Tag: antony johnston

Happy Friday bookish people! How are you all today? I hope you are all doing well. Today I am bringing something a little bit different. If you have seen a lot of my posts you probably know that I am doing a PhD surrounding the topic of Cosy Crime and so I have had to read a LOT of it, especially recently. When I started my degree I thought, this will be fin I love Cosy crime, it’s my favourite style of murder mystery novel. And it still is, which is good at least. However, I have thoughts. And I thought it might be fun to share some of these thoughts and see what other people are thinking about the genre at the moment. If you are a cosy crime reader, let me know what you think of some of these books!

The Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman

Okay, I have a love hate relationship with this series. I didn’t mind the first book, I enjoyed the second book and then hated the third and fourth books so I have decided not to continue the series with number five when it comes out later this year. It’s difficult to explain what I don’t like about this series, I’m not overly keen on elderly characters as the sleuths because it is so overdone now but this series was one of the first to do it so that didn’t bother me so much with books one and two. I think one of the things that I dislike is that the tone, trying to stay cosy, goes too far into conversational and the people who are meant to be villains their voices are too similar to each other and to the ‘heroes’ of the story. There are also mentions of our main four characters, especially Elizabeth, being involved with these other things that really belong more in a thriller than in cosy crime in my opinion. As it has gone on these things have grated on me more and more to the point that after I have finished my PhD I will be unhauling the series.

The Miss Underhay series by Helena Dixon

Now, from a love/hate relationship to one of pure love. This series took over my life from the minute I picked up the first book. It follows Kitty Underhay, her Grandmother runs a hotel called The Dolphin in Torquay and the series is set in the 1930s England. (It’s actually set close to the area where I live so being able to recognise locations is really fun). When it starts we learn that Kitty’s Mother went missing when she was a child and has never been found. Then we meet Captain Matthew Bryant. Over the series Matthew and Kitty become involved in a variety of murder mysteries. If you are looking for something groundbreaking then this series is not for you but if you like something classic, with good twists and brilliant loveable characters then you will enjoy this.

The Marlow Murder Club series by Robert Thorogood

This series follows Judith – an older woman, Suzy – a dog walker, and Becks – the wife of the vicar and their lives in Marlow and how they meet and become involved in murder investigations. This is another series that I absolutely love, I do think as we are going into later books that it might start feeling a bit flat with the way the characters are, I don’t think we learn much more about them as the series progresses but at the moment I love it. They are intriguing and keep my interest which is good because I get bored easily especially with series. I like the connection between the characters and I think that is what keeps pulling me back to this series.

The Finlay Donovan series by Elle Cosimano

This series, well, I loved book one and then I found book two a drag to get through but then I loved book three so it is a bit up and down for me. I love the premise, a writer is accidentally overheard talking about her novel plot and gets hired to kill this woman’s husband. That was really different and intriguing and Finlay, the writer, is with respect, very chaotic and messy. Her life is falling to pieces and somehow she gets caught up in all these things while also holding a very interesting romantic subplot with a policeman no less. That ups the stakes drastically. It’s really just a very fun series that doesn’t take itself seriously. Sometimes the plots can be a little confusing but overall I enjoy it.

The Windsor Knot series by S J Bennett

This series is very interesting because it follows elderly characters like is the trend in cosy, but in this series that elderly woman is Queen Elizabeth II of England and members of her staff. It is another series where overall I enjoy it but the individual books can be hit or miss for me. I enjoy it’s uniqueness but it is middle of the road for me, I couldn’t tell you much about the books after six months from reading them.

The Dog Sitter Detective series by Antony Johnston

This series follows another older lady, named Gwinny, who is an actress that was big in the day but now has faded into the background but struggling for money she has had to get more roles again. As a character I don’t mind Gwinny, she dog sits hence the name, she’s independent, curious and frankly, finds trouble no matter where she goes. The romantic subplot that shows up here is not one that I am interested in and I’d prefer if the series didn’t have it but I can overlook it for the plots. So far there has been a rockstar on a canal boat, a theatre play and a film set murder and I enjoyed all of them. It’s not a favourite series but it is a fun, easy read.

The Vera Wong series by Jessie Q Sutanto

This series follows Vera Wong, a lady who owns a tea shop and comes downstairs one morning and finds a man murdered inside her shop, believing the Police aren’t doing their job she decides to investigate for herself. I liked the brazenness of the main character, Vera and I also liked the element of found family that develops in this book but I think there were some aspects that weren’t memorable so again it is a middle of the road series but I am looking forward to reading the new book in the series.

The Castle Knoll series by Kristen Perrin

This series is interesting. I actually have unhauled the first book because I didn’t like it but then I bought the second book because it sounded a lot better, so when I read that we will see what it is like. But for now lets talk about book 1, How To Solve Your Own Murder. It follows the Granddaughter of a woman who was told many years ago by a fortune teller that one day she will be murdered and she spends the rest of her time watching everyone and then when the novel begins her Granddaughter arrives at her house and finds her there, murdered. There’s also some flirting with the local policeman that somewhat disappointingly doesn’t come to anything in the first book but I am hopeful that there will be in the second book. The thing I didn’t like about this first book was that most of the plot progression came about in letters from the past, which I enjoyed reading but it felt like there wasn’t enough substance in the present day parts of the novel.

The Three Dahlias series by Katy Watson

This is one of my favourite cosy mystery series. It follows three generations who have played the character Dahlia Lively – Caro, Rosalind and Posy. In the first book you see the characters meet and form a team without knowing it and I love the way their characters interact with each other but keep their own distinct personalities. The mysteries are incredibly bingeable as well, twisty and well written. I can’t describe how good these books are. You get the perfect balance between plot and character.