Chef Paul Delamare took a teaching job at a residential cookery school in Belgravia. He didn't really want to but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a way of getting both men and women to do what he wanted. Paul somehow got the impression that he'd be at the school to assist Paul, who had a broken arm, but it didn't turn out that way. The teaching - and the problems - are all his own. The one thing he hadn't expected was for someone to turn up dead. Unfortunately, he was the person who discovered the body and everyone knows that the police consider that person to be the prime suspect.

Ok, it's cosy crime, but it's well done. There's a reasonable cast of suspects - the students and staff at the cookery school - and they're all well-fleshed out with decent back stories. As you'd expect from the location, there's Lady Serena Brash and her daughter, the Honourable Harriet, who's obviously hiding something. Rose, who owns the school, is obviously struggling to make ends meet, but she's keen that her own liaison doesn't become common knowledge. The more you read, the more you'll realise that the students are there not so much to learn to cook as to escape from their normal lives.

The USP of this book is the cookery school location. Do you remember author Orlando Murrin as a semi-finalist on Masterchef? Well, he's used his culinary know-how to set the scene. You even get some excellent recipes in the text - I'm going to try the one for cheesy biscuits. You'll understand a lot about the skills required to be a chef (or even a decent cook) but you'll feel that you've picked it up on the way, rather than been educated.

It's the plot you really want to know about, isn't it? Well, I worked out the bones of the explanation, fairly early on but didn't get the whole of it. The clues were there, but I missed them! I found the solution just a little far-fetched but this is cosy crime and provided that you're not looking for a plot which is going to blow you away, you can have a good, easy, enjoyable read. I'd certainly read more from Murrin.

I'd like to thank the publishers for letting Bookbag have a review copy.

A cosy crime novel, that intrigued me straight away.

I found it was an easy read that I mostly enjoyed but would be in a rush to re-read.

I would recommend it to someone who enjoys this genre and wants an easy read.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for gifting me this arc in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Knife Skills for Beginners is a fun easy read mystery story. It had great characters and enough twists and turns to keep me on my toes. A great read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC.

This book has all the ingredients for the perfect murder mystery. The author uses his culinary expertise to great effect, throwing in a few recipes for good measure. I expect the launch party for this book to be well catered! A culinary school is a great opportunity to get a bunch of suspects rounded up for this delicious murder mystery.

A crime story with a culinary twist. Set in a cookery school Paul is contacted by an old friend for a favour to teach a group of students cookery for a week. When a murder happens he and his students are the prime suspects. Can he solve whodunnit before the end of the course?

It took me while to get into this book but I warmed gradually to the characters and the setting. Paul is the central character having been asked to step in for a friend, Christian, to run a cookery course - said friend is then butchered and Paul becomes suspect no 1 several times over the book as the plot thickens! He narrates the story and there is definitely more to come from this character so I hope there is a second planned. A twist in the tale at the end that I only half saw coming so a very enjoyable read!

**Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read an advanced e-copy of this book. All opinions are my own **

Whilst I did enjoy this book well enough, I felt that it was let down by an overly-busy storyline/cast of characters. I found myself wondering at certain points what scenes and side-plots had to do with the main story. Because there were a lot of suspects, it felt that there wasn't time to fully bring most of them to life so they felt a little two-dimensional.
Something that I thought was really well done was the descriptions of the cookery school and the lessons. There was real depth to these - so much so that I found myself looking for it on Google maps! Sharing all the little details really gave me a great sense of the environment that everyone was experiencing. The lessons were where I got most of my insight into the characters, more of that would have made a big difference in my opinion.
I think the key to brilliant cosy crime is idiosyncratic protagonists and I never really got that from Paul - I didn't understand his motivations well enough to find him plausible. There was tenderness when he was talking about Marcus and coming to terms with his death, which was lovely to read, and his relationship with Julie could've been showcased more as that was relatable.

