Inkbury is quaint, idyllic almost till you look beyond and see the usual human elements which are hidden at most times. Perfect setting for a cozy mystery.

Juno returns home, hoping for a new start in life. Larger than life and eternally optimistic that something better and importantly someone more interesting will turn up, she is taken aback at developments amongst friends and family. Phoebe is striving to write a best seller - a murder mystery to save her family from bankruptcy, her mother has found a flamboyant lover and to Juno’s suspicious mind, hell bent on doing away with her mother (three previous wives have died in sudden circumstances) and the sudden death by drowning in a shallow patch of the river of her friend Si, sends Juno into full detective mode drawing in her friend Phoebe and the local publican.

Suspicions fall on several (all wrong) people and our detectives are set on finding out who murdered Si before he strikes again. Between the stand up comedian Juno, the ‘cancelled’ and financially strained Phoebe and Mal the publican trying to keep his pub from going under the story is cheeky and full of disarming humour.

Juno Mulligan has gone from making people laugh to having live hand her more than a few situations that could put less people into such severe depression. They couldn’t even cope. However, Juno returned home to England to take care of her beloved mother and get back to herself. When our mother becomes engaged, wonder whether her mother is engaged to a serial killer connecting with old friends and following the clues, Juno hopes her mother won’t be another loss she has to suffer.

While this is the first in a new British cozy series by Fiona Walker, it’s not the first time we’ve seen Phoebe Fredericks. So those of you who are thinking she sounds familiar, you’re not losing it! This is going to be a great British crazy series that I am going to be following and reading for a long as Fiona Walker is writing them!

A cozy mystery, this one takes place in a small English village. Juno, a widow from the US, returns to her hometown to be closer to her aging mother, and along with her friend Phoebe, discovers a dead man. This novel contains the usual cast of quirky, original characters, and concludes with a (to me) surprise perpetrator.

I have read so many of Fiona Walker's other books and loved them, but this is the first mystery written by her and I was a bit underwhelmed☹ While the book contained all the prerequisites needed for a cozy mystery, it also had a slow reading flow to it and took too long to get through, unlike her other novels which I just devoured. It wasn't bad, it just didn't work completely for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I'm reviewing this via NetGalley, as part of a tour with Rachel's Random Resources.

This is the first book in The Village Detective series. I was hoping for a humorous cosy village mystery, as that tends to be one of my favourite flavours of mystery, if you like. This book was exactly what I hoped for.

It's set in the fictional village of Inkbury, and I loved how the author worked with the cosy village setting and brought it to life with beautiful imagery. I also really liked the protagonists, Phoebe and Juno. I found them very funny and relatable. In general, the story itself was humorous and entertaining, and I found myself smiling as I was reading. At times I felt the author had some very fun, quirky ways of describing the characters, to bring them to life for the reader. There were some pop culture references scattered throughout the book that I appreciated too. This book cheered me up, and I look forward to reading more from the series.

Thank you to NetGalley, Boldwood Books, Rachel's Random Resources, and to the author, for the opportunity to read and review this.

I was delighted to read this book, as I still have my original copy of Kiss Chase, the first book featuring Phoebe Fredericks, from over 30 years ago. It has been reread so many times that it is mostly held together by sellotape at this point! I also like Juno, from her first story, ‘Snap Happy’, but it was always Phoebe I most related to. Reading this new book, feels like catching up with an old friend. It’s every bit as funny as ‘Kiss Chase’ and the engrossing murder mystery plot kind of reminds me of a cross between the Agatha Raisin tv series and Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books, both of which I love. This is the perfect, lighthearted Summer read for anyone looking for some fun escapism.

This is a very promising and entertaining start to a new cosy mystery series! And I really love that the main characters are older ’empty-nesters’ still living life to its utmost in as many ways as possible – it’s not a demographic we see as often as I would like!

