First in the cozy series, introduces Mrs. Malory, a solictor's widow from England's West Country, and tells how she became an amateur sleuth. A delightful series.

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This is the first book in a modern cozy mystery series featuring a middle-aged widow in a seaside English town. I saw it recommended in A Common Reader last year. I recently found a copy of this book, so I decided to give it a whirl. Earlier this fall, I had read a later book in the series, but without the back story on the character, it was hard for me to get into it. This one was a little more accessible, but still not quite as entertaining as I had hoped. The whole thing is told in first person, so that's at least something different from my usual reads.

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First off, I am not sure how to spell Malory. The cover of the book spells the name with one L and the written pages spell it with 2 L's

Sheila Mallory, a middle-aged widow, of rural Taviscombe, enjoys her quiet life with a small band of friends that is until her friend Charlie Richardson, brings the quite chic Lee Montgomery home for a visit. Everyone had always thought that Charlie and Sheila would end up together, but sadly, that was not the case. However, Charlie respects Sheila's opinion and would really like for a friends opinion of his fiancé.

When Charlie needs to travel back to America to tie up some business deals, Sheila agrees to check in on her only to find her dead. Well, Sheila takes her responsibilities as a friend seriously and decided that it is her job to find the who and why of the killing; and unfortunately, the more that Sheila digs the more she realizes that Lee definitely had a past and it could have been just about anyone who killed her.

I enjoyed this book, though simple in its style, Ms Holt's writing is very much in the British style with subtle humor and many a leading culprit without overdoing the pitfalls that seem to be prevalent in most cozies mysteries today.

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Enjoyed this very much. Good first start for the series.

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I had difficulty locating the first two books in this series, so read several later books first. I'm glad I did, as I likely wouldn't have continued the series had I read this one first. All the British cozy elements are here, small community, middle aged widow sleuth, a bit of humor, but it was too simplistic, and too much of the resolution relied on unsupported mental meanderings of Mrs. Malory. The series improves, and this should be read for the back story, but not as a deal maker.

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Delightful start to a promising new series.....knew "whodunit", but not all the particulars as to why...will read the next one......

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