The Pie & Mash Detective Agency by J.D. Brinkworth is a fun cosy crime read. It follows a young couple, Jane Pye and Simon Mash, who live in South London. Jane is “between job” and on enrols Simon and herself onto a Private Detective night class. Part of the coursework is to investigate a case and present their findings back to the group.

They are assigned a real current case to investigate the disappearance of a young woman called Nellie Thorne. Her boyfriend, a Teacher called Dev Hooper, reported her missing when he got home and found that she’d vanished. What makes the case so unusual is that several women over the years, also called Nellie Thorne, had also disappeared from Kent. That fact really piqued my interest.

I loved reading how Jane and Simon managed the investigation around their lives. Simon works full-time, Jane is “between jobs” and looking for work and preparing for interviews whilst taking public transport down to Kent to investigate. Jane is completely committed to the course and wholeheartedly believes that she will be a great detective. In reality, they only have a few weeks lessons under their belts and have a strong gung-ho spirit. They throw themselves into the investigation feet first, carrying out surveillance, interviews and research. Their lack of planning and flying by the seat of their pants really does make for some humorous escapades. I was crying with laughter reading Simon’s first presentation on the case to the class. Whilst the investigation is ongoing, they attend night school classes and check in with their world-weary instructor Gavin, who steers them away from supernatural rabbit-holes and back to real detection practices.

Jane and Simon are very likeable characters, and the fact they are a couple and also investigators is rather fun and adds some frisson to the mix. The book feels like it’s the first in series, and I would really like to read more of Jane and Simon’s escapades, which will no doubt be peppered with sage advice from Gavin!

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Random House UK, Cornerstone, for making this e-ARC available to me in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Pie & Mash Detective Agency focuses on a pair of wannabe detectives, attending an evening class to learn the ropes. The class gets given assignments, and the one that Jane Pye and Simon Mash are allocated relates to a Nellie Thorne, who has gone missing, leaving the boyfriend, Dev, at a loss to why she has disappeared. The thing is, it doesn't seem to be the first Nellie Thorne to have done so.

The mystery of Nellie then builds as Jane and Simon look deeper into the story, which seems to go back decades with instances in different locations to muddy the waters.

A fun, well-written and intriguing story keeps you guessing as more and more layers of the onion are peeled back to reveal... ah, you'll just have to read it!