The Cost of Living

Ant & Bea Mystery, #1

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Pub Date 21 Sep 2017 | Archive Date 28 Sep 2020

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Description

Celebrating 3 years since the first Ant & Bea Mystery!

After a young woman is brutally attacked on her way home  from the local supermarket, checkout girl Bea is determined to find out who’s responsible. She enlists the help of Ant, the seemingly gormless new trainee – but can she really trust him? 

Customers and colleagues become suspects, secrets are  uncovered, and while fear stalks the town, Bea risks losing the people she loves most.

Celebrating 3 years since the first Ant & Bea Mystery!

After a young woman is brutally attacked on her way home from the local supermarket, checkout girl Bea is determined to find out who’s...


Advance Praise

‘This odd, appealing pair prove a formidable match for the surprising killer. Readers will look forward to their next outing.’  -Publishers Weekly 

‘Bea and Ant are a delightful crime-solving duo and I’ll very happily join them again for another clean-up in a Costsave aisle.’  -Crime Review 

‘Unlikely friendships and quirky wit make this the most warm-hearted of crime debuts.’ -Lucy Diamond 

‘Utterly fab, fresh and real.’ -Fleur Hitchcock 

‘A breath of fresh air, Ant and Bea are fabulous creations.’ -Sophia Bennett 

‘Heart-warming, intriguing and character-led, this is just the right kind of crime book to curl up with in front of the fire...’ -Philip Ardagh 

‘I absolutely loved The Cost of Living. Crime just where you least expect it, and one of my favourite ensemble casts’ -K.J. Whittaker 

‘Rachel Ward’s The Cost of Living flies into my top five reads list of 2018. It has everything you could want from a read. Great plot with versatile and interesting characters. Fantastic writing with attention to detail. An accurate and sensitive portrayal of mental illness and real heart at its core.I am delighted to say that there is a second instalment for me to get my mitts onto and a third in the pipeline. ’ -Love Books Group 

‘Rachel Ward is an extremely skillful writer and here she provides warm characterisations, convincing dialogue, deliciously awkward romantic liaisons, a wicked wit to make you giggle and a plot to keep you guessing all the way to the check-out. It's a treat!’ -Bradford on Avon Mini Book Festival 

‘One of the best murder mystery books I’ve read in a very long time’  -Meggan, Between the Pages blog 

‘The thread of darkness and the engaging characters coupled with the plausible setting makes it more than just a cosy crime story.’ -Mary, Live and Deadly blog 

‘An excellent standalone but Ward has put the building blocks in place to make for a stellar series.’ -Cramlington Book Club 

‘I really enjoyed reading this book. Ant & Bea are very likeable characters, very down to earth and there was a lot which made me smile throughout the book.’  -Portobello Book Blog 

‘A heartwarming, entertaining mystery which keeps you gripped until the very end.’  -SomewhereInABook, Bookstagram 

‘A sometimes-cosy, sometimes-edge of your seat mystery set in and around a local supermarket. It’s funny, charming and equally scary and disturbing in parts - the perfect book to curl up with as the nights start to draw in and there’s a chill in the air.’  -Carly, Writing from the Tub blog

‘This odd, appealing pair prove a formidable match for the surprising killer. Readers will look forward to their next outing.’  -Publishers Weekly 

‘Bea and Ant are a delightful crime-solving duo...


Marketing Plan

We're celebrating 3 years since we published the first Ant & Bea Mystery

If you enjoy The Cost of Living, we'd love to see you at #CosyCrimeClub on Twitter - just use the hashtag at 11am BST on September 22nd to join in.

We're celebrating 3 years since we published the first Ant & Bea Mystery

If you enjoy The Cost of Living, we'd love to see you at #CosyCrimeClub on Twitter - just use the hashtag at 11am BST on...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781910985830
PRICE £8.99 (GBP)

Available on NetGalley

NetGalley Shelf App (EPUB)
Send to Kindle (EPUB)

Average rating from 4 members


Featured Reviews

Oh, this was lovely! A believable cast of characters in an everyday setting, who find themselves under threat after a colleague is found dead. Bea is charming, Ant is a bit more of a diamond in the rough, but they work very well as a pair. It's unusual to see a working class whodunnit, so I was so pleased to read this. I kept guessing who the killer was - incorrectly as it turned out! I can't wait for the next one.

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Imagine a warm snuggly hug in book form and you get The Cost of Living. A book that will have me looking at the Tesco checkout ladies in a different light, a book that was not only a good cosy crime but was also funny, sad and a little creepy in places. Yes, can you tell I enjoyed it a lot? I’d better tell you what it is about.

Supermarket checkout girl Bea loves her job, she loves talking to her customers, and she loves (most of) the people she works with. Recent start Ant does not share the same view, he hates the job and seems to make a mess of everything he does but something about him endears Bea, and she takes him under her wing.

The small town they live is unremarkable in every way until reports of someone stalking women start to come in and when someone Bea knows is brutally attacked, she takes is personally. Using her daily observations at work she starts to make a list of possible suspects and with the help of Ant and her friend Dot they do a little digging. Can they succeed where the police have failed?

I’m not going to tell you if they do! This is a unique read also in the fact these are proper working class characters, there aren’t any fancy cars, designer clothes, expensive bottles of wine and posh food. There are numerous mugs of tea, lots of chocolate and looking out for one another especially those nearest and dearest.

This is a gem of a book, it kept me guessing till the end and it has made me add the next two books in the series to my list of books to read.

Thanks to Net Galley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

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I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery: it's engrossing and highly entertaining.
I liked the unusual setting, the fleshed out characters and the solid mystery that kept me guessing.
I can't wait to read the other books in this series.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

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