Beth Haldane, SE21’s answer to Miss Marple, thinks she is going for a carefree stroll on Peckham Rye with her best friend, Katie, and her annoying new puppy, Teddy. But before Beth knows it, she is embroiled in her most perplexing mystery yet.

Strange events from her family’s past, present-day skulduggery in the art world, and the pressures of moving school in south London threaten to overwhelm Beth. Will she be able to piece together the puzzle before her son’s crucial interview at Wyatt’s? Or will Beth’s insatiable curiosity finally drag down all her dreams for the future?

Join Beth, her irascible on-off boyfriend, Detective Inspector Harry York of the Metropolitan Police, and the dog walkers of Peckham Rye in a tale of murder, mayhem – and bloody revenge.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

So, you’re telling me there’s a bit of a #MeToo movement building up in the park against young Teddy here? … Perhaps you might want to think about getting him, erm, done? I’m not sure what age they need to be to have the op, but that would definitely sort out his hormones, I should think. Even a Dachshund isn’t going to look that irresistible if you’ve had your danglers cut off, I dare say.

 

‘Liquorice? Oh, is that your dog?’ looking under the bench at the little wiry-haired creature… ‘He’s very cute,’ said Beth dutifully, looking at Liquorice doubtfully. She supposed it was like being presented with other people’s babies. No matter how much they resembled Winston Churchill sucking a lemon, you were still obliged to say how utterly gorgeous they were.

 

Beth sometimes wondered how she’d grown to adulthood with such a light hand on the parental tiller. Her father had always been at work. She remembered trying to get into the garage, as a small child, as that was the place her father disappeared to every morning and the spot he emerged from every night. With her child’s logic, she assumed he spent his days shut away in there, and already she could see why he might want to.

 

Delving in the bread bin, she made the unwelcome discovery that she only had white sliced, which she was pretty sure Katie equated with crack cocaine. More horrifying still, one slice had a tiny fleck of blue on one edge. Mould! Hastily chopping off all the crusts and hurling them in the bin dealt with that problem. And penicillin was good for you, right?

 

… such an oily charmer, he’s totally the type to sell a double bed to the Pope. I’d take every word he said with a mine of salt.

 

Bursar looked as though he had been poured into his suit but had forgotten to say ‘when’.

 

My Review:

 

While she appeared to have started with an exceptional skill set and an enviable level of innate ability, Alice Castle continues to hone her craft as each new installment of this pleasantly entertaining and enticing series has proven to be even better than the last. Each cunningly plotted tale has provided ample servings of clever wry humor, engaging storylines, endearingly flawed and intriguing characters, and an unusual and unpredictable murder mystery. I am besotted with this quirky collection of characters; several of which reappear in each interconnected book. I am also totally enamored with this series and keenly await each new tale.

 

The main character of Beth is a pint-sized, pixie boot wearing young widow and single-mom with an insatiable curiosity, a somewhat short attention span, and a tenacious tendency to follow her own instincts. I adore her! She is as prone to daydreaming and being easily side-tracked as she is to stumbling into crime scenes and discovering murder victims. Her domestic skills and time sense are humorously haphazard yet she somehow keeps her beloved young son and well-adored pets fed and content, and is fortunate enough that her work output is largely unmonitored and her frequent absences go unnoticed. Beth generally intends to show up at her office, yet she just cannot seem to keep herself from careening off-track to snoop and delve into the lives of those unfortunate creatures she has found without a pulse. All despite the rigorous admonitions from her overworked and jaded police detective paramour to cease and desist.

 

In addition to providing high-quality entertainment, Ms. Castle has gifted me with a toy box full of new terms and idioms and for my Brit Word List with: in bits – to be very upset; titchy – a small person; chuntering – talk or grumble monotonously; swish – fashionable; inside gen – information; and Bonio – a popular brand of dog biscuit. What would I ever do without my blessed Mr. Google?

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