Death on the Menu is the third book in The Adam and Eve Mystery Series and just like the previous two books its a great read. I absolutely loved the idea of the late Clarence Lightmen devising a series of clues to determine who would inherit his fortune. This obviously results in unfair play, skulduggery. and another death.
This is my favourite book in the series up to yet. I thought it was really cleverly thought out and I just loved it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC.

Greed can make people into killers. That's what happens in this tale.
Bookouture and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you). It will be published on the 22nd of September.

Clarence died and he was moneyed. His children go on a treasure hunt to find to find where he has hidden the clues and inherit.

Things begin to get complicated. Who is lying? And who is killing Clarence and his children? Adam and Francesca decide to follow the clues. They aren't his children but they hope to find the killer.

The clues are varied and not real obvious but they work on them.

The killer hides well. And they aren't sure who did it, but they discover it at the end...

A very different case for Adam and Eve
One with evidence that sometimes deceive.
It had me guessing - and rethinking again
The guilty party is never quite plain!

A childhood best friend, three siblings, too,
Are all involved in this story I highly recommend to you.
There are plenty of twists to keep you guessing all the way through
As this disparate pair try to solve each clue.

An elderly author and entrepreneur dies
But at his funeral only his carer cries.
His grown children have been estranged for years
And now have no time for any tears.

In his will he sets a treasure hunt puzzle for them to solve
Who will inherit this will resolve.
Will they work together or alone, decisions to make.
Whatever they choose they need to win the money to take.

This story was filled with surprises and more
As Adam and Fran the clues endeavour to explore.
I really appreciated the unexpected twist towards the end
When Fran finds out more about her old friend.

For my complementary copy of this book, I say thank you,
I throughly enjoyed reading it and this is my honest review.

I received a free copy from NetGalley for an honest review. I enjoyed this book so much. All the characters were great and their interactions were superb. My only issue was the beginning, since I go into these review books with little to no knowledge of the overarching narrative I didn't understand Adam's significance until he showed up and once he did I felt like the book can't alive. The mystery was excellent the meandering path to who did it was enjoyable. I felt like I was right there with Fran the entire way and didn't feel like I knew more or less than she did.

The Adam and Eve Mystery Series is becoming a favorite as both Francesca and Adam are well plotted and interesting characters.
There's always something unusual and they remind me of the Golden Age puzzles. There's no locked room or impossible crime but there's always some puzzle to solve.
This one was great as there's a whodunit, a dysfunctional family, a treasure hunt, and a highly entertaining story.
It's a slow burning story but I enjoyed how the author introduced the different characters and the setting.
Both are important for the mystery part and I enjoyed it even if there's no murder.
Adam and Francesca are as likeable as usual and the author did an excellent job in developing the other characters.
A solid mystery that kept me hooked and guessing.
I can't wait to read other stories, this one is highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The third book in the series and I am enjoying them all very much. In Death on the Menu Francesca Eve is catering for a funeral for a man who made his money writing books about and inventing games. His last wish is that his prospective heirs win or lose their inheritances in one final game, a treasure hunt.

Fran is pulled into the game to help a friend compete, and of course she gets Adam to help since his affinity for computer gaming should help him solve the clues. The actual Hunt is intriguing as each clue is solved. It is also tense because there are three teams out there and at least one of them is cheating. Then someone gets killed and it all reaches a new level of danger.

This is another very readable book by Emma Davies. Francesca and Adam make an excellent team, the dialogue is good and the story is great fun. If you like a good cosy then this is for you, but start at #1.

Cyphers and cryptic puzzles are the backdrop in this third book in the Adam and Eve Mystery series. Francesca Eve and Adam find themselves scratching their heads more than once as they feverishly work to solve clues while once again solving a murder. The man who has died had three adult children. Could one of them be the murderer who betrayed and killed their father?

Despite a generational gap of two decades between Fran and Adam. the pair make a perfect crime-fighting duo. Although amateur sleuths, they are more than adept at finding and solving clues, no matter the danger. Since the man that has died has three adult children, that is the beginning of Fran and Adam's inquiries.

As Fran was fulfilling another of her jobs as a traveling caterer, she has a bit of freedom roaming about the house, asking questions at every turn. What is more is that Fran and Adam get a bit caught up in the game of winning the inheritance left by the victim. In short, the victim laid out a bunch of mysterious clues, and whoever solved this intriguing puzzle would net the inheritence.

