3.5 stars

In this humorous cozy mystery, four VERY disparate members of a book club investigate a theft; a suspected murder; and a disappearance.

*****
Let's meet the book club participants.

✸ Nova Davies:

Nova recently moved from London to St. Tredock, where she has her dream job at the St. Tredock Community Center. Nova helps coordinate the center's programs, which include the food bank; the tai chi class; the after-school club; the carers support group; the knit and natter group; the silver swans ballet class; and more. Nova also re-started the community center's book club, which shut down when Nova's predecessor was fired for drinking whiskey while overseeing the under-fives play group.

Nova and her fiancé Craig currently live with Craig's parents while the couple look for a house. Craig's parents, especially his pushy mother Pamela, have insisted on making a HUGE wedding, though Nova wanted a small quiet affair. This causes tension in the household.

✸ Phyllis Hudson:

Phyllis is an older woman who goes nowhere without her flatulent English bulldog Craddock. Phyllis knows all the Agatha Christie books by heart, and applies the Miss Jane Marple philosophy - 'suspect everyone' - to all situations. As a result Phyllis exposed the too-chatty postman who was stealing ladies underwear from washing lines, and the girl in the newsagents who wouldn't allow Craddock in the shop and had her hand in the till.

Phyllis had a horrible mother and is haunted by a sad incident in her past.

✸ Arthur Robinson:

Arthur is an eighty-one-year-old retired dairy farmer who rides around town on a battered tractor. Arthur and his beloved wife Esi were married in Esi's hometown in Ghana in 1966, and have been together for six decades. Arthur is a huge fan of romance novels, a predilection he acquired when he started reading books to Esi, who lost her vision over time.

Arthur is kind, caring, and always looking out for others. Arthur's overarching philosophy is 'it always comes down to love'.

✸ Ash Chalabi:

Ash is a shy teenage computer whiz who can look up information at lightning speed. Ash doesn't say much at book club meetings, but avidly listens to the discussions. Ash loves the Stars Wars movies and sometimes wears a 'Return of the Jedi' T-shirt.

Ash has a crush on his handsome classmate Dan, who always has smart things to say while discussing books in English class. This is what inspired Ash to join the community center book club.

*****
As the story opens, a Wednesday night book club meeting is in session at the community center, and a man named Michael Watkins - who attended one previous meeting - shows up late. The club is discussing 'Where The Crawdads Sing' when Michael gets a text message, jumps up, and runs out of the room.

The next morning, the petty cash box, which contains ten thousand pounds for roof repairs, is missing from the office. This is tragic for the community center, which will be forced to shut down if the money isn't found. Suspicion falls on Michael Watkins, and Phyllis decides to be a present-day Miss Marple. Phyllis and her pooch Craddock make their way to Michael's home, where Michael and his wife Cynthia live with Michael's mother.

As Phyllis skulks around Michael's house spying, a stretcher is wheeled out. Phyllis learns that Michael's mother was killed by a fall down the stairs, and the police suspect murder. Moreover, when several book club members pay a 'condolence call' on Michael, they learn he's vanished.

Nova and the others decide they have to investigate all this, to get back their ten thousand pounds. Things get complicated as the amateur sleuths are all over the place with their suspicions.

Did Michael kill his mother for the inheritance? Did Cynthia kill her mother-in-law and Michael for the inheritance? Did Michael run off with another woman? Was Michael abducted and imprisoned somewhere?

Nova, Phyllis, Arthur, and Ash all participate in the investigation, and Phyllis in particular is a hoot as she applies the Miss Marple principle to everything she sees, and usually comes up with the wrong end of the stick.

Meanwhile, the book club members go on with their personal lives, and it's fun to see Nova tussling with her fiancé and his parents; Ash and Arthur bonding over an occurrence at the library; and Phyllis barging in everywhere with smelly Craddock - who's usually not a welcome guest.

As events progress, secrets emerge; there are romantic sparks; and the protagonists bond and help one another. All this leads to a surprising, but satisfying and believable finale.

I enjoyed this cozy mystery and will look out for more books by Freya Sampson.

Thanks to Netgalley, Freya Sampson, and Berkley for a copy of the book.

Loved this book! Was so well written, loved the setting and all the characters. This was a fun lighthearted easy read and I would recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for an advanced copy!

This was a fun read! I loved how all the characters were in a book club together and how they solved the mystery. I also really liked the relationships between all the characters and their different perspectives. If you love a British cozy mystery with heartwarming characters, this is a great read for you!

I wasn't sure if this was really a cozy mystery. Yes, there is a crime. Yes, the characters are amateurs at sleuthing. Yet, the book felt like it was more about friendship and finding one's place.

Nova works at a community center and runs the book club. It is after one of their meetings that a large sum of money disappears from the community center and the prime suspect is one of the members. But Nova is to blame as well since she apparently left the center unlocked. Using their own favorite genres as inspiration, they attempt to find Michael and return the money and thus saving Nova's job.