Yesterday Paul, a Chef, showed his students how to use a chopper to remove a pigeon’s head; today someone used it on Christian, another Chef. Paul’s prints were still on the handle! The day before yesterday, Christian, having broken his arm, had asked his old friend Paul to take over the Cookery Course that he ran, based in a large Victorian house in Belgravia (an exclusive area in Central London). Christian is a famous TV Chef (although the show no longer airs), and had a chain of Brasseries (until the business went insolvent and he was bankrupted). The one-week residential courses which are run there have a fixed programme of Cheffing skills set by the owner, Rose, who also happens to have been one of Christian’s paramours (he has a reputation as a womaniser). Expecting professional standards in the kitchens and in the quality of the facilities for the students, Paul is rather dismayed to find a slightly rundown establishment with catering at supermarket standard cooked up by Susie, a recently employed young woman who also seems to do all the other routine activities in the building. Finances are clearly parlous. The students are an assorted bunch, mostly with minimal skills in the kitchen and all of the female members seem to be fans, even groupies, of Christian, so are miffed to discover that Paul, a less famous personality, has taken on the tutorial role temporarily, although cheered up a bit when he pays a visit to the classroom. Lesson One is “Knife Skills”, which Paul rounds off with the aforementioned chopper. Paul is living at home so leaves at the end of the day. Everyone else, including Christian, is staying on the premises. Returning the next morning, Paul notices broken glass outside the door to Christian’s little flat in the courtyard and goes to investigate, where he finds Christian in a nearly decapitated state with the chopper lying close by. Paul is the obvious suspect and must investigate what really happened while carrying on with the course.
This is a fairly straightforward cosy, murder mystery – bunch of people in a closed situation where motive is the route to identifying the killer; amateur sleuth striving to solve the mystery and prove his own innocence while the police are closed to other possibilities. The plot unrolls in a smooth fashion, there aren’t many twists, the guilty not too difficult to spot, the resolution sensible. The epilogue wraps up everyone’s story, which is nice but a bit long. Nothing really outstanding so it is 3 stars at most. However, I’m elevating it to 4 because of the quality of the writing, the light-hearted style, the character of Paul, and the recipes from Christian’s notebooks (worth a try – Murrin has written a lot of cookery books). I think this might be the first in a series and, with a bit more complex twisting, that would be welcome.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

I enjoyed this book. A good murder mystery debut read set in Belgravia at a cooking school.
Paul Delaware is a chef, covering for celebrity chef Christian who breaks his arm. Later when Christian is found dead the suspicion falls on Paul.
It’s brilliantly written and funny with lots of twists and turns and a great varied mix of interesting characters. I liked Paul and his backstory.
Overall, an enjoyable and entertaining read with some good recipes included throughout.
Definitely recommend this book if you enjoy murder mystery whodunnit’s. I look forward to reading future book from this author.
With thanks to #NetGallery and @Randomhouseuk for an eARC of #KnifeSkillsForBeginners in exchange for a honest review. All opinions are my own.
Book publishes 01 February 2024.

British celebrity Chef Orlando Murrin (a winner of Masterchef, food writer and podcaster for the BBC) has written a light and entertaining cosy mystery set in a Belgravia cooking school.

It all starts with Paul Delamare’s, old friend and fellow Chef Christian breaking his arm. Paul and Christian both trained as Chefs together with Christian going on to become a celebrity chef. However, when his chain of up market restaurants went into liquidation, he was offered a job teaching at Chester Square Cooking School, including accommodation in a flat behind the building. Although located in Belgravia in a magnificent old building, the school itself is run down and on its last legs financially, which is why Christian is begging Paul to step in and take his place teaching a week-long residential cooking course covering basic techniques.

Ten years previously, Paul met and married wealthy businessman Marcus Berens, moving into his small house in Belgravia and since then has worked freelance, including writing a monthly recipe and food styling section for Escape magazine. However, after Marcus died a few months ago, Paul has rarely left the house or seen anyone, except his friend Julie, Escape’s food editor. He decides the teaching job might be just what he needs to get out of the house and he finds that he is enjoying it, at least up to the point where a murder occurs and he and the students all become suspects.

This debut cosy mystery is quite a fun read, however I did feel that the characters needed more development. Paul is quite well fleshed out, but could do to grow further into a more solid personality. Rose, the owner of the cooking school, Rose, is quite bland and forgettable and the students on the course were flat and stereotypical, particularly the women making it difficult to remember who was who. Marcus’ son Jonny, who is waging a personal crusade against Paul, at first sparked some interest and could have been included more to cause conflict with Paul to liven up the plot. Julie is also a great character I would also have liked to see more personal interaction between her and Paul.

