Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

When a woman is found murdered in the Village hall, the murder weapon being her own cake knife, Nurse Kate Palmer puts herself on the case. Having recently moved to this cozy village for a quiet life, the last thing Kate thought she would do was end up caught in a murder investigation.

I love mysteries Agatha Christie is the Queen of mystery. Although this was Agatha Christieesque, this book fell flat for me. For a book claiming to be ‘An utterly gripping cozy murder mystery,’ the only part that was ‘gripping’ happened at the end of the book and was only a scene. While reading this book, I could see it as a show; however, as the book progressed, it drifted farther away from these thoughts.

It didn’t make sense to me that the police officer would be encouraging Kate to be apart of this investigation actively. Even in a cozy sleepy town, I highly doubt a police officer would be okay with a civilian getting in the way of a murder investigation. That doesn’t add up. Kate justified her qualifications to be a part of the investigation because she watched a lot of murder mysteries on tv. Which in no way gives her the skills to do so in the book. There was an odd part when she is going to go out to dinner, and she decides to starve herself all day so she can enjoy her dinner. I’m sorry, but that is not okay and not healthy.

From a craft standpoint, the books had a lot of cliches, and she tried to convey everything through eye descriptions. For a book that claims to be ‘An utterly gripping cozy mystery,’ it wasn’t.