Death Comes to Marlow (The Marlow Murder Club #2) by Robert Thorogood

Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood
My Rating: ★★★★

I received a copy from Poisoned Pen Press through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Judith has been enjoying her post-murder mystery life to the best of her ability. However, fate seems to have other plans for her. First she gets into a fight with a swan while on her morning swim, then she gets invited to Sir Peter Bailey’s pre-wedding party. Judith has never actually met Sir Peter, so it’s certainly a random invite, but she attends the party only to be one of the many guests out and about when he’s crushed by a cabinet. One thing leads to another and Judith finds herself on the hunt for the killer when she and her two friends, Suzie and Becks, are the only ones who think Sir Peter was murdered.

After reading the first book in the series, I was very excited when I saw that a second installment was on the way. We continue to follow Judith, a 77-year-old crossword setter and now amateur sleuth. Through her, we also follow her two new friends, Suzie and Becks. I really enjoyed Judith, Becks, and Tanika. The three are very different characters at a range of different ages who are extremely interesting in their own ways. I really hope to learn more about Tanika as the series goes on since she’s not in Judith’s friend group… yet! Though, I think that she is in a way and I love how Judith, Becks, and Suzie have grown protective over her.

However, I found that Suzie was pretty annoying this time around. I hope that Suzie finds her footing because it seemed that she rarely held even half of the shared brain cell, and not in a fun way. I thought she was funny in the first book, but she was grating on my nerves this time around. However, she was pretty cool on the radio show she volunteers at, so I hope that we see a little more of the Suzie that we got to know back in the first book as the series continues.

The mystery itself is a pretty interesting one. I wasn’t sure who the killer was for a while, and then once I had come to my own conclusions, I later learned I was half right. I was so sure the other party was a red herring, but all the signs were there all book long, so it all makes sense. I also loved seeing Judith and her friends run their investigation with Tanika’s support. There is one major detail in the murder mystery that makes absolutely no sense to me, but I don’t want to spoil the story, so I’m not going to go into details. However, it is the only detail that doesn’t make sense while everything else sounds plausible.

There is another mystery plot that was interesting, and that’s the secret messages in the crossword puzzles that Judith has noticed while solving. I think it was a fun storyline, but it was out of place in the book. I think it might’ve made more sense in a different book or if the details had something to do with the main mystery that Judith is working to solve. While I do think that the crossword puzzle mystery was ultimately pretty cute, it was sadly out of place and made me feel like I changed the channel mid-movie.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book and had a lot of fun reading it. The story gets rolling right away and we get to know a little more about each of the core characters while learning a lot about the new characters that entered the picture. Suzie was getting on my last nerve at times and the crossword puzzle side plot was out of place, but otherwise, I enjoyed reading this and look forward to where the series goes next.