Good Evening Everyone,

Hope you’ve all had a fantastic weekend. If you’re in the UK, then hopefully you’ve been outside and enjoyed the sunshine. Autumn and winter are my favourite seasons, however as soon as spring starts to roll around, it does make me happy and excited. I get the best of both worlds at the moment. It’s sunny enough to be out in the garden, sprucing it up but cool enough I can still sit in front of the fire in the evening. I couldn’t be more content.

Book 📖

I have been looking forward to this book for such a long time. Thank you @AvonBooksUK and J.M. Hall for this copy of A Spoonful of Murder in return for an honest review. A Spoonful of Murder was published on 17th March 2022 and you can get a copy here.

Description 🔖

Three retired school teachers; Pat, Liz and Thelma meet every week at the cafe of their local garden centre for a cuppa and a catch up. At one such meeting, they happen to bump into an old colleague of their’s called Topsy. By the following week, Topsy is dead.

These three ladies had no idea they were about to become involved in a murder, but it is important to them to find out what happened to their friend. They are certain that a crime was committed and it is up to them to solve it.

General Thoughts 🤔

Firstly, I wish I could be a real grown up and enjoy a cup of tea. I feel like a cup of tea is necessary in order to complete the cosiness of this book. This was definitely a great book to get lost in and block out the rest of the world. It was full of twists and turns with red herrings at every corner, however the story wasn’t too difficult to follow.

I loved the warming parts of this story. Not only did it keep me on my toes with the mystery, but it gave me all of the feels and warmed my heart. These ladies had their own lives, some of them with more drama than others, yet they all put that on hold to a certain extent in order to find out what had truly happened to their friend.

Characters 👫👭👬

I think that good characters are an absolute must for a successful cosy mystery and this book didn’t disappoint. Pat, Liz and Thelma are a group of brilliant personalities and they all bring something different to the table.

If I was forced to choose, I think I’d have to pick Liz as my favourite. I loved that her inner monologue was one of little confidence, yet she continued to throw herself into uncomfortable and unfamiliar situations. I think I’m probably most like Thelma as I feel like I could see myself doing some of the things that she did and feeling the same way as her about them.

Writing Style ✍️

J.M. Hall has found himself on my authors that I’ll continue to read list. There was so much packed into this book without it feeling overwhelming and complicated. I listened to an interview with him about his inspiration for the book and it makes complete sense in hindsight. He captured the emotion and impacts of fraud on the elderly so well and it certainly made me think about how it would make me feel if it happened to a friend or relative of mine.

The book was paced really well and certainly kept me glued to the pages so I could find out what happened next. It was told from multiple POVs (my favourite) but there were some moments I got confused about which character I was reading. One thing I particularly loved though was the fantastically named chapters. Every one made me giggle because it was kind of like hearing my Nan’s answer if I asked her what happened in her day.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

As I mentioned above, I was really looking forward to reading A Spoonful of Murder and it definitely lived up to the hype I had created for it in my mind. It was thrilling and full of mystery whilst at the same time, funny and very heart warming. The characters were brilliant to journey with and I would love to see more of them from this great author. You should definitely get this book, a cup of tea and some biscuits and get lost in this cosy mystery.

😍😍😍😍😩