This month, for our Throwback book, we’re diving into The Bookshop Murder: A Flora Steele Mystery by Merryn Allingham. Dive into the first book in the Flora Steele Mystery series with Amateur Sleuth Flora, a bookshop owner, bicycle rider, and daydreamer.
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The Bookshop Murder
Author: Merryn Allingham
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Series: Flora Steele Mystery #1
Join Flora Steele – bookshop owner, bicycle-rider, daydreamer, and amateur detective as she tackles her first case!
Sussex, 1955: When Flora Steele opens up her bookshop one morning, she’s in for the surprise of her life! Because there, amongst her bookcases, is the body of a young man, with a shock of white-blond hair. But who was he? And how did he come to be there?
Determined to save her beloved bookshop’s reputation and solve the baffling mystery, Flora enlists the help of handsome and brooding Jack Carrington: crime writer, recluse, and her most reliable customer.
The unlikely duo set about investigating the extraordinary case, following a lead across the sleepy village of Abbeymead to The Priory Hotel. When the hotel’s gardener dies suddenly, and they find out their victim was staying there, Flora’s suspicions are raised.
Are the two deaths connected? Is someone at the hotel responsible – the nervous cook, the money-obsessed receptionist, or the formidable manageress?
As the trail of clues takes Flora and Jack all over the village, it becomes clear there’s more than one person hiding secrets in Abbeymead…
But does Flora have what it takes to uncover the truth – or will her amateur sleuthing put her in harm’s way?
Love Agatha Christie, Midsomer Murders, and T E Kinsey? Then this brand-new cozy crime series featuring bookshop owner Flora Steele is just what you need!
Find it on Goodreads, Amazon, and Bookbub.
Review of The Bookshop Murder by Merryn Allingham
A Crew’s Thoughts
The Bookshop Murder was my first read by Merryn Allingham, and it didn’t take long to realize I had a new author to add to my list of favorites. From the start, I was pulled into a story, with likable (and a few not-so-likeable) characters, a mystery with just enough twists to keep me guessing, and a setting that felt both charming and real.
I especially enjoyed the subtle differences in tone and style between a U.S. author and a writer from the U.K. Allingham has a knack for creating a vivid backdrop that brings her characters and their world to life. It all came together for a fun, engaging read.
So much so, I’m already on book two of the series, Murder on the Pier. The characters feel even more real, and the mystery just as compelling. With ten to go, clearly I’m hooked.
If you enjoyed The Bookshop Murder be sure to check out book two in the Flora Steele Mystery Series
Murder on the Pier: A Flora Steele Mystery Book 2
Meet Flora Steele – bookshop owner, bicycle-rider, daydreamer, and amateur detective!
Sussex, 1956: When bookshop owner Flora Steele goes for a walk along the pier, she isn’t expecting to spot a young woman’s body in the stormy waters below. And she’s shocked to discover the victim is someone she knows…
Convinced the death was not an accident, Flora persuades attractive local crime writer Jack Carrington to help her find out what really happened to poor Polly Dakers, a popular young woman with a complicated love life, who’d been at the heart of village life in Abbeymead.
Jack is reluctant to get involved in another murder case at first, but even he can’t deny that Polly’s fall seems fishy. An argument at a party, a missed hairdresser’s appointment, and a red woollen bobble found on the wooden boards where Polly last stood provide a trail of clues…
As they grow closer to solving the puzzling mystery, the unlikely pair stumble upon several surprising secrets about those closest to Polly. A number of potential suspects begin to emerge. But who really disliked Polly enough to kill her? Was it Raymond, her jilted first love? Harry, her latest beau? Or Evelyn, Harry’s jealous, estranged wife?
As the investigation brings them closer to the truth, Flora is intent on unmasking the killer – but will her stealthy sleuthing lead her down a dangerous path?
Find it on Goodreads, Amazon, and BookBub.
About the Author of The Bookshop Murder Merryn Allingham
Bestselling author Merryn Allingham was born into an army family and spent her childhood on the move. Unsurprisingly, it gave her itchy feet and in her twenties she escaped an unloved secretarial career to work as cabin crew and see the world. The arrival of marriage, children and cats meant a more settled life in the south of England, where she’s lived ever since. Having gained a PhD, she taught university literature for many years and loved every minute of it. What could be better than spending one’s life reading and talking about books? Well, writing them perhaps.
Six Regency period romances followed, then those itchy feet kicked in. The Regency was abandoned and Daisy’s War, a wartime trilogy, found its way to the top of the Amazon charts, followed by the Summerhayes books—a saga of romance and intrigue set in the Sussex countryside during the summers of 1914 and 1944.
But itchy feet never rest, and in 2020, she finally went over to the dark side! The crime series, the Tremayne Mysteries, is set in locations around the world and features Nancy, a feisty 1950s heroine, turned amateur sleuth.
And, nearer to home, the Flora Steele Mysteries, set in a 1950s Sussex village, feature a duo of crime fighters: Flora, who owns the local bookshop and Jack, a reclusive crime writer.
The Bookshop Murder, the first in the series, has over 3000 reviews!
Keep in touch with Merryn via the web:
Website: https://www.merrynallingham.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MerrynWrites
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/merrynwrites