Secretive Phoebe, vivacious Juno, and the prank-happy Mil make a great team and add a welcome dose of humour to the village murder investigations. And there’s plenty to investigate in addition to the recent death, from Juno’s mum’s suspiciously multi-widowed new boyfriend, to art theft break-ins and the plot hangs together really nicely – neither too simple nor too over-complicated.

My only small quibbles with the story were my disappointment that the ‘final word’ didn’t end up playing into the big reveal and final resolution of the mystery, and that I got a little bit lost amid the real and fake paintings and struggled to remember who owned what and what it was worth. But these really were minor aspects of the whole and didn’t impact my enjoyment of the book.

The pace of the plot is slow, but the build-up of character development and backstory is worth it and I never felt like it was dragging as I waited to see what dramatics Juno would indulge in next or whether Phoebe would let slip any more clues about her past. And how Mil would ‘die’, of course – that particular running gag really made me giggle!

I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more from The Village Detectives ‘Merde/Murder’ club in future and look forward to more secrets, silliness and general shenanigans from Inkbury’s most wildly imaginative residents.

The Art Of Murder, the first book in the Village Detectives series, is an entertaining, cosy mystery with two vibrant and undoubtedly quirky amateur sleuths. I thought they were familiar and discovered they were featured in Kiss Chase(Phoebe) and Snap Happy(Juno), which I previously enjoyed reading. The vivid characterisation makes this engaging, especially with a good mystery and many humorous occurrences despite the murder. I enjoyed exploring Juno and Phoebe's backstories, which echoed the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s I related to. Visualising the characters and their antics is easy, adding to the enjoyment. The cast of characters creates a believable community, too.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

I tried getting into this book, I really did but something about it just didn't click with me. The chapters were really long and the humor just wasn't for me.

When a murder catches an idyllic English village off guard, the natural suspect is the victim’s partner. Despite dealing with her own share of hardships, Juno is determined to get to the truth. Enlisting the help of crime-writer Phoebe, the two women soon find themselves realizing that the picture-perfect village may not be as “clean” as it appears. Add quirky townies, a suspicious father-in-law, and the pressures of adjusting to modern life into the mix, and Juno and Phoebe are truly in over their heads.

This book featured some very well-written scenes of character interactions and development, as well as intriguing backstories for the main characters. The mystery itself was good, not too out of left field nor too predictable, though as a reader I didn’t have much suspicion toward any of the characters throughout the book as most of them seemed too obvious. This book also features very dry humor and many references to media from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, some of which was lost on me, but was still fun to see.

I found some of the main characters difficult to get invested in at first, which led to the first half of the book dragging a bit until I got a better sense of their personalities. Since this is part of a series, and I assume that the characters will get more development in future books, the fact that some aspects were left unresolved was not a problem for me personally. I would recommend this for fans of cozy and small-town mysteries with unconventional main characters. Many thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC. This is my honest review.

3/5 An international move, writer’s block, and now a murder on top of it all?

I love cozy crime, so I’m always excited to try a new author.

I found it took me a little while to get into this book, all the different characters were a bit confusing to start with. However, once I’d finally got these established in my brain, I got involved in the story. I suspect my difficulty was down to my brain fog!

The mystery itself is very interesting, and our amateur detectives solve it pretty much entirely without police assistance (or interference!). I didn’t guess who the murderer was until quite near the end.

The cast of characters is different to any other cozy crime I’ve read, and I found Juno’s wild theories particularly entertaining. I didn’t really click with any of the main characters, but I did enjoy the emerging friendship between Phoebe and Juno.

Overall, this was an interesting mystery with an unusual cast of characters.

I was given a copy of this book, my opinions are my own.

I loved the setting - a quaint English village. I loved the quirky characters, especially Juno and Phoebe. Having said that, I took some time to get used to the writing. I also found the narrative to be slow moving and Juno having a motor mouth from the time she was first introduced in the story didn't make it any better (gosh that woman can spew words faster than a typewriter!!)

Overall, this an okay read.

