Today is my stop on the Blog Tour for THE CASTLE MYSTERY (Jenny Starling #4) by Faith Martin and I would like to share with you my review.
The Castle Mystery (Jenny Starling #4)
Available from AMAZON
Discover a new series of whodunits by million-selling author Faith Martin. These charming mysteries will have you scratching your head to work out who the murderer is.
Meet Jenny Starling: travelling cook and reluctant amateur detective.
Please note this book was first published as “AN INVISIBLE MURDER” under Faith Martin’s pen name JOYCE CATO.
Jenny Starling has her dream job cooking for Lord and Lady Avonsleigh in a genuine castle.
Then one of the castle’s treasures, a fabulously jewelled dagger, is used to murder a staff member. The victim is found stabbed through the heart in the conservatory.
Lady Avonsleigh insists that Jenny help the police find the murderer.
But how can Jenny solve this case when the murder was committed in front of several reliable witnesses, none of whom saw a thing?
This is the fourth of a series of enjoyable murder mysteries with a great cast of characters and baffling crimes which will keep you in suspense to the final page.
JENNY STARLING
In her late twenties, Jenny Starling is an impressive woman. Physically, she stands at 6ft 1inch, and has shoulder-length black hair and blue eyes. Curvaceous and sexy, she’s a modern single woman, living the lifestyle that suits her – that of a travelling cook. Her famous (and now very rich) father, is a ‘celebrity’ cook, divorced from Jenny’s mother. Jenny drives a disreputable cherry-red van, and is happy travelling the country catering events and cooking great food. She is on a one-woman crusade to bring back ‘real’ food. And definitely doesn’t like having to divert her attention from achieving the perfect Dundee cake or creating a new sauce recipe by having to solve a murder. She finds crime very distracting, especially when there is chocolate to temper or pike to poach. Nevertheless, she is very good at reading people, and with a quick and agile brain, becomes very good at unmasking killers. And her always-undaunted sense of humour goes a long way in keeping her sane when all around her people are dropping like flies.
THE AUTHOR
FAITH MARTIN is the best-selling author of the DETECTIVE HILLARY GREENE mysteries, which have sold over 1 million copies globally in just over a year.
JENNY STARLING MYSTERIES
Book 1: THE BIRTHDAY MYSTERY
Book 2: THE WINTER MYSTERY
Book 3: THE RIVERBOAT MYSTERY
Book 4: THE CASTLE MYSTERY
My Review
This is book 4 in the Jenny Starling series.
The story begins as Jenny arrives for an interview as cook in a Castle. The Lord and Lady are friendly people who are eager for Jenny to start providing them with good wholesome food.
All is going well until an ornamental dagger is seen dripping with blood and further investigation reveals a body in the conservatory. Despite Jenny wanting to concentrate on her cooking she is dragged in to the investigation as the owners request she works with the police to find the murderer.
All the clues seem to lead to dead ends as Jenny, Bishop and Myers try to work out how the murder could be committed in the time frame and without anyone seeing anything and who was the murderer? Everyone has alibies for the time of the murder.
This is a mystery in the true sense of the word. The book moves along at a steady pace and keeps the reader intrigued.
Despite feeling I was in a game of Cluedo the book had enough to keep my interest. I found the very frequent references to Jenny’s size a bit unnecessary but overall it was a good read.
FAITH MARTIN author bio
Faith Martin was born in Oxford, and has spent all her life within twenty miles of the university city, even working at Somerville College for five years before turning to writing full-time. The author of the popular DI Hillary Greene novels, she also writes more classic-style ‘whodunits’ under the pen name Joyce Cato, but began her writing career as Maxine Barry, winning an award for penning romance novels! A popular writer for over 25 years, she has had nearly 50 novels published so far. Her hobbies include walking her now ageing dog, wildlife-watching, reading and (reluctantly) gardening.
