The Wrecker's Curse is a fast-paced, fun, cosy mystery set in Cornwall, with vibrant characters, culture, and legends. The mystery is well thought out, with plenty of suspects and twists. There are believable character dynamics, and the humour is satirical and witty. I like the characters, the engaging mystery and the Cornish setting of this story,
I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

£.5 stars rounded up.

The Edge Of The World Detective Agency Book 1.

When Donna branches out from floristry to private investigation and opens The Edge of the World Detective Agency, the last thing she expected was to have a murder investigation fall into her lap almost immediately. Now, normally she wouldn't be one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but there's one significant problem with the case - all the evidence points to Donna.

This is a descriptively written story that's set in Cornwall. Belladonna (Donna) Nightshade set up the private detective agency. She is hired by a family member, but she didn't expect to be the main suspect in a murder investigation. To make matters worse than they already are, it's her ex-boyfriend that's investigating the murder, and he's arrested her before. There's some humour to this cosy murder mystery. There's lots of twists and some well-rounded and likable characters.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #HarperCollinsUK #OneMoreChapter and the author #JoSilva for my ARC of #TheWrickersCurse in exchange for an honest review.

This is a great read! The murder plot is very complex, with a lot of twists, it keeps you guessing who the real killer is all the time!
The characters are also well written, they're very fun characters to follow along through this journey!
The ending really sets the stage for the next book and I can't wait to know what will happen!

TW:death, murder, violence.

When Belladonna Nightshade aka Donna branches out from floristry to private investigation and opens The Edge of the World Detective Agency, the last thing she expects is to have a murder fall into her lap almost immediately. Now, normally she wouldn’t be one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but there’s one significant problem with the case – all the evidence points to Donna as the murderer!
Staying two steps ahead of the police – specifically her ex, Detective Sergeant Joe Enys – won’t be easy, but with pirate blood in her veins nothing can stop ‘deadly’ Donna from claiming her bounty and making the real culprit walk the plank!
A new author to me & a new series. It took me a little while to get into the story & the author’s style but after the first few chapters I found myself absorbed not only in the murder but also in the descriptions of Cornwall. It was also unpredictable & different from other cosy mysteries – maybe the reason it took me a while to be engrossed! The characters were well portrayed & had depth & I really liked Donna & Joe, I’ll be interested to see what turns their relationship take
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read

First book in a new series by a new (to me) author. It was delightful and totally unexpected!

Set in beautiful Cornwall, the characters were quirky and slightly magical, the writing was good and the mystery was totally unpredictable. Well done to the author for writing an excellent cosy mystery whilst avoiding some of the normal characteristics of the genre.

The main character is Belladonna Nightshade, commonly known as either Donna or Deadly. The author makes great use of everything Cornish - scenery, well known places, common Cornish names. As she worked her way through all the places I used to visit as a child on holiday - Penzance, Porthleven, Minack Theatre and more - I was rapt.

There is a love interest too which will be interesting to follow in future books. I very much look forward to it.

I thank the author, Harper Collins UK/One More Chapter, and NetGalley for the opportunity to enjoy this ARC.

This story was bright, fast paced and enjoyable. In the murder mystery, the red herrings and potential suspects kept my head spinning! We end up with more secrets at the end than at the beginning.

I loved the physical setting and kept checking my maps to follow along. Donna's family situation is unusual and colorful, to say the least. The hints into the backstory are a common writing gambit these days, which I can find tedious when I just want to know what happened rather than being patient as the details are doled out--maybe--in the next installment. My heart belongs to Ruby the macaw.

Donna's romantic choices are pretty juicy, too. Will she stick with her young love or is there are new candidate on the horizon? What will happen with her family, especially the unusual and talented young Lamorna?

I am definitely on board for the next pirate adventure from Ms. Silva and our friends at the Edge of the World Detective Agency!

The Wrecker's Curse, the first book in the Edge of the World Detective Agency series by Jo Silva, is a thrilling read that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

A fantastic and amusing read.
Donna Nightshade has decided to set up her own detective agency and the story that follows is guaranteed to keep the readers interested!
Donna’s family are eccentric and odd to say the least ,
The book is intelligently written with comedy , sarcasm , murder and peculiarity at its heart making for an entertaining and intriguing read.
I’m looking forward to the next book in this series and wondering how it can better this one!
A great cosy mystery read set in a beautiful part of the country.
Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter.

First I must say I love the name of the main character Belladonna Nightshade and she is a florist to boot. A florist who changes tact and becomes the owner of a detective agency. Now that is different!

