This is book 3 of the series - it certainly works as a standalone, but I would advise reading the previous books to fully understand the characters and their relationships.

The Widow's Guide to Skulduggery sees the return of the crime solving widows Ginny, JM, Tuppence and Hen. This time round, a skull is uncovered at a wedding - when the police are not interested, can the gang solve the mystery?

I really like this group of characters, they are all very different but all very entertaining. I loved the rivalry portrayed between the two villages in this story, but I did miss DI Wallace (the character was away for most of the book), and there definitely wasn't enough of Edgar the cat for me! I look forward to book 4 to see what the women get up to next time.

Thank you Storm Publishing and Netgalley for this ARC! When the skull of a murdered woman is dug up at a wedding- this can’t be good. Ginny Cole and her friends dubbed the widows detective club are thrust into yet another investigation that also takes place in the snobby village next door. What happens next in this twisty cozy mystery will be getting the girls in trouble but that’s what they do right? Can’t wait for more from this lovely group and they’re trusty town friends!

I hadn't read the previous two books and don't think they were necessary to understand the characters and relationships, but perhaps I might have been more invested in them. I just didn't care about anyone in this book and was so bored I gave up at 87.9%. I probably only had another half hour, but I kept putting it down and trying to get back into it with no luck.

Kudos though for the very up to date use of a social media influencer in the plot.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Ginny and the gang are back and find themselves accidentally involved in solving another murder mystery. What’s not to love above this series? Full of warmth with loveable characters and lots of humour about village life this time the mystery took the gang to a neighbouring village and a bitter village rivalry that goes back generations. Part of the charm of this series is the village of Little Shaw and all the quirks that come from living in a tiny community so while it was interesting to contrast the 2 communities I did miss the charm of Little Shaw while the widows were getting doors slammed in their faces by their snobby neighbours so I hope that future books in this series see them staying closer to home. This is a wonderful series, perfect for fans of cosy mysteries and a fun enjoyable read and I can’t wait for the next instalment!

This is a tale of two towns. The friendly little village and the adjacent wealthy town. A wedding including both towns is about to begin when it is disrupted by a dog with a skull. The bride calls off the wedding, both towns blame each other, and Ginny and friends are involved in another mystery. I loved the first two books in this series, but spent most of my time being confused. Although I normally don’t like them, a cast of characters would have been helpful. Although this wasn’t my favorite, I look forward to another book in this series. #netgalley

The Widow's Guide to Skulduggery by Amanda Ashby

This is book three in the Widows' Detective Club Series.

Ginny, Edger and her friends are back with a new mystery to solve. This time, it involves Romeo and Juliet-style warring families, rival villages, vintage maps, and the threat of a curse.

DI Wallace is away on holiday, so there's less of his stern-but-affectionate character in this book; there's also less of Edger, and I missed them both, but I did enjoy the strong (older) female leads. Like the rest of the series, it features all my favourite cosy mystery tropes, including library shenanigans, busybodies, arts and crafts, and a mischievous cat.

If you like The Thursday Murder Club, The Marlow Murder Club or The Paradise Heights Craft Store Stitch-Up, or cosy mysteries in general, then I think you'll enjoy the Widows' Guide series.

Body Count = 2 Thumbs up. Thank you to Netgalley and Storm Publishing for this ARC in exchange for my review.

#NetGalley #StormPublishing @stormbooks_co @netgalley @authoramandaashby

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The third installment in the “Widow’s Guide” series will entertain readers just like the two previous books! A beloved cast of characters returns to solve two mysteries that become intertwined, one from the past and one from the present. This book is a quick, fun read and I can’t wait for another!

Mystery, intrigue, rivalry.

A super fun premise, an interrupted wedding, a 20 year old skull and village rivalry. Ginny Cole one of the guests, enlists her friends in the Widow’s Detective Club to solve the case. Loads of personality, loads of great characters, fun twists and vivid painting of English villages.

A really solid 3.5 star read (rounded up to 4), due to the at times clunky writing and my personal frustrations at the deep stereotyping.

I haven’t read the first two books of the series, but it didn’t impact in the least my reading of the third.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Storm Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The characters are well-crafted and lovable, especially Ginny's mischievous cat, who steals the show with his charming personality. We learn more about Colin’s family as his sister Grace’s wedding is interrupted by the discovery of a human skull!

The quirky characters and sense of community in Little Shaw add to the novel's charm.

The mystery is well-plotted, with plenty of twists to keep readers engaged until the very end. I enjoyed guessing and second-guessing the outcome, and I managed to piece together the clues before Ginny did.

Overall, this book is a must-read for fans of cozy mysteries and heartwarming fiction. Amanda Ashby's writing is engaging, and her characters are lovable and well-crafted. I highly recommend this charming novel and look forward to the next instalment in the series.

I requested and received an advance readers copy from NetGalley and the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I liked this one, but it didn’t quite hit the same way the first two did. There were just so many characters, and it got a little hard to keep up, which made it tough to really stay connected to the story. That said, it still had the fun banter and light humor I love about this series, so it wasn’t a total miss. It just felt like it was missing a little of the magic the earlier books had. Still enjoyable, just not my favorite of the bunch. 2.5 stars.

Thank you Netgalley and Storm Publishing for this arc!

This book was chock full of happenings. A skull is discovered, a wedding is stopped, there's a jealous exm rival villages, deep secrets and no DI Wallace and Ginny and gang have to navigate all this to solve an old and new muder to bring the two young lovebirds back together and married.

