The Birthday Mystery
The Winter Mystery
Faith Martin
Book Blurb for The Birthday Mystery:
Discover a new series of whodunits by million-selling author Faith Martin. These classic-style mysteries will have you scratching your head to work out who the murderer is. Meet Jenny Starling: travelling cook and reluctant amateur detective.
Please note this book was first published as “BIRTHDAYS CAN BE MURDER” under Faith Martin’s pen name JOYCE CATO.
Jenny Starling is catering the twenty-first birthday party of a pair of posh twins, Alicia and Justin. But when she arrives at their parent’s country house, she is immediately met by the police. A young man has drowned in the pond. Was it an accident or murder? Then just after midnight everyone gathers for a champagne toast. But one of the guests falls down dead. The police are baffled and there is a whole party full of suspects. But when it comes to someone adding the extra ingredient of poison to her own precious recipes, Jenny isn't going to take it lying down. She has a reputation to protect. Jenny Starling won't stop until the murderer is found. This is the first of a series of enjoyable murder mysteries with a great cast of characters and baffling crimes which will keep you in suspense to the final page.
Perfect for fans of classic whodunits by authors like Agatha Christie, LJ Ross, TE Kinsey, and J.R. Ellis.
JENNY STARLING In her late twenties, Jenny Starling is an impressive woman. Physically, she stands at 6ft 1inch, and has shoulder-length black hair and blue eyes. Curvaceous and sexy, she’s a modern single woman, living the lifestyle that suits her – that of a travelling cook. Her famous (and now very rich) father, is a ‘celebrity’ cook, divorced from Jenny’s mother. Jenny drives a disreputable cherry-red van, and is happy travelling the country catering events and cooking great food. She is on a one-woman crusade to bring back ‘real’ food. And definitely doesn’t like having to divert her attention from achieving the perfect Dundee cake or creating a new sauce recipe by having to solve a murder. She finds crime very distracting, especially when there is chocolate to temper or pike to poach. Nevertheless, she is very good at reading people, and with a quick and agile brain, becomes very good at unmasking killers. And her always-undaunted sense of humour goes a long way in keeping her sane when all around her people are dropping like flies.
Book Blurb for The Winter Mystery:
Discover a new series of whodunits by million-selling author Faith Martin. These charming mysteries will have you scratching your head to work out who the murderer is. “Classic murder mystery story with a twist at the end” Oxford Times
Meet Jenny Starling: travelling cook and reluctant amateur detective.
Please note this book was first published as “A FATAL FALL OF SNOW” under Faith Martin’s pen name JOYCE CATO.
Jenny Starling is spending Christmas in a snowed-in country house cooking all the traditional food she loves. But the family she’s working for are not full of the seasonal spirit. In fact, they seem to hate each other.
On Christmas Eve, someone is found dead on the kitchen table. And the head of the family is blaming Jenny!
But with an incompetent detective called in, and seemingly no motive for the murder, Jenny will have to give the police a hand.
She will stop at nothing to clear her name and find the real murderer.
This is the second of a series of gripping murder mysteries with a great cast of characters and baffling crimes which will keep you in suspense to the final page.
In both of these books, the protagonist, Jenny Starling, is catering a special event - the first a birthday party for a pair of wealthy twins, the second, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner for a remote farmhouse. In both of them, someone ends up murdered. And in both of them, Jenny has already earned a reputation for solving a crime, so is engaged by the local police to help solve the case.
I really liked Jenny as a character! She's independent and is comfortable with who she is. In one book, she meets a woman brought up to believe a woman could never be too think or two rich, two things that Jenny appears to have never even considered needing. She really knows her way around the kitchen, not only where to source the best food, but food safety, what type of food someone would like, etc. Very competent, very intelligent.
The books themselves, however, I liked much less. At times, in fact, I got frustrated with the writer who kept referring to Jenny being a big girl; I felt like I liked her and appreciated her more than her creator did. I also thought there wasn't much 'whodunit' in either book; in one, only one person had opportunity, and in the other, only one person had motive. I did enjoy watching Jenny investigate (with the police's blessing), asking just the right questions in a bar, for example. It was also interesting to see how others viewed Jenny and how skillful she was at getting answers.
Both books have been published previously under the pen name 'Joyce Cato' as Birthdays Can be Murder and A Fatal Fall of Snow back in 2010 and 2011. There's a number of references to a previous case; I'm assuming it was published as Joyce Cato, but Ms. Martin doesn't have the rights to publish?
All in all, I'd recommend reading them, if only to get to know Jenny.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.com and voluntarily chose to review.
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