Miss Beeton's Murder Agency by Josie Lloyd

 

Alice Beeton runs The Good Household Management Agency, a company that vets domestic staff for wealthy clients. When one of her placements is murdered Alice, along with her friends, investigate the murder and she finds herself closer to the action than she expected.

Josie Lloyd has written Miss Beeton's Murder Academy with a lightness of touch and gossipy style, which puts it firmly in the cosy crime genre. Combined with the cosy crime is another popular addition, the inclusion of recipes. This works particularly well as the main character, Alice Beeton, is a distant relative of Mrs Beeton.

Alice is the wrong side of fifty but is mainly content with her life. She has a wide circle of friends, a successful business and her beloved dog, Agatha. There are a couple of niggles; the noisy upstairs neighbours and the fact that her brother seems to be letting the family home fall into ruin.

Serendipity is at work when a young woman, Enya, signs on with the agency. At almost the same time Alice fields a call from a client desperate for a replacement housekeeper immediately. Enya seems to be the perfect fit and is able to start right away. Within days Enya is found murdered and the police are struggling to discover the culprit. Alice, thanks to her love of crime fiction, decides to go undercover as the new housekeeper to investigate and finds herself embroiled in high-end art theft.

During the investigation, Alice is supported by a host of friends. I loved the two women who work at the agency, Helly and Jinx. Jinx is a complete contrast to Alice. She's flamboyant, outspoken and seems to know everyone. There are also a couple of characters who have highly prized skills thanks to their previous employment working for the security services.

The first two-thirds of the book is really just developing the characters and setting the scene, the action doesn't begin to happen until the final third, and I felt this let the story down. I loved all of the characters and the gossipy style but just felt the pace was too slow. I would certainly read a sequel now that I've got to know all the characters.

Miss Beeton's Murder Agency by Josie Lloyd will be published on 24th October 2024. My thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for a review copy.

Author Details

Mother of three teens and a beloved dog, Ziggy, Josie lives in Brighton in the UK with her husband, Emlyn Rees, with whom she sometimes co-writes. Together they have written seven internationally best-selling novels, including Come Together, which was number one for ten weeks, published in twenty-seven languages and made into a Working Title film. They've also written several parodies of their favourite children's books, including 'We're Going On A Bar Hunt', 'The Very Hungover Caterpillar' and 'The Teenager Who Came To Tea'.