Lots of twists and turns and deadends made this an interesting read.

#netgalley #TheWidowsGuidetoSkulduggery

This third installment in the Widow’s Guide to Murder series is just as fun as the first two. Ginny, Hen, Tuppence and JM are back for another hilarious mystery that they have no business solving but still solve anyway. So fun!

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

The Widows’ Guide to Skulduggery, the third novel in The Widows’ Detective Club series, is a wonderfully delightful cozy mystery. Ginny and her friends do have a bad habit of stumbling into murder scenes. Even a wedding isn’t safe when Colin, the dog meant to carry the rings, drops a skull at the bride’s feet. This is a great read. I love the storyline and the quirky characters. I look forward to the next book in this series. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Widows' Guide to Skulduggery: An unputdownable cozy crime novel is book #3 in The Widows' Detective Club series by Amanda Ashby.

This book is a great addition to the series. Ginny is attending a wedding that is interrupted in a most unusual way. Did the dog find his “treasure” by accident or was it planted in an attempt to stop the wedding? This was an interesting mystery for the widows to investigate. As much as I enjoy the mystery, my favorite part of this series is the characters. They are well written and entertaining. I look forward to more of this series!

Thank you to the author, Storm Publishing, and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) copy of this book and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

The groom’s family does not want the wedding to go through. So when the dog they insisted partake in the ceremony deposits a skull at the feet of the bride, the wedding is off. Who could stoop to such a low to stop the marriage? The skull is bad enough on its own but when it is discovered to be the skull of a woman who was murdered by her husband twenty years ago, there are more questions than just who was responsible for a cruel trick. For instance, where has the skull been all this time and did the possessor of the skull have something to do with her death. Things are complicated by the animosity between the posh town from which the groom hails and the somewhat down market town where the bride, Ginny and Ginny’s friends live.

The feud is ages old. There is such disdain for the neighbouring town that when Ginny and her cohorts decide to solve the mystery of the skull, they are stymied everywhere they turn. But these ladies are clever and determined and they discover there are more things afoot in the present than just the discovery of the skull and the disruption of the wedding. Dark things. And as they inch closer to solving the mystery, those who most want it hidden resort to extreme measures that could mean more death.

Those who dismiss the four friends do so at their jeopardy. They are smart and spunky and each brings different skills to the table. They figure out the answers and in the process bring rapprochement to the warring towns. Five purrs and two paws up.

I was,drawn into this book from page one.
With vivid characters, humour, and layers of deceit, this is really engrossing tale.
I enjoyed reading it immensely.

Ginny is attending the wedding of Colin's sister, Grace, in the next town over. It's a staunch and uncomfortable affair with tensions brewing up until the nuptials, as both towns believe in a curse that affects anyone who crosses the town borders. It only gets worse when a skull shows up, and brings the entire event to a disastrous halt.

*****

We're back in Little Shaw again for the third book in this cozy detective series. Just like with the others, we get the brigade of Ginny and her widow friends together to solve a local murder, with the usual ample quirks worked in.

I loved that this was a different setup than the other two, with the initial case already being closed, the ladies needing to infiltrate a new town, and Wallace being away on vacation. They were all able to move freely, not be told off by police, and also had new challenges and opportunities outside of their home town gossip. It made for a cozy mystery that still had the same vibes as the first two novels, but didn't feel repetitive, with so many new characters and scenes worked in.

I loved seeing Ginny grow outside of her grief, as well as the characters from previous novels brought back in in new and developing roles. Overall this was the perfect cozy mystery with a comical ending in the nick of time, and was exactly what I look forward to in this series.

*****

Thank you to Storm Publishing for the digital ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I am loving this series and another visit to Little Shaw was another exciting installment, Ginny Cole is attending a friend’s wedding when the dog, who was ring bearer, after running and digging in the church yard dropped a skull at the bride’s feet, well this stopped the wedding and Ginny is again with her friends from the Widows’ Detective club using their sleuthing skills to get the answers.

The two families involved in the wedding do not get along as one of them comes from the next village and there has been some sort of feud between the two villages for way too long to remember but when the skull turns out to belong to a woman murdered twenty years ago and that case was never investigated correctly as far as Ginny, Tuppence, MJ and Hen are concerned they are going to make sure that they do especially when the bride’s notorious family has asked them to do so.

What they uncover was a terrible plot but when another body is discovered and this one is one of the peopled Ginny and team had been talking to the plot thickens and with DI Wallace away on holidays and DI Sterling in charge of the investigation The Widows’ Detective Club are not happy and determined to get answers.

This is a fabulous installment in the series one that I highly recommend Ginny and the ladies are so easy to like and they leave no stone unturned in their hunt for answers and I am thrilled that there will be more in the series. I loved this one witty fun and a fabulous cosy mystery.

My thanks to Netgalley and Storm Publishing for my copy to read and review.

This was a fun follow-up to the other Widow's Guide books. Perfect for a cozy mystery section. The characters are real and well-rounded and the storyline is complicated enough that this requires a little focus, but it doesn't have the creep factor that thrillers have, which is great for readers who like the puzzle aspect of murder but not the gore.
This series is an auto-buy for my store now!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Amanda Ashby for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for The Widow's Guide to Skulduggery coming out June 30, 2025. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Somehow, I missed the second book in the series. I really enjoyed the first book so I was excited to receive this. I really love murder mystery books. I think the characters are really fun. I would definitely read more books in this series.