"A Temp Volunteer Attempts to Solve Murder in Charming Cosy"
Reviewed by Min Jung
Posted March 17, 2013
Mystery Cozy | Mystery Amateur Sleuth
When Sheila Malory's friend Monica calls and asks her to
fill in for her at a local charity thrift shop while she'll
be awhile, Sheila readily agrees. After all, she can spare
the time, it's only for a couple of weeks, and she already
knows most of the other people who staff the shop. The shop
is in the nearby quite town of Taviscombe, and she'll get to
meet new people as she works with interesting books, which
is a bit of passion of hers. Of course, as the old saying
goes - no good deed goes unpunished, and Sheila soon finds
herself working with a bad-tempered, officious, ill-mannered
shop supervisor Desmond Barlow. However, working with Desmond proves to be a temporary issue
as someone kills him one night in the shop as he was working
late in the office. As Mrs. Malory has a penchant for
sleuthing, she's eager to try put together some clues and
form a suspect list. However, owing to how Desmond treated
his employees, neighbours, and family, there are few people
who didn't have some kind of motive for wanting him out of
their lives! In a small town that harbours many secrets, Mrs. Malory
finds that she has to resort to a few tricks up her sleeves
to get people to open and talk. But once she does, she
finds that people are more willing to speak to her since she
isn't an official police officer. As she is friends with
the detective handling the case, though, she is able to pass
along information, and together, they hope to solve the case
in a timely manner. MRS MALORY AND A NECESSARY END is not the first book in the
Mrs. Malory series, but the author, Hazel Holt, did such a
wonderful job of introducing characters that any reader
could read this book without feeling lost or feeling as if
they needed additional background information. Had I not
known that there other books in the series, I would have
actually thought this was either a stand-alone book or the
first book in a series. The story was so engaging and well-written that I was
enraptured from the beginning. I was charmed by the thrift
shop and the staff, and although I'm sure the next Mrs.
Malory book won't involve the shop or the same characters, I
really wish it would. Mrs. Malory herself is an extremely
likeable and relatable woman, and she seems like the kind of
person who everyone would want to befriend. The mystery was extremely well-written. There was an ample
supply suspects who all had reasonable motives coupled with
a lack of alibi. There was a noticeable lack of a red
herring characters to either throw the reader off or be
immediately discarded by the more savvy cosy reader, which
was refreshing. There are plenty of clues for the reader to
play along with Mrs. Malory, and the murderer is revealed at
the perfect time. All in all - this is one of the best
cosies to come along in a very long time!
SUMMARY
When Sheila Malory fills in for a friend at a local charity shop in the quiet English town of Taviscombe, she’s happy for the change of scene. It will give her a chance to deal with interesting books, meet new people, and above all, work for a good cause! Still, not everything at the shop is so appealing. The ill-tempered, officious store supervisor, Desmond Barlow, runs the shop as a tyrant. That is, until Desmond is found stabbed to death in the shop, and Mrs. Malory puts her impeccable sleuthing skills into play. Unfortunately, it seems that Desmond was disliked by pretty much everyone. In a town full of suspects, Mrs. Malory must go behind closed doors and delve into a slew of small-town secrets if she wants to discover a killer who is far from charitable…
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