Death Comes to Marlow (The Marlow Murder Club #2)

I thoroughly enjoyed Robert Thorogood’s The Marlow Murder Club last year, so I was excited to read his newest head-scratching caper featuring fierce and feisty septuagenarian sleuth Judith Potts and her mystery-solving sidekicks, vicar’s wife Becks and dog-walker Suzie. I’m happy to say that it didn’t disappoint!

This time Marlow’s renowned Sir Peter Bailey calls Judith out of the blue inviting her to a pre-wedding party at his mansion the day before his nuptials to nurse Jenny Page. He seems a bit nervous Judith notices and when he’s later found dead in his locked study, she has no doubt that he invited her to the party to solve his own murder!

While suspicion falls on everyone from his son, daughter, ex-wife, wife-to-be, gardener, and various others, everyone seems to have a potential motive, but they all have airtight alibis too! Was Sir Peter Bailey’s death an accident or murder? After all, he was the only one with a key to his study, and it was found in his pocket inside the locked room. 

Unswayed by the utter impossibility of the evidence proving his murder, Judith once again uses her sharp mind and the unique insights and talents of Becks and Suzie to assist DS Tanika Malik, whose recent demotion has taken her off the case that her boss has written off as an unfortunate accident.

Who killed Sir Peter Bailey? In the fashion of a great Agatha Christie novel, Thorogood has written another clever and twisty mystery that worked all my gray cells and still ultimately fooled me! I love Judith’s spunk and intelligence. Honestly, you can’t pull a single thing over on this woman!  It was nice to see Becks and Suzie’s stories fleshed out a bit more this time around as well as they’re each finding their own success outside of Judith’s formidable shadow.

I listened to the audiobook, once again perfectly narrated by Nicolette McKenzie, while reading along on my Kindle, and it was a great way to immerse myself in the story. I highly recommend the audio!

It’s a delightful series that will be followed next year by the third installment The Queen of Poisons and has just been announced to be in development for Masterpiece Theater on PBS. I know I’ll eagerly be looking forward to both!

★★★★ ½

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press, NetGalley and author Robert Thorogood for the opportunity to honestly review this digital ARC and to Libby for the audiobook. It’s now available.