I want a group of friends like this. Even though one character got on my nerves, she was coming from a place of love and hurt.

This book is just a fun, light read. Definitely a book you will want to curl up with your favorite beverage for a relaxing afternoon of reading.

My review will be published at Girl Who Reads on Thursday - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2025/08/3-fun-mysteries-to-read-now.html

Busybody book club is a delightful novel with a cozy mystery. I loved the cast of characters and the themes of found family, parenting and being accepted for who you are. Freya Sampson has a talent for developing characters you feel like you know and want to befriend. I found the best parts where when the book club begins investigating the missing money. I think the romance of the wedding was a little forced. I laughed at the jokes and think Phyllis is a stellar character.
Sampson has a great sense of humor and I liked the way she gives equally developed plots to side characters. I think it is a cozy mystery with such lovely scenes showing her characters’ growth.

Freya Sampson is easily one of my favorite feel-good authors! I love her books so much and always have such an enjoyable experience reading them.

The book club members brought so many different personalities to the page and I loved the different relationships some of them formed. In particular, I loved Arthur and Ash's friendship. As someone in a thriller book club, I loved the concept of a book club coming together to solve a mystery!

While this one didn't quite stack up to THE LOST TICKET and NOSY NEIGHBORS, I still enjoyed it and would highly recommend to fellow readers.

This was such a fun cozy book club mystery and I loved it! Nova, new in town from London, starts a book club at a local community center where she now works in a small seaside village. A significant sum of money has been stolen during one of the meetings and the book club members take it upon themselves to investigate who did it. Nova is at risk of losing her job and also losing her fiancé, who is upset by Nova’s obsession with the case. Things get even more puzzling when one of the members goes missing and a dead body turns up at his house. Despite potentially being in danger, the book club won’t rest until they find out who is behind this!

This book was such a pleasant surprise and I highly recommend it! The members of the book club are also so unique and quirky and loveable. This is definitely a found family type of book which I love! There were a shocking number of twists and everytime I thought I had figured out what happened or who did it, I was wrong! The storyline with her fiancé and his mother was annoying to me and it was obvious how that would play out, but other parts were not obvious at all and the drama at the end with the wedding was excellent! Highly recommend, especially if you love cozy mysteries, meddling neighbors, and ordinary heroes! Thank you to NetGalley, Freya Sampson, and Berkley Publishing Group for the gifted ARC. This is a voluntary and honest review.

This was a cute, cozy mystery that I enjoyed reading! There were a handful of great things about the book (especially towards the latter half), but also a few elements that kept it from being a higher rating for me.

The first 50% or so of the book was a bit slow and more difficult to get invested in, which made me itch less to pick it up and take a bit longer to read than I normally would. At times I found the writing to be juvenile in tone - and while I know that "cozier" mysteries are meant to feel more lighthearted and less intense, the writing style didn't click with me as much as other books with the same vibe. Though there are some plot threads and twists that required the audience to suspend their disbelief, I didn't feel like that detracted from the story, and it matched the more quirky tone of the book.

The second half of the book definitely picked up the pace and had me more hooked. Where this story really shines is in its unique cast of zany and loveable characters, that found family in one another. I quite enjoyed some of the surprisingly heartwarming reveals and even found myself getting a bit emotional alongside our protagonists.

All in all, I did enjoy this story and definitely recommend to those that love lighthearted cozy British mysteries with a focus on heartwarming characters.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and PRH Audio for gifted copies in exchange for an honest review.

I discovered Freya Sampson on a whim a few years ago, and I have enjoyed everything she has written. She writes lovely found families, with an emphasis on multigenerational characters, a favorite trope of mine. At the same time, this wasn't as good as her others. I still had fun with the story and the characters, but a bit of the magic I feel with her other books was missing. I think the romance aspect was off. However, I will continue to read anything Sampson writes. Daphne Kouma was a fantastic narrator, bringing all the POVs to life.

I read Nosy Neighbors and really enjoyed it so I couldn’t pass up the chance to read another one of Freya’s books. And I can say it did not disappoint - she does a great job with cozy mysteries with such an eclectic group of characters who should not even go together. I really love that through all the humour she also does a great job at adding heartwarming moments too. She adds in some fun twists - some you can kind of guess at and others still take you by surprise. I need to go back and read more of her books.

After a disastrous encounter at work in London, Nova Davies has moved to a small village with her fiancé which is his hometown. It's quite an adjustment from London as they are living with his parents until they find a house. There isn't much to do but she has Steven and his best friend Laura works with her. Her new boss is wound tight but a good sort as well.

Nova works in community engagement and her job is at the village community center. She starts a book club and only has a few members at first. There is Phyllis, an older woman who insists on bringing her smelly bulldog everywhere she goes. Arthur is another older member, a farmer who is a constant caretaker for his wife who has become housebound. Then there is Ash, who is a teenager, basically loves sci-fi and not much else and doesn't say much. Rounding out the group is Michael who has just started and whom no one really knows much about.

