Love it when I can’t guess the ending! While snowflakes fall outside, Sarah Vane cosies up in her cottage with a book when a leaflet for the Christmas choir flutters through her letterbox. Keen to sign up, she pays a visit to choir master Daffyd Jones. But her festive cheer crumbles like a mince pie when she finds him dead in his office. With just a week to go until Christmas, Sarah has a festive case to solve.
As Sarah talks to the devastated choir members, she soon discovers many had a reason to dislike Daffyd. Was it the soprano who was humiliated by him in front of the choir for missing her high note? His long-suffering wife suspected an affair – are her floods of tears fake? And why was his picture-perfect forever home put on the market just days before his death?
4 stars

This fourth book in this cozy mystery series features retired GP, Sarah Vane. She lives with her small dog, Hamish. Next door is best friend, Daphne who is rather oblivious to the nuances of Sarah’s new relationship with Charles. Sarah decides to join the local choir as the holidays approach, after a leaflet comes in her mail. However, the choirmaster and former one hit wonder is anything but joyous. Instead, he berates the members and has nothing good to say about anyone. When Sarah goes to speak with him, she discovers him dead on the floor of his office, making all the choir members suspects in his death. After a second death, Sarah’s more determined than ever to save Christmas’ jolly parts and put this all to rest.
A fun read and I really like Sarah.

I really enjoyed getting back into the Sarah Vane world and the mystery element that I was looking for in the series. The mystery was perfectly done and enjoyed how story uses the previous books that I was wanting from the other three books in the series. The characters were everything that I was looking for and enjoyed going on this journey with the them. Alice Castle was able to weave a strong storyline and characters that I cared about. I hope there is more in this series and from Alice Castle.

Murder in the Choir by Alice Castle. A cozy mystery with engaging characters and several murders to solve. Entertaining and fun read.

Thank you to the author, Bookouture, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

There's nothing nicer than snuggling up with a good book and a hot drink when the weather gets wintery, but retired doctor Sarah Vane decides instead to join her local choir with best friend, Daphne. It seems very popular, and she is looking forward to getting stuck into some of her favourite carols. At least she is until the choir master arrives! Daffyd Jones, a one hit wonder many years earlier, showers the choir with harsh comments, devastating opinions, and dismissive remarks, leaving Sarah amazed anyone attends rehearsals at all! After the man retreats to his office, she goes to speak with him, but instead discovers a dead body! With no one, apart from family, seeming to miss the victim, Sarah knows she has her work cut out, but more dead bodies soon appear and it's uncertain if she will actually see her first seaside Christmas!

I was able to read an advanced copy of this thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Bookouture, but the op.inions expressed are my own. Sarah Vane has definitely grown on me since this series began, but her lifelong best friend Daphne would still make me rethink my move to live next door to her! This was a fun winter cosy with Sarah second-guessing herself more often than previously and her nemesis, Francesca, on fine form. I enjoyed this as I have all the books so far.

Sarah goes with her friend Daphne to join the local choir only to find out that the choir director is arrogant, mean, and hateful. When he doesn’t return after leaving the practice, Sarah goes looking and finds his body. It looks like suicide, but where is the murder weapon? Being as he is so hated, there are lots of suspects and motives. More deaths occur, and Sarah gets in deeper all the time. Sarah, with her friends and her cute Scottie, interview suspects and track down motives. In between, Sarah is jealous of her boyfriend’s many former girlfriends (even though she’s in her 60’s). This is a fun cozy mystery in a cozy English village on the coast.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the ARC.

I love the Sarah Vane mysteries and have read most in the series but this one fell a bit flat sadly.

From the title I thought there'd be more choir rehearsals and all of the drama that brings but everything happened very early. It was also SO obvious who the murderer was. Normally I'm kept guessing but the clues were exceptionally obvious in this one sadly.

Having said that I love the characters and Daphne is hilarious. I'll look out for more in the series as I usually do enjoy them.

Thanks for the arc.

This is the fourth entry in the cozy series set on the English shore where Sara Vane a former general practitioner has retired. The time for this story is the holiday season. Sara and best friend Daphen decide to try out for the local holiday choir. Once at the tryouts, the director turns out to be a tyrant and the two doubt whether choir is for them. Unfortunately, our amateur detective Sara finds the dead body of the director and she just has to investigate, and the body count keeps increasing. At times, the story moved a bit slowly for me. Thanks to NetGalley for the arc.

On the whole an enjoyable read but I found Daphne rather annoying because she was always wanting to eat. I also found it a bit twee that the dog was treated as a human.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read "Murder in the Choir" in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is the fourth book in the Sarah Vane Mysteries. Sarah is a retired GP and lives with her little Scottie dog Hamish, who has saved her on more than one occasion. Her next-door neighbour and best friend is Daphne Roux. Her new beau is Charles Diggory who owns the antique shop in town. Daphne is very much a third wheel in their relationship. Moving into Sarah's spare room because she doesn't want to stay in her own home. Charles doesn't like to come over when Daphne is there. So he isn't very happy when Daphne ruins a romantic dinner he planned for himself and Sarah with a lovely meal for two that he cooked and prepared the table with candles and flowers. Daphne has no clue that she is in the way and there is only food for two people. She often borders on the rude demanding drinks and snacks wherever she goes.

Of course, wherever Sarah goes there seems to be a murder. She decides to check out the choir and soon the choir master is found dead. He's a dreadful man that insults everyone he meets so there is no shortage of suspects. Daphne's daughter Mariella is the detective in town, along with Tweedledum and Tweedledee aka Dumbarton and Deeside who are bumbling and cause more chaos than solve cases.

Pretty soon everyone she knows is a suspect in the choir master's death and then there are 2 more deaths. Sarah puts herself in danger once again to help solve this case and almost ends up as body number four.

Hamish is sweet on Charles' dog Tinkerbell and they are the best bits to read. Charles leaves us hanging with a major question to Sarah. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next book.

Murder in the Choir was an entertaining story. The characters were interesting, although I think that having read this book without reading the previous ones left me at a disadvantage as I didn't know the back stories of the characters. Thus, I would recommend reading the books in order. I had a hard time understanding why the protagonist, Dr Sarah Vane, was friends with the quirky character of Daphne. I liked Sarah very much and thought she was fairly well developed. I found Daphne a bit of a ditz and at times annoying. However, the mystery was intriguing and I enjoyed trying to sort out who the killer might be.