A Cornish Recipe For Murder by Fiona Leitch

In the fifth book in the Jodie 'Nosey' Parker series Jodie is taking part in a baking competition when a member of the film crew is found dead. It's obviously murder and Jodie can't stop herself from investigating, luckily her boyfriend is the police officer in charge of the case.

Fiona Leitch has tapped into a number of popular trends in the fifth book in the Nosey Parker series. Alongside the cozy murder mystery we have a TV baking competition and drag queens, amazingly these all work together to give a fun read with quite a few red herrings along the way.

The relationship between Jodie and her boyfriend, DCI Nathan Withers, continues to develop. The interaction between these characters is very lighthearted. Since the majority of the events take place within the confines of the filmed baking competition there is less opportunity for some of the usual supporting characters to appear. While we do get snippets from her mother, Shirley, and her daughter, Daisy, their reduced interactions with Jodie could result in the story losing some of the humor we would expect in this series. Thankfully we are saved by the drag queen character Barbara Strident. Barbara is the comic host of the baking competition and really lives up to her name with a stream of funny quips to camera.

Fans of the series will know what to expect (and won't be let down by this latest addition to the series). If you've never read any of the series before don't let that put you off. This can easily be read as a standalone but I'm sure once you've finished it you'll be hunting down the earlier books in the series.

This is a lighthearted read, with enough twists to keep you hooked and guessing right to the end. Just what any reader would want from a cozy murder mystery.

A Cornish Recipe For Murder by Fiona Leitch will be published for Kindle on 18th August 2022 and in paperback on 13th October 2022. My thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for a review copy.