The Country Inn Mystery is part of the Jenny Starling Series. Most books in this series have previously been published under the penname Joyce Cato as part of the Travelling Cook Mystery Series. This title had not been previously published, but reading through the reviews of other books in this series I see gripes that bothered me in this book too. So either Faith Martin decided to continue writing in style for the series, or this story was written as part of the original run, but shelved.

Jenny Starling, travelling cook, has found herself a job as replacement cook at the Spindlewood Inn while the regular cook takes a holiday. The first weekend of Jenny's tenure (she hasn't even unpacked yet) Muriel and Richard Sparkey, proprietors of Spindlewood Inn, host the Regency Extravaganza: a weekend where guests dress-up in Recency period clothes, the local am-dram group plays scenes from a local legend and even the meals fit the time period.

The local legend is a story of a young woman married to a much older man, finding a young lover. The husband kills the young lover in a duel and the woman drowns herself.

The lead time to the actual murder is rather long. The author takes her time to show almost all the characters may have a gripe with the eventual victim. I like it more to find out everyone had a motive after the murder. Also, I like being surprised who is the victim.

Other than that, the mystery is interesting. And it is not for that I did not like this story much.

It's because I found Jenny annoying. Annoying how she always just happened to be around when people said useful things. Annoying everyone loved all of her food. Annoying the two police detectives were impressed by her detecting skills. "[Lucy] conceded rather reluctantly that the cook's logic seemed sound." Well, if she thought about it for five seconds longer, Lucy could have found a flaw in the logic.

There's another peeve: when the police are made to look dim. Here the police were made to look unduly dim. Asking witnesses leading questions rather than open questions; jumping to conclusions even if they have enough evidence their conclusion is wrong; not (threatening to) arresting Jenny when she claims to know who's the murderer, but doesn't say immediately who, rather walks them through it. (The walking through can also be done after the reveal of the murderer.)

In the end one mystery wasn't solved: why did the cook of Spindlewood Inn take her holiday in the same week as her employers host an Extravaganza? That sounds like bad planning.

There is something to be said for the writer's advice: when you see an adverb, kill it. (For the word "naturally" in particular, I recommend a hunting party.)

I read an ARC through Netgalley.