoy the unique personalities each of the characters would bring through this writing.

I felt like as the story went on, the book failed to fulfil its initial promise. The three main characters were often blending into each other in a way that unless they mentioned their specific husband or child, I had absolutely no idea whose POV I was in. The quirky details as well got to be a bit too much. The book could have been a good 100 pages shorter if every paragraph wasn't interrupted with irrelevant information as part of the style. I think the book could have been much better with more editing and the limiting of details. I'm paraphrasing here but this is what a normal sentence would often look like: "oh no, do you think that person killed her" Liz said as she stirred the milk into her Tesco tea (she needed to remember to buy some teabags later, her husband liked them), "well, a murder has definitely taken place" said Thelma, thinking about the cute orange top she had seen in the shop down the road on Monday.
Do you see what I mean? It was just SO distracting and overdone, it made the book really easy to skim over as there were whole chapters in which absolutely nothing significant was happening.

The story itself is an interesting one, if a bit predictable. And I do hope the author is able to maintain the style but hone and trim it down as I'd be curious to read more about these types of characters. I leave you with a quote that I think sums up the book really nicely:

"Something happened, then something else, and then something else on top of that."

this is for fans who like The Thursday Murder Club and Agatha Raisin.
i could not put this down. the plot was well thought out with some good twists.
the characters were great and full of good humour.
i really hope this will be a series of books.

This was for me a thoroughly enjoyable cozy crime. I liked it that it featured the more mature female characters with all of their usual day to day dramas but still trying to solve their friend's murder.
I found the story was written with flair, sometimes wit and a good pace. Overall it is a book that you could happily curl up with and enjoy.

A light & entertaining Murder Mystery set around the vulnerability of Elderly people even in close knit communities where everyone has known each other for Generations . I also enjoyed reading this story because it was set in area's of the Country I have come to know well over the years .#NetGalley, #Goodreads, #FB, #Instagram, #Amazon.co.uk, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/358a5cecda71b11036ec19d9f7bf5c96d13e2c55" width="80" height="80" alt="100 Book Reviews" title="100 Book Reviews"/>,#<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/ef856e6ce35e6d2d729539aa1808a5fb4326a415" width="80" height="80" alt="Reviews Published" title="Reviews Published"/>,#<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/aa60c7e77cc330186f26ea1f647542df8af8326a" width="80" height="80" alt="Professional Reader" title="Professional Reader"/>!