The Widows' Guide to Murder by Amanda Ashby.
There are a lot of cosy elements in The Widows' Guide to Murder (the first instalment in the "Widows' Detective Club" series). Ginny Cole is a widow who has just moved into a quaint cottage in Little Shaw. She dreams of a peaceful retirement, working part-time at the village library- she's even adopted by a cat- but her plans take a sharp turn when she literally stumbles over the body of her disagreeable boss, Louisa.

What unfolds is a charming tale of mischief and mayhem packed with humour and heart as Ginny teams up with a quirky band of fellow widows to solve the case. Initially hesitant, Ginny quickly finds herself plunging into the world of amateur sleuthing, determined to clear the name of Alyson, the daughter of one of her new friends, who has been wrongfully implicated in the murder. With every twist and turn, Ginny's journey transforms from being a rule-abiding citizen into an unexpected heroine—much to the aggravation of her neighbour, Detective Inspector Wallace, who's not particularly thrilled with the widows and their meddling.

With humour and intrigue, this book has twists that keep you on your toes. If you, like me, enjoy a cosy mystery sprinkled with humour and a touch of whimsy, this book should definitely be on your TBR pile!

Thanks to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the eARC, allowing me to dive into this delightful whodunit!

Big thumbs up! 👍

Body count: 4, a surprisingly high number for such a cosy mystery!

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The Widows' Guide to Murder by Amanda Ashby is an entertaining, fun-filled cozy mystery that introduces us to Ginny Cole, a recent widow who is trying to navigate her new life in the village of Little Shaw. Ginny moves into a cottage with plans to retire peacefully, but her quiet life is upended when she finds the body of her rude and unlikable boss, Louisa, at her new job as a library assistant. This marks the beginning of Ginny’s unexpected journey into sleuthing and friendship with three other widows—Hen, Tuppence, and JD.

What starts as a reluctant investigation soon turns into a delightful series of misadventures as Ginny and her fellow widows get on the wrong side of the law, all while trying to clear the name of Alyson, the daughter of one of the widows, who is a prime suspect. The dynamic between the widows is fantastic, with each woman bringing her own unique personality to the team. Despite being a rule-follower and having a fear of getting arrested, Ginny finds herself doing things she never imagined, much to the annoyance of the local detective, who isn’t thrilled about their interference.

This book is filled with humor, intrigue, and plenty of twists that keep you guessing. The charming setting, the lovable characters, and the delightful cat Edgar make for an enjoyable read. I found myself cheering on Ginny and her new friends as they unraveled secrets and solved the case. The mystery is well-crafted, and while the plot is light-hearted, it’s full of heart and humor.

The Widows' Guide to Murder is the first book in a promising new series, and I can’t wait for the next installment, The Widows' Guide to Backstabbing. If you enjoy cozy mysteries with a touch of humor and a cast of quirky, endearing characters, this one is definitely worth picking up!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for this eARC for reading and reviewing!!

I enjoyed this book but didn’t love it. Perhaps I was just tired this week, but I had trouble sticking with it and it took me longer to finish than I expected. Maybe this just happens with the first book in a cozy series but the pacing felt a little slow. I enjoyed the small town setting, the library, and the characters. I will definitely consider reading the next book in the series.

This is the first book in The Widows' Detective Club series. Recently widowed Ginny moves to Little Shaw to start her new job as a librarian. She arrives for her second day in the job and finds the body of her boss. She quickly finds herself thrust into a friendship group with three other widows while they try and solve the murder.

This was such an easy read and a great mystery to follow along with. There certainly wasn't a lack of suspects and the clues were there all along. Ginny is a great main character, especially when she is trying to keep the other widows in check. I laughed out loud a few times at their escapades! I'm going straight into the second book and hopefully it's just as good.

Ginny is a likeable sensible character with a fair bit of self doubt, and the group of women who adopted her are quirky and warm. What a great bunch. I love the way the author used language - at times wry, witty, and always an easy flow. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Widows Guide to Murder by Amanda Ashby is a really great mystery.

The characters are great, and the story really kept me guessing.

Can't wait for the next book in the series.

EXCERPT: At the surgery she'd always been so in control. And even though each day had brought new challenges, the overall running of the place had been as smooth as clockwork, with no real surprises.
She'd only worked at the library for one day and already felt off-kilter.
Still, there wasn't much else she could do. Eric used to tease her that she was a person who finished what they started. And he was right. So, even if she was about to be fired, at least she would have seen it through.
She turned the handle and stepped inside.
The lights were on, the low hum of the computer suggesting it was in sleep mode. The tall shelves were lined with new books, and a stepladder was lying on the ground. And there, in the middle of the floor, was Louisa Farnsworth, half covered in a pile of books, the pages spread out like birds ready to take flight.
The Lee Childs everyone had been waiting for.

