Gareth and Louise Ward’s first co-authored novel, Dead Girl Gone, launched The Bookshop Detectives into a burgeoning cosy crime genre which has remained dominated by Richard Osman‘s Thursday Murder Club books since 2020.
Loosely based on themselves, the Wards have created another gang of loveable amateur crime-solvers in Garth and Eloise Sherlock, two former police officers who have relocated from the UK to New Zealand and now run a charming indie bookshop. The novels also feature a loveable cast of side characters consisting of the bookshop employees, the weird and wonderful customers who frequent Sherlock Tomes, and of course, Stevie the Wonderhound, Garth and Eloise’s beloved dog.
The latest in the series, Tea and Cake and Death (yes, that is a reference to the Cake or Death skit, apparently) picks up where Dead Girl Gone left off – so stop reading now if you want to avoid all spoilers for the start of the series. Though the Sherlocks managed to solve their two cold cases, the mystery of what Arthur Pinter is up to is continuing to bug our heroes, especially Eloise who knows all too well how close she came to being one of the murderous literary agent’s victims.
Pinter, who is still locked up in England, seems to be communicating with someone in Havelock North, and is using book deliveries to taunt Eloise and talk to an antipodean accomplice. Thanks to a few favours she’s called in Eloise is able to see intercepted text messages between these two foes, but they’re written in some sort of maddening literary code. (If the idea of a literary agent turned serial killer who picks victims whose writing he considers a crime to humanity is something you find funny but also a little bit on the nose, well, there you have the overarching vibe of this series.)
Meanwhile, every time Garth and Eloise go to a public event, someone keels over sick, or ends up dead, and the detectives begin to suspect that there might be a poisoner on the loose. But, whether or not this case is connected to Pinter remains to be seen. The fact that the poisoner might be using foraged mushrooms seems… timely.
Garth and Eloise don’t really have time to solve another murder – they’re trying to put on their annual charity Battle of the Book Clubs, and their guest star, Dame Fiona Kidman, has just had to cancel on them. But with the help of a few friends, the Sherlocks might just be able to solve their case AND reach their fundraising goals… if only they can stay alive long enough.
As is to be expected of a cosy crime novel, this second book in The Bookshop Detectives series is a light and often very funny read about a dark subject. Yes, there’s death and danger, but there’s also Dungeons and Dragons, a quest to safely capture a bookshop mouse named Basil and a ‘Death Cafe’ meeting after close to eat cakes shaped like headstones.
Several of the bugbears I had about the first novel (such as Eloise’s tendency to refer to Stevie as a pupper – a word I use in real life but didn’t enjoy seeing in a book – and the two shoehorned in references to Gareth Ward’s real life children’s book series when one would have sufficed) have been ironed out. Perhaps it was just that I got used to their endearing, tongue-in-cheek writing style. After all, these are books that don’t need to take themselves too seriously. I still struggled at times with the dual point of view, however, and sometimes needed to refer back to the beginnings of the chapters to remind myself which character I was following. Both voices feel remarkably similar at times, though Garth is supposedly very literal and Eloise is a bit more cheeky and sarcastic. As for the mystery? These are well-plotted puzzles for the solving, so if that’s what you’re looking for, the books are definitely worth a read. They might be too easy for seasoned crime novel fans, but were exactly the kind of thing I needed.
But, on the question of whether or not the Sherlocks will knock the Thursday Murder Club off their perch, I think the answer is safely not yet. They’ll still give them a damn good run for their money though, and it’s lovely to read about bookshops, book lovers, and community life in New Zealand, even if it does seem like they’ll soon be gunning for more local people murdered than in Midsummer.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Gareth and Louise Ward’s The Bookshop Detectives: Tea and Cake and Death is out now through Penguin Books. Grab yourself a copy from your local bookstore HERE.
Header Image supplied by Penguin Books.