At the meeting, Michael gets a text and suddenly jumps up and leaves. After the book club is over, it's discovered that the money the community raised to get a new roof has been stolen and suspicion falls on Nova who may not have locked the office. The club thinks Michael may have taken it and when they track him down, they find that his mother has died and the police suspect it could be murder. Who could have killed her? They decide to find Michael and hopefully the money along with him.

Freya Sampson is a British author who worked as an executive producer in television before she started writing. Readers will love Nova and cheer for her to straighten her life out. Arthur is another sympathetic character while Phyllis provides the comic relief. They each have secrets and as they get to know each other better, the secrets start to emerge. I usually don't read cozy mysteries but this one was a delight to read and is recommended for mystery readers.

This book was a delight! I loved this mishmash of misfit characters, who in any other circumstance we wouldn't see together, formed a bond. I also liked that the a-ha moments were complete surprises that I didn't see coming. If you enjoy a fun mystery, pick this one up.

Since reading Nosy Neighbors, I was highly anticipating Sampson's next book and she absolutely delivered! I am usually a reader of cozy mysteries... at all.... but I like the way she weaves it in while developing such strong characters! There's something about grumpy older women in collaboration with younger characters that is endearing to me! Without these characters, though, I do not think the mystery element would be so compelling.

Quirky mismatched characters in the book club investigate missing money and a murder. I enjoyed Nosy Neighbors much more than this story as it dragged at times. A lot of different book references in this and Agatha Christie is a favorite of one of the characters. Overall a good read 3.5 stars

This was a cute and entertaining mystery but I would have liked more background on the characters. I kept thinking this must be a sequel because of things that were referenced but unexplained until much later in the book. It was a little predictable but will appeal to fans of cozy mysteries.

A sweet, cozy mystery with quite a large cast of quirky characters. Nova, the vintage clothes lover who works at St. Tredock Community center and her fiancé, Craig are planning their upcoming nuptials. Craig’s overbearing, overstepping mother who drives Nova crazy. Phyllis, the Agatha Christie superfan who likes to think of herself as an amateur sleuth and her flatulent dog, Craddock. Sweet, romance reader Arthur and teenager, Ash are delightful. Along with several other members of the St. Treddock Book Club, there are some mysteries to be solved.

It’s a light, sweet, heartwarming read with humor and some touching moments. I especially enjoyed the ending.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Nova is rebuilding her life with fiancée Craig I. The tiny town where he grew up. Sure she’s struggling with an overbearing mother in law who has hijacked the wedding planning, but she loves her job at the community center. Until one night, during the bookclub Nova is running, a theft occurs. Followed quickly by a murder and the blame falling on Nova it is up to the bookclub members to solve the crime and save the day! Entertaining, enjoyable, with twists and reveals that surprise at every turn!

I really like Freya Sampson's books, they are fun and wholesome. She always has an interesting cast of characters and I love that she always features older people in her books.
Nova has started a book club at the small community center where she works. While reading Where the Crawdads Sing, a member, Michael, abruptly gets up and leaves the meeting. Later, when money goes missing and someone dies, the book club members decide to investigate. One member constantly compares the crimes to Agatha Christie's mysteries, another thinks it all leads back to romance, and finally, one thinks it has a dark, mysterious side.
Meanwhile, Nova is engaged and her fiancé doesn't like her going on these wild goose chases. Nova is uneasy about the marriage as her future mother-in-law is controlling.
Surprises and fun, as well as a heartfelt tale, as is Sampson's trademark.

3 1/2 stars. Started out pretty well, then seemed to slow down a bit for me anyway. Lots of circular run arounds and side trails.
There is a lot of characters to keep track of. The main focus starts with Nova and fiancé Craig. She works at a community center and they are planning to get married soon. When the money they raised to repair the roof at the center goes missing, it throws a shadow over Nova. She is fearful of her job.
One of the ladies in the book club tries to solve a murder and things get out of control. Most of the people at the center think she wants to be Miss Marple and try to brush off her snooping. Things got pretty confusing for me anyway. The book is on the shortish side considering the length of content. I did enjoy the book, but i was disappointed when 2 teenage boys were encouraged to “fall in love”. I just felt like that was a sideline that wasn’t needed in the plot.
I received a digital copy from the publisher through NetGalley. This did not affect my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley, Berkley and the author for the arc!

Misfits, mayhem & murder, oh my! This is my second Freya Sampson book (Nosy Neighbors was my first) and let me tell ya, this author can write found family like a boss!

Members of a community center book club join forces to uncover a whodunnit when one of their own goes missing & is suspected of not only theft, but murder too! Each of the characters brings their own personality, skill set & secrets to the table … and they not only end up solving the mystery but find in each other a safe place they desperately needed.

If you are a fan of heartwarming cozies with quirky characters who find a home in each other then you should put this one on your tbr!