ABOUT 'THE WIDOWS' GUIDE TO MURDER': Ginny Cole doesn’t want to be a widow. She’d rather not be forcibly adopted by an opinionated black cat. And she’d give anything not to have just found the murdered body of her rude and dislikeable new boss…

So she’s as surprised as anyone to realise that she doesn’t hate being on the wrong side of the law, searching a graveyard for evidence in the company of three fellow widows, and doing a whole host of un-Ginny-like things in order to solve a fiendish mystery.

It was a bumpy start, but Ginny might even be starting to like her new life. Certainly well enough that when her sleuthing puts her too close for the killer’s comfort, she’ll do whatever it takes to hold onto it…

MY THOUGHTS: I loved meeting Ginny and the other widows on their hunt for a murderer as they try and clear the name of Alyson, the daughter of one of the widows, who seems to be the prime suspect.

The Widows' Guide to Murder is the first book in a new series that promises to be full of fun and intrigue. Finding a dead body and collaborating to try to solve a murder must be the strangest way to make friends that I have ever heard of. Even worse - Ginny, an ardent rule follower, has capiophobia - the fear of being arrested and thrown in prison - and some of the things that the widows get up aren't exactly legal! To make things worse, her new neighbor is Detective Walker, the man in charge of the case and he is not particularly impressed with the widows' interference.

Each of the widows has a unique personality and I am looking forward to seeing how their characters develop in the next book, The Widows' Guide to Backstabbing.

A fun and easy read.

⭐⭐⭐.8

#TheWidowsGuidetoMurder #NetGalley

MEET THE AUTHOR: Amanda Ashby was born in Australia but now lives in New Zealand where she writes romance, young adult and middle grade books. She also works in a library, owns far too many vintage tablecloths and likes to delight her family by constantly rearranging the furniture.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Storm Publishing via NetGalley for providing an e-ARC of The Widows' Guide to Murder by Amanda Ashby for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Overall, this was a sweet cozy mystery. Between the library setting, the sweet stray cat, the knitting, and all the tea, I wanted to just curl up in a good blanket with this book.

However, at times the pacing was just a tad over slow and I did feel like the main characters could have had a bit more depth. Additionally, the number of large side characters could make things a bit confusing at times, especially when I got to some of the twists.

While it was enjoyable, I’m not sure that I personally liked this one quite enough to continue the series. However, I still may recommend this book to a friend depending on their tastes.

Ginny, recently widowed and having moved to a small town, takes a job at the library. On her second day of work, the unlikable head librarian is found dead. The unofficial widows' club, a group of other women who also happened to be widows and enjoy other's company (as well as sticking their noses in everywhere) adopt Ginny to help them solve the murder and clear the name of one of their daughters, who is a suspect. This was about what I expected for another of the "old folks solving murders" books that are popular at the moment. 3.5 stars rounded to 3.

The Widows' Guide to Murder is the first book in Amanda Ashby's Widows' Detective Club Mystery series. It features Ginny Cole, an amateur sleuth in her sixties who’s just lost her husband. Instead of wallowing in grief, she decides to stick to their retirement plan and moves from Bristol to the quaint little village of Little Shaw.

Things take a wild turn when Ginny stumbles upon a body in the local library. She picks up on some suspicious clues and, with the help of three other widows from the village, dives into solving the mystery.

This cozy mystery is a total delight! The writing is charming, the characters are fantastic, and there are moments that will make you laugh and cry. Ginny is super relatable, and her three widowed friends add a lot of heart and humor to the mix. Plus, she adopts a clever stray cat named Edgar, who brings some hilarious moments to the story.

The plot is well put together and pretty suspenseful, with a nice ending that wraps everything up well.

Honestly, this book is one of my top picks for 2025 so far! I can’t wait to see where the series goes next.

If you’re into Agatha Raisin, The Thursday Murder Club, or The Marlow Murder Club, you’ll definitely want to check out the Widows' Detective Club Mystery series.

If Ginny Cole didn’t have bad luck, she wouldn’t have any luck at all. Or so it seems when she finds the body of the local library manager, who was not beloved by the town folk. If finding them body weren’t bad enough, her friend’s daughter is accused of murder and now she joins several other widows to help clear the young woman’s name. Can Ginny turn her luck around, or is this the end of the road for her?

I saw the start to a new British cozy series. I absolutely loved it and can’t wait to see what the future has in store for Ginny and the other ladies.

Short and fun mystery read. Anyone who likes older detective shows will find a lot to love here. Fun supporting cast and a wonderful and easy to like lead

I really enjoyed the first book in this new cozy mystery series by Amanda Ashby. Set in small town England it follows Ginny Cole as she tries to move forward in a new town after her husband's passing. Her plans for retirement in Little Shaw aren't going to be exactly how she planned now that she's a widower. She needs to get a job to help with her finances and she needs to adjust without her constant companion of decades.
She finds a job at the local library, finds a sweet cat and she meets a group of fellow widowers who welcome her into their "club" of sorts.
She needs their support when she finds a dead body on only her second day of work and when one of the widower's daughters is suspect number one in the death the group works together to uncover the truth.
There's lots of adventures that ensue and what comes to light will leave you guessing and surprised. I really enjoyed the twists and turns and was not expecting where the story ended up. I can't wait to read the second and get back to Ginny, her cat edgar and her friends. I also am looking forward to where things go with her detective neighbour and her mentoring relationships at the library.
Well crafted. I highly recommend this series!