With Orlando Murrin being a Chef himself, the setting of a cooking school for this mystery is an inspired choice and I anticipated we would be treated to descriptions of wonderful food and recipes. However, perhaps because the cookery course was for beginners, the cooking was all very basic and not very exciting. Some recipes found by Paul in Christian’s personal notebook are included - one for a potato dish, strangely based on frozen hash browns, and one for rocky road, both uninspiring and disappointing choices. A recipe for a cake based on a traditional Cornish tea time treat called ‘Thunder and Lightning’ did however sound more interesting and innovative. Overall, a light, enjoyable read with the potential to go on to become a fun cosy mystery series, with stronger character development and inclusion of some delicious recipes.

This is a fun /cosy murder mystery .Set in Belgravia in a Cookery School ,a famous Chef is found with a cleaver in his head. His old friend Paul had been asked to teach his cookery class due to a broken arm .Everyone is a suspect lots of twists and turns and great characters .A really enjoyable read with the addition of some recipes .Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC .

Paul Delamare takes a job at an inclusive cookery school but then one of his students turns up dead.
Paul is suspect number one and he must find a way to prove his innocence before its to late.

A new series! I love getting in right at the start!

Paul Delamare is an experienced chef; when his friend Christian has an accident making him unable to continue teaching at a cookery school, he asks Paul to stand in. As the building is in Belgravia and not to far from Paul's home, he agrees. Meeting the students on the first day, Paul endeavours to stick to the curriculum - even if he thinks he could do better by himself. Then the unthinkable happens: a dead body turns up and the police have a favourite for the murder - Paul. It seems the only way to prove himself innocent would be to find the guilty party, and so he begins looking into the lives of everyone at the school . . .

This is an excellent debut novel. I enjoyed the concept and the writing cannot be faulted. With a good cast of varied characters I was interested to find out about them all. Cleverly plotted, I did have an idea of who the guilty party was = and I was half right. I hope we see more of Paul. Entertaining throughout, I'm very happy to give this one 4.5*.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

I had high hopes for this book, but, unfortunately I just couldn't get into it. I didn't really like the characters and struggled to finish it.

Sadly this was a DNF for me as I could just not get into it. I persevered until 50% and then gave up.
The book has a great title that really drew me into the book but I did not connect with the characters. I realised it was cosy crime ( with a not so cosy crime) but the story developed too slowly and I expected much more action. Personally, I feel that the author was trying too hard to re-create Richard Osman.
I am sure some will love it but it didn't suit my palette.

Paul Delamare is a chef, and is called upon by fellow chef Christian to teach at a cookery school as a favour after Christian breaks his arm. When a grisly murder is discovered, every pupil and member of staff is under suspicion. Can Paul help solve the mystery before anyone else is hurt?

A good solid mystery, with slightly too many red herrings and tangents for me, but the strong characters and odd recipe thrown in saved it. I think the author has a good start for a series, and I'd definitely read a second book about Paul - there were many loose ends I'd like tied up about him, and I loved best friend Julie and her wonderful use of emojis!

The author cooks up an interesting read.
This book came over as a homage to some of Agarha Cristie's best stories with it's setting of a large multi story house, a group of disparate individuals and a brutal killing. The people are there for a week long residential cookery class. Refreshingly, the author gives us a largely linear straightforward timeline through the week with some remenisances where necessary.
In true Christie style a number of the characters are suspected at som.e stage or another and are 'grilled' by the police before a surprising conclusion.
The author is a chef of note and includes recipes, techniques and short cuts for the readers should they want to try them.
There's nothing half baked about this book and it's well worth a read.

This book was a good murder mystery, the storyline itself was really good. I did however feel like something was missing, I can’t quite put my finger on what it was but I finished it feeling like something was missing. There is some great sounding recipes throughout it though!

A cosy murder mystery.
When celebrity chef Christian breaks his arm he gets his chef friend Paul to stand in for him at a private cookery school run by Rose in her family home.
Christian is found dead and Paul tries to find out who did it even though the police think it`s him.
A cosy plot with a few recipes thrown in.
I could not gel with any of the characters a very mixed group.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

When TV chef Christian breaks his arm, Paul is drafted in to cover for him at a prestigious London cookery school. However, when Christian is found brutally murdered on the premises the first night, suspicion points to Paul.

I enjoyed the varied cast of characters who were all flamboyant and larger than life and the references to cookery techniques, but in an attempt to throw the reader off the scent, the author included far too many red herrings. I got fed up trying to keep track of all the different characters, their back stories and their relatives back at home and just went with the flow. The fact that at the end, several pages of explanation were required to unravel all the threads and reveal the clues Paul had so cleverly put together would suggest that there was far too much to begin with.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.