It is with trepidation that I read book ten in this series, because I know at some point it has to come to an end and actually for Kitty in this book it could come sooner than we think.
Planning for her wedding underway, Kitty thinks she has found her new manager, Mr Lutterworth for the Dolphin Hotel, as she knows once she is married things will be different and her grandmother is also wanting to step back. He certainly has a baptism of fire, as a body turns up on the paddle steamer that was used to host a dinner party before the main event being held in the hotel.
The body is someone Kitty’s fiancé has been watching for his government contacts.
The party is the daughter of the Chief Constable.
The suspects can only be those that were on the boat, so Inspector Greville, has to investigate his boss and associates.
Then a diamond necklace goes missing for a short space of time.
It is going to be a tough case to tackle for the Inspector so he relies on Kitty and Matt to help. Of course that is going to put one of them in danger and the new manager finds himself searching the local area for his new boss pretty quickly. What sort of place has he come to work at ?
The sort of place, where all walks of life come to stay and pass through and with the wonderful kindness of Alice, Kitty’s Maid. Her Sister Dolly who helps in the office, the Night Porter and of course Bernice the skittish dog it makes for an interesting start for Mr Lutterworth. But if you have been with the series from the beginning then it is just par for the course for these two delightful characters.
This series goes from strength to strength, the introduction of characters along the way, means it can move off in different directions but without losing sight of the main focus – murder mystery. Cosy crime seems a misnomer, they are simply cracking good stories that serve to escape from the realities of life with for me a great big dollop of history thrown in for good measure.
I look forward to as many more as the author wishes to write.
Thank you to the publisher via netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.
Murder on Board is out now.
The Book Jotter 