I always look dorward to this author book's. They have good flowing plots and good characters. They catch me from the frist pages as they build to the end. I received arc copy from Net Galley and Storm Publisher.

Je ne connaissais pas l'autrice, donc je me suis dit pourquoi pas.

Et puis c'est un cosy murder. Donc moi qui suis fan des cosy je me suis lancée.

C'est le premier livre de la série The Widows' Detective Club, et c'est toujours bien de se lancer dans le premier d'une série.

Ginny a déménagé dans une nouvelle ville après la mort de son mari et pour démarrer sa nouvelle vie, elle travaille dans une bibliothèque, mais voilà que son patron a été retrouvé mort à la bibliothèque peu de temps.

En principe on laisse la police faire son travail mais comme dans tous cosy murder, les amateurs vont se retrouver mêler à l'enquête et Ginny va y participer activement, avec trois autres veuves , avec lesquelles elle va se lier d'amitié

.Tout est réuni pour passer un bon moment réunissant tous les ingrédients d'un bon cosy.

I'm so in love with this book, and I'm excited that it will be a series! It's cozy and sweet and thoughtful. Like Agatha Christie but with three dimensional women. Even though I am half her age, I really connected with Ginny. I am definitely going to be recommending this one to people! This book is DEEPLY cute and I enjoyed it immensely! Highly recommend. Read it. Especially when you need something light and lovely!

I enjoyed this book and would classify it as a cozy mystery. Ginny is fun female lead. There were funny parts, but mostly just cozy with a library theme (and a cat!!). The book held my interest and was a quick read. I look forward to book 2.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance ARC and giving me the opportunity to review this book!

I feel this book set the tone just right through Ginny’s character in the way that she dealt with grief and having to start a new life.

The friends she made were quirky with the typical warmth you hope to find in a small town cosy crime novel.

Now, moving on to the murder plot – so many moments when I thought I didn’t see that coming! The developments in the plot kept me turning the pages. There was something happening all of the time.

I like a good cosy crime mystery with an ameteur sleuth as a library assistant or librarian. There’s a cat too and a very clever one, Edgar was purrfect. What more could you want?

This book gave me what I was looking for with plenty of key moments revolving around the library.

It also steered away from the use of clichés with good development of the relationship between Ginny and the local detective rather than the local force being portrayed as bumbling characters. There were no retired spy characters or MI5, which I was pleased about.

In some aspects, with Ginny needing to get a job after her husband’s death and the lives of some of the other characters, more realism was brought in and we were presented with less of a middle class slice of life. I found that to be a breath of fresh air.

Ginny was very down to earth in the way she thought and went about solving crimes – she had Miss Marple’s humbleness and gentle yet strong personality.

I felt like the other characters played their parts well overall, if sometimes the baddies were a tad soap operaesque. However, it was a very engrossing storyline, and Ginny’s development made for an enjoyable read.

I’m very keen to find out what is next for Ginny and I want to know more about her past life too.

Thank you to Netgalley and Storm Publishing for the ebook ARC.

I don’t often gravitate towards contemporary cozy-ish mysteries but I think I will read more after this.
By the 4% mark I knew that I would love this book. Ginny is a charming character. I enjoyed watching her slowly healing in her new situation as a widow who starts off demure and lonely and slowly evolves into an amateur sleuth with a decent circle of friends and accomplices. The writing is delightful and smooth and the mystery plot was engaging and well constructed. The Filofax references were everything!!!

Will I read more of this series? Absolutely! I can’t wait to start book 2. I will also look into Amanda Ashby’s backlog.

This is the first book from Amanda Ashby that I have read, I will need to rectify that and soon, I loved this one from start to finish getting to know Ginny Cole and the widows she has met when she moves to the village of Little Shaw, come a long and meet the Ladies you are sure to be kept thinking.

When Ginny loses her dear husband, Eric she follows the plan they had for retirement and moves to middle cottage in Little Shaw here she decides that getting a job will be needed and before she knows it she is hired as library assistant at the local parish library where her boss Louisa is not a very nice person, her second day on the job she discovers Louisa’s body and here starts her sleuthing never realising that it was something that she would get into making friends with three other widows, Hen, Tuppence and JD together they make a formidable team and Ginny is soon doing things she never thought she would and what’s more getting on the wrong side of the law and pushing the Detectives buttons along the way.

It takes a bit, but Ginny is soon settling in to her new life in Little Shaw and loving her new friends and the cat Edgar who has adopted and her job at the library, as well as uncovering murderers, this is such a well written cosy mystery that had me thinking all the way through I was cheering Ginny and the widows on as they uncovered secrets and did their best to save lives.

This is the start of a new series and it is one that I would highly recommend, I loved it and book two is realeasing very soon, can’t wait to read it.

My thanks to Netgalley and Storm Publishing for my digital copy to read and review.