Lighthearted and funny book, I was glad I read it during a few less than happy days. The set of characters is a mixed variety, I quite liked Juno who was having trouble to feel grounded after everything she left behind in the States. And then there is Phoebe (or Freddy) who also has her mind occupied, one of the things being embarrassed about her current housing situation. Thankfully, there is Wil who - despite her being her grumpy self - continues to prank her.

There were a few tiny loose ends which has me wondering if this is a first in a series. I would love to read a second book with these three sleuths in their village.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book.

A very good story, loved the characters and the twists in it. Very well written. A very intriguing story. My thanks to netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Thank you Boldwood Books and Netgalley for this brilliant book.
I really enjoyed this and it left me wanting more.
I love Fiona's other books but this was so different. Still a huge cast of characters as always, but fun and very well written.
More please and hurry!

I really enjoyed parts of this books; some scenes are excellent. However, I found the large cast of characters hard to follow, made more difficult by many of them having a nickname as well as their true name. The story line with Juno relocating and suspecting her mother’s new partner of being a murderer is good, but the book goes off at a tangent with a recent murder in the village and was ultimately too frustrating to finish, despite reading over halfway.

Juno is heading back to the UK after many years living in the USA. Her son Erichas made his home in Oxford and her mother is moving from the family home and Juno needs to help her. She also plans to link up with Phoebe "Freddy" Fredricks, wife of film director Felix Sylvian who live near to the village.
What she doesn't anticipate is being present at the death of one of the locals. Whose dying word was possibly murder. She feels compelled to look into it and drags in Phoebe, Mil, the local landlord and Eric to help. She also suspects her mother's new beau, Dennis, as his previous three wives all died young.
What follows is a tangled web of deceit and family issues. Entertaining and fun to revisit some previous characters from other books.

I really enjoyed this murder mystery. The characters came to life and the final reveal was a surprise.I really hope it is the start of a series as it would be great to see the interactions develop. Even the ‘extras’ and red herrings had depth and it was.a joy to read. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me access to an early copy of this book.

I was very intrigued by this book but ultimately couldn't get into it. The prose was hard to follow at times (things were described in a way that was beautiful but confusing) and there was so much information given in the opening chapters that I couldn't retain most of it, which for a mystery made me worried I might be missing important things in the multitude of details. I ended up DNFing fairly early in because I was just having a hard time following things.

Delicious…
The first in a new series of mysteries, from this accomplished author now turning her hand to cosy crime, set in the village of Inkbury and featuring former stand up comic Juno. Relegated to the village to keep an eye on her mother, who may just be about to marry a serial wife killer, Juno and friend Phoebe decide to conduct some covert investigations. The discovery of a washed up body, however, stops them in their tracks and so begins the ever so unofficial Village Detective Agency. A wholly enjoyable and entertaining first in series with an eccentric and eclectic cast of characters in a delightful and well imagined setting and with a fun and frothy plot laced with lashings of humour. Delicious.

Juno Mulligan is moving to from America Inkbury, a small English village. A widowed, aging former stand up comic she’s moving to be closer to her mum (dating a possible three times wife murderer) and her directionless adult son. She has plans to befriend 90s icon, cancelled journalist now crime novelist, Phoebe Fredericks. Which is helped by them finding a body in the river that Juno is convinced is a victim of murder. She steamrollers Phoebe, and local pub landlord Mil, to help her play detective. Could her mother‘s boyfriend be the culprit?

I found this rather slow to start, there’s a lot of introducing us to the cast of characters. In this early section I wasn’t sure I liked the two main characters. It was nearly a quarter of the way through that the murder occurred and things started to get interesting. Then I found myself drawn into the murder, and village life. The characters grew on me, women in their fifties who are not your typical main characters, who have interesting back stories and a love of Brit pop (which I share). It seems like a set up for a series of books, going for the cosy crime fans (the Thursday murder club fans). It was different enough and enjoyable enough and I found the story nicely plotted. I would read future stories in this series.
3.5 rounded up to 4