Quite naturally, Fran is certain the inheritance is the objective of the murder, but is loath to believe that one of the man's own children could have wanted their father dead, never mind be the actual killer. Along with Adam and her old friend Olivia, they are in a race against time to find all the answers needed to bring the killer to justice.

I really loved Adam's role in this third book in this enjoyable series. Adam is a computer whiz and an experienced gamer, thus making this cat and mouse game of solving clues something that he excelled at. The clues themselves were as entertaining as the story in Death on the Menu, making this book a true delight from beginning to end. As someone who can't get enough of technology, puzzles and games, this book was a strong favorite of mine. Emma Davies is an excellent author and every book I have read by her thus far has been an enjoyable ride.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

I was delighted once again to be approved to read this book and review it as I’ve reviewed the previous two books in the series and it’s my favourite Cozy Crime series. You can see my previous reviews right here on my ➡️ Blog

The story just gets straight into the thick of it right from the beginning, Frans just getting back to normal after the events six months ago when her and Adam helped solve a murder.

When what seems to be a straight forward catering job for a funeral turns into complex game of puzzles and riddles with real life consequences what will Fran do take a backseat or take part?.

This is another fantastic instalment in this cozy crime series ( I hope it’s not the last) .

I enjoyed the intrigue and mystery so much, I think this might even be my favourite Adam & Eve Mystery so far even though I was reading and thought “oh no is Adam not in this book”.

This time Fran is asked to cater for a funeral supper for a famous author by an old school friend of hers. Following the reading of the will there is a treasure hunt where Fran, aided by Adam, help the old friend take part against the author's estranged children.
I enjoyed the previous book in the series and was looking forward to this one and again wasn't disappointed. With plenty of twists and turns it kept me guessing all the way up to the end with various characters taking it in turns to be the guilty party. I was really pleased with myself that I actually guessed the answer to one part of the clues - but that's where it ended as I had to be led to the answers to all the rest of them. Not a fast action thriller, but a very satisfying cosy murder mystery and again I'm really looking forward to reading the next one. I do sometimes miss this author's previous romance series The Little Cottage on the Hill though.
I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley, however this did not influence my review of the book.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from Bookoture and #NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Third installment in an established series. Wonderful story with delightful characters.

An interesting concept. I loved the treasure hunt aspect although the clues were beyond me. Also which of the characters could you trust?

I was unable to get past the 45% mark. I had issues being invested in the storyline. It’s was very slow and by that 45% mark the only thing that had happened was a very long and detailed scavenger hunt. If there was a murder investigation, it came in the second half of the book,

I also did not read the first two books in this series and I believe that would have made a difference in my interest level

The suspicious death of a famous writer, puzzle maker and inventor reunites Fran with an old friend, Olivia, when she is hired to cater the funeral luncheon. Olivia and the writer’s adult children are named in his will which requires them to follow a series of clues to win the inheritance. The hunt begins as Olivia asks Fran to help her solve the clues. Fran enlists her friend Adam who is good at puzzles. One of the heirs does not play fair resulting in another death. After a series of suspenseful events, the killer is caught. Entertaining and quick moving, I highly recommend Death on the Menu.

Asked to cater for a famous authors funeral by an old friend the last thing Fran expects is for the reading of the will to turn into a competition amongst the relatives to inherit, being estranged from his family the deceased knows they will turn up to his funeral to pick over his estate and turns the inheritance into a game

Not the usual Adam and eve read but enjoyable

Ah, what a fabulous story. I absolutely loved it, racing through in no time. If you have read either of the other books in the Adam and Eve series then you will know that this pair of amateur sleuths, caterer Fran Eve and computer game programmer, Adam, have a knack for finding themselves in very compromising, and often deadly, situations. Not that this was ever the intention, they just have this ability to be in the right place at the wrong time …



Called on to cater for a funeral by an old school friend, Fran has no idea the amount of trouble she is about to find herself in. A claim of death under suspicious circumstances, a ‘treasure hunt’ to determine an inheritance​ and a set of complex and curious clues set by a man whose entire life was built upon the love of a good puzzle. Adam’s childhood hero and muse in fact, and someone who for sheer deductive reasoning would give Adam a run for his money.



I loved the real mystery - quite literally - at the heart of this story. The variety of different challenges set for those who were engaged on this quest to follow. It gives us as readers something beyond the normal murder mystery to try and solve. To try and out puzzle the puzzler, and to decipher the various codes alongside the characters, many of which made me smile, and really appreciate the web of clues that the author spun for us all.



