Review by Booklist Review
When uber responsible optician Cath goes through her late mother's things, she's surprised to find a fully paid ticket for a weeklong murder mystery simulation in a picture-perfect town in England's Peak District. Cath has spent a lifetime avoiding her mostly absentee mother's flighty schemes, but she's intrigued enough to take the trip by herself. As she gamely immerses herself in solving the "murder" with help from her two housemates, she finds unexpected love in a gently charismatic village bar owner who specializes in creating artisanal gin as well as answers to her many questions about exactly why her often distant and uninvolved mother so meticulously planned this unlikely mother-daughter vacation in the first place. The murder mystery may be fake, but the decades-long secrets she uncovers about her family are real and ultimately life-changing. Combining mystery, romance, and coming-of-age story, Dukess' (The Last Book Party, 2019) second novel will engage readers with an inventive twist on the traditional murder mystery.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
An unexpected ticket for a "murder week" in England's Peak District upends the quiet routine of optician Cath Little in this sturdy reworking of classic British country house mysteries from Dukes (The Last Book Party). When Cath's estranged mother dies, the Buffalo, N.Y., native discovers that she had purchased tickets to a weeklong British murder mystery party. Unable to cancel the trip, Cath decides to go. At the event she teams up with Wyatt Green, who's at a crossroads in his marriage, and Amity Clark, a divorced romance writer struggling with writer's block, to try and win the contest. In the process, she unearths previously unknown details about her mother's past, and falls for sexy bartender Dev Sharma, who's staffing the party. Mystery-first readers are likely to find the faux whodunit at the center of the plot perfunctory, and the revelations about Cath's mother lack punch. Still, the breezy atmosphere and Dukes's deep knowledge of mystery tropes generate a certain amount of fun. It's a solid if unspectacular pastiche. Agent: Doug Stewart, Sterling Lord Literistic. (June)
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Review by Library Journal Review
After Cath's estranged mother dies and Cath is going through her things, she finds a ticket for a murder-mystery week in England. Baffled but intrigued, she decides to go. All the residents in a Peak District town come together to stage a fake murder in hopes of attracting tourism. Cath eagerly teams up with her cottagemates--Wyatt, who works unhappily in his husband's birding shop, and Amity, a divorced romance writer who is hoping to gain inspiration for her next book. As they gather clues and interview suspects, Cath also learns shocking and potentially life-altering truths about her mother and has a fling with a handsome barman. By week's end, Cath, Wyatt, and Amity have forged firm friendships, solved a tricky crime, and smoothed out some serious wrinkles in their own lives. VERDICT This charming and heartfelt cozy from Dukess (The Last Book Party) is just the thing for a rainy afternoon and a cup of tea. The dialogue is snappy, the characters are endearing, and the plot is satisfyingly quirky.--Susan Clifford Braun
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A young woman travels to England after discovering tickets to a murder mystery week purchased by her estranged late mother. Thirty-four-year-old Cath Little lives a quiet life in Buffalo, New York, inhabiting the Victorian house she inherited from the grandmother who raised her and running an optician business she acquired from her retired neighbor. It's been several months since a stroke killed 55-year-old Skye Sanders Little, and Cath is still reluctant to go through the boxes left to her. Having survived a lonely childhood that featured brief, intermittent visits from the itinerant Skye, Cath has mixed feelings as she finally tackles the remnants of her mother's possessions. But amid the unpaid bills and other detritus, Cath finds a receipt showing that her financially strapped mother paid for two tickets to "solve a 'genuine fake English-village murder mystery'" in the Peak District. Reluctant but curious, Cath is soon sharing a cozy cottage in the village of Willowthrop, teaming up with housemates Wyatt Green, who unhappily works in his husband's birding shop in New Jersey, and Amity Clark, a divorced romance writer from California. The trio's quest to solve the fake mystery also becomes an investigation of the real-life mystery of Cath's mother. What was her connection to Willowthrop? Along the way, Cath enjoys a romantic fling with a handsome maker of artisanal gin. Dukess follows up on her touching coming-of-age debut,The Last Book Party (2019), with a charming and funny homage to cozy mysteries. All the genre's tropes are here: the clever amateur sleuths, the quaint setting, "the vicar, the nosy neighbor, and the village doctor." But this is also a poignant, redemptive tale of a grief-stricken daughter reconciling her troubled past with her promising future. An entertaining whodunit with a touch of heartwarming pathos. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