No sooner does she open the agency a case comes her way and she knows the person who has been murdered. But she becomes a suspect too.

This is a a fun book to read and the writing seems effortless and makes it an easy reading book. It has everything you want from a good mystery, great characters and good storyline, mystery, twists and some humour as well. It is quirky, it is fun, it kept me reading and it wasn't predictable.

A great cosy read and one I really enjoyed.

This isn't your typical mystery. Donna, who comes from a long line of pirates, is the heir to Penberth Manor. Nevertheless, her uncle is willing to take whatever steps necessary if it means getting it back. Will he follow through on his threats and commit another murder?

As the scene was being set, the beginning moved somewhat slowly, but the story had an elaborate plot and a few very unique characters that kept me interested. The story does have a few dark spots, however, that kept me from really enjoying it. Thanks to One More Chapter and NetGalley for an ARC. The opinions expressed are my own.

Donna Nightshade has done a few jobs in her life, mainly to keep her Cornish ancestral home habitable. She is, at present, a florist but has recently decided to become a private investigator! When she is hired to help out a family member she doesn't expect to become involved in a murder, especially one where all the clues point in her direction. It doesn't help that the detective also investigating is her ex or that he has arrested her in the past but she won't need to deal with him, will she?

I struggled with this book but hope I'm in the minority. I couldn't engage with the characters or the plot which happens sometimes. It was well written but just not for me unfortunately.

A delightful cozy (could it be the first in a series?) featuring the intrepid Belladonna, who has opened the End of the World Detective Agency in Cornwall. Unfortunately, her first case is her own, and she must quickly get up to speed on so much while avoiding her ex, the detective charged with the official investigation. It's light, it's atmospheric, and it's funny (without going too far). Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

There aren’t enough words to tell you how much I enjoyed this book. Odd. Funny. Engaging. Brilliant. I absolutely loved it. I am not often lost for words when trying to explain what makes third book special read it now and let it make up your own mind.

I received this advance reader copy via Netgalley and the publisher, in return for an honest review. Welcome to one of the world’s most unique detective agencies, run by a witch who served time in prison. She has a full-time job as a florist and part-time dramatist while trying to serve as the head of her unusual Cornwall family. When her first client ends up as her first murder investigation, things get even more hectic. Lots of characters with the same first initial so you have to pay attention until you get all of their personalities straight. Interesting plot line and strong potential for future books.

Murder Calling…
The first of a new series for the The Edge of the World Detective Agency and a fun and frothy mystery Cornwall set. With the agency just starting anew, murder comes calling - although Donna Nightshade had certainly not expected to find herself as suspect number one. With a perfectly nuanced and described setting, a pacy and chaotic plot populated with a cast of over the top, eccentric and eclectic characters with the names to match and a vein of wry humour undercutting more serious issues, this is a most promising start to what will undoubtedly be an entertaining series.

A cosy mystery type book, a whodunnit. It’s not my usual genre and not really something I normally choose to read. However, I was intrigued, as this author writes under a different name and I’ve read four of her books, two historical and two contemporary fiction. Described as a fun read, I had to give it a go just to see what it was like. After all I don’t mind crime fiction as long as it’s not too bleak.

The story surrounds the oddest of families, the Nightshades holed up on a crumbling family estate in Cornwall, headed up by Donna Nightshade, who as well as running a floristry business has decided to take up Private Investigating as a side line. She’s had the business cards printed and who should be her first customer but her nefarious uncle who has recently turned up like the proverbial bad penny. You can tell how bad he is, his wife is in a secure hospital after pleading insanity when she tried to kill him. There are many more slightly batty characters in amongst the Nightshade family, including a parrot and when murder is committed, well, the suspect could be any one of the family members or even someone from the wider community, the finger is pointed at each of them, with the odd dodgy confession thrown in to put you off the scent.

Normal people these are not, and nor is it your run of the mill whodunnit. There is much humour and satirical wit, with a plot that verges on farcical, and taking a wander down Lidl’s middle aisle, for me, will never be quite the same again. I’ve never read a cosy crime book so have nothing to compare this book with, but it’s certainly a fun read which will have you laughing out loud and at the same time scratching your head wondering what crazy confession might come next. With lots of twists, turns and tall stories this book will keep you flying through the pages until you reach it’s final, action packed conclusion. There is even a little romance in there too.

