Delightfully traditional cozy crime novel that perfectly captures the atmosphere of a 1930s English winter. The frosty Devon setting provides a wonderful backdrop for a mystery layered with classic tropes.
Kitty Underhay is helping her best friend Alice with drapery hanging at Alice’s recently purchased and renovated farm. Alice and her fiancé, Robert, bought the property at an estate auction, There’s a bit of superstition about the place because of a vanished previous tenant farmer who left the door open and dinner on the table and who has been missing for over 10 years. When the man’s body is discovered on the farm by a workman putting in telephone poles, Kitty and her husband Matthew, who are now private investigators, try to solve the murder mystery. Could it be that the murder is linked to a web of local burglaries at neighboring estates?
Lots of suspects in the mix as usual, with Kitty and Matt joining their old, familiar police inspectors as they snoop around and question some of the bad actors who might have been involved with either the burglaries or the murder, or both.
I like Kitty and Matt and now they are married in this 22nd book of the series. For being practically newlyweds, there’s about zero romance in the pages. Their relationship is so focused on their involvement in their probes and inquiries. As usual, the narrative is full of lots of details about their daily lives, food, tea, and their pets. Fairly predictable following the typical formula for this genre, it is still enjoyable to catch up with Matt and Kitty and the rest of the characters who populate the books. I’m sure I’ll keep reading the next installments though their lives need a little more personal spicing up and Matt needs some sort of therapy for his issues.
This is scheduled for my blog tour on publication for November 24, 2025. If you like historical cozy whodunits and mysteries set in the Devon area of England, this is a fun series that I recommend for its attention to detail and style.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this e-book ARC to read and review.
This is 22nd in a series that should be read in order from the beginning.
Genre and tags - cozy historical mystery series set in Devon, Murder, burglary, private investigators
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