What really did make me smile though was the setting. The series is set in my home county, so often the places that the characters visit are known to me, and whilst some of the setting may be entirely fictitious, much of it this time around it is very, very, familiar to me. I have lost count of how many times I have wandered around the National Trust property which forms a central part of this story. One thing is for sure - I’ll never look at it in quite the same way again! Emma Davies really has brought the place to life, with perhaps a touch of artistic licence but essentially true to life. If you were to visit, you will recognise much of what appears in these pages, although I’d recommend doing it during normal commercial hours …



This is a mystery within a mystery, packed with characters you can;t quite trust, with the obvious exception of Adam and Fran. I loved that Adam got to put his very brilliant mind to real use, and that the ambiguity and uncertainty over the characters meant a real game of bluff and double bluff. This is cosy mystery at its best, a puzzle to entertain the best minds. Even Miss Marple and Poirot would have been impressed. 



If you love a great story, a lot of mystery and fabulously fun and fresh characters, and can handle the many references to cake and fabulous foodstuffs that will make you salivate as you read, I can’t recommend this series enough. Why not give them all a go. I’m loving them.

Oh dear! Have I said this before? I LOVED this book! I am so sorry that I missed the first two in this series and need to go find them. And I wish I had never given a book 5 stars before so that this one would stand out. Maybe instead it needs more than 5 stars! Make this book 5+ stars!

Emma Davies has used a device to tell this story that I have never seen before. There is a death and, as follows, a will. The coroner says it was a heart attack which it very well could have been, but, of course, in the back of some minds, it could have been murder! The deceased left a will that had some strange stipulations - there is a treasure hunt and the winner gets the inheritance. Will the children work together and share or compete against each other.

The searching for the clues in the treasure hunt made this book so much fun! We didn't have the characters going over and over again the facts of the death and who might have done it. In fact, for most of the book, we don't even know that there was a murder at all! How delightful to read a story instead of rehashing facts we already know like so many cozy mysteries do.

I really hope that the author's other books are as entertaining as this one is.

3.75 stars

This quite readable series features oddball investigative partners Fran, a middle-aged mom and caterer, and Adam, a college aged designer of video games. The two met during the first book of the series which had Adam's mom as a murder suspect.

Fran is intuitive, logical, nurturing and smart. Adam has a great tech mind and is good at figuring stuff out.

This time around, a childhood friend of Fran's asks her to cater a funeral dinner for her boss, who happens to be a fantasy author and board game designer and a hero of Adam's. The boss was mostly estranged from his three children after a business falling out years before. So the old man devised a clever set of puzzles to determine who will inherit his estate.

When Fran's friend needs help, Fran and Adam sign on. But the puzzle turns deadly and they have to decide who they can trust.

The two main characters are quite likable and these mysteries are well-paced with interesting plots. This is a fun series to follow. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

When she's called by an old schoolfriend to cater for a funeral, Fran finds herself in the middle of a dangerous mystery. She doesn't know who she can trust and whether they are all safe. Her friend had been acting as a companion to an elderly gentleman who used to write mysteries and devise games with clues.
He'd been estranged from his family and they seem to have arrived to hear the will and disappear with their inheritance. They discover he has left one last game for them to solve clues to be able to inherit. If they work together they all inherit. if they work alone they run the risk of not inheriting at all. What will they all decide to do and will family ties prove strong or dangerous?
This was a really great read, feeling the tension between the family and Frans friend. In turn looking at each character with suspicion. Fran has a friend who has worked with her on previous mysteries and I enjoyed his character.
I will be looking out for more of Emma Davies mystery collection.

I absolutely love this series, and this third book was probably my favorite yet!
Fran (Eve) and Adam get involved in a Treasure Hunt, where low and behold they stumble right into a murder. But to solve the murder, they need tp complete the hunt. But can they finish before the killer does? Especially when they have no idea who they can trust!
The characters are, as always, wonderful and relatable. The plot was unique and I truly enjoyed it. Very clever. Highly recommend.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Death on the Menu. did not measure up to the previous titles in this series. It was like getting a jelly donut without any filling. The idea for the plot is interesting but the “filler” to tie it all together is missing. There are a number of puzzles to prove how clever Adam and Eve are on the treasure hunt and a glimpse into the suspect’s’ motivations .