**To be posted to my blog on publication day**

I received a free e-arc of this book through Netgalley.
This book has a lot of action and characters to keep you on your toes. There is some bawdy language apropos to pirates and the characters have quite interesting stories. It kept my interest as the #1 Suspect gets involved in trying to solve the murder before she gets sent back to prison.

Honestly I wasn’t expecting this book to be so captivating since it’s my first time reading something by this author, but color me surprised and pleased! I didn’t put it down until I was finished…and slightly sleep deprived as a result…and I’m thrilled! This is a great start to a new series that I WILL be keeping an eye on for the next release.

Donna Nightshade, the latest in a long line of Nightshades to rule the roost in Penberth Manor in Cornwall, has just opened a detective agency – the End Of The World Detective Agency, named after its location in Cornwall. This seems appropriate timing, as a Detective Agency might be just what’s needed when Jack Crowlas returns to town. Jack was the distinctly unpleasant ex-husband of Donna’s aunt, and it comes as no surprise to anyone when a) he’s still distinctly unpleasant and b) someone murders him.
Admittedly, nobody expected him to be murdered during a play, stabbed inside a kennel while wearing a dog costume that belonged to one of the actors – and that’s not the only odd thing about the murderer. The biggest problem for Donna, though, is that the Agency’s first case is to clear the name of the person running the agency. It seems that all the evidence points towards Donna, and most of the locals seem more than happy to believe it…
So, NetGalley, my source of review e-copies, sends me emails sometimes, suggesting things I’d like to review. The answer is usually either yes please, or goodness me, no. But occasionally, something catches my eye and the response is what the hell, I’ll give it a go.
I’m not quite sure what it was about this one that caught my eye – possibly the lack of quotes such as “in the style of Agatha Christie”, which as we all know, is never a good thing to see. I couldn’t find out much about the author – this is her first foray into crime fiction – and you know what? I really enjoyed it.
What’s not exactly clear from the blurb is that while this probably comes across as a cosy crime series – the sleuth is in love with the local police officer and has a pet (admittedly a macaw, not a cat) – it isn’t really. It’s a comedy crime series, although more in the sense of things going to all sorts of extremes than being full of one-liners. There’s some good backstory here, some of it revealed, some of it left for later instalments, and the dynamics between the characters is full of energy. The lead characters are far from saints, which does open up some possibilities in who did what to who that wouldn’t be there in a more traditional cosy.
As for the murder plot, you can see where it is going with the multiple murder methods quite early on, but even so, there are some good reveals, not least in a good misdirect with the identity of the murderer. There are clues to aspects of the plot, but a lot of it did seem to there to be guessed at, rather than figured out, and the motivations of at least one character were a little unclear to me – again, maybe that’s for Book Two.
There is also a great book-sized misdirect that adds a different spin on the book and where the series might go from here, but the less said about that the better…
It’s not perfect – there are times early on where the narrated sections and the third person sections seem to be written in the same voice (with the same amount of brackets) but this settles down by the halfway point, and I think there is perhaps a bit too much that the reader is told, rather than can figure out.
Most importantly though, I really enjoyed reading this book. Yes the plot gets a bit over the top at times – it’s a comedy, it’s allowed to be – but it kept me reading and put a smile on my face. And I can’t ask more than that. A really promising debut and I look forward to the next one.
The Wrecker’s Curse is out on 10th March 2023 as an ebook and 30th March 2023 as a paperback from One More Chapter, part of HarperCollins. Many thanks for the e-copy for review.

This is a very readable improbable farce of a story that is great fun! In fact there were times when I was laughing out loud and causing a disturbance! With Marvel comic names, Donna ‘Deadly’ Nighshade and far too many ‘Js’. Jase, Joe, Jack and Jago all mentioned several times on one page thus causing the reader much confusion. However, once sorted I read with great gusto and enthusiasm! There is a wonderful chaotic air about the whole story - Donna ‘Deadly’ is in the process of setting up her own Detective Agency when a murder scene appears right on her own doorstep or rather her own stage! Donna not only runs her own flower farm but also writes her own plays and for ‘one night only’ her parody of a crime thriller - Sleeping Dogs Lie - conveniently supplies a dead dog in human form! Joe Enys, from the local police, is quickly on the scene. He and Donna have history and Donna becomes Joe’s immediate suspect! However, they are both out to prove her innocence! There are dotty twin aunts, a musically eccentric sister, an Uncle and of course a Macaw plus other fascinating characters each one alive with Cornish colour. I loved the portrayals, the humour, the music and the sheer fun! Greatly entertaining and I look forward to the next enthralling episode!