Second book I’ve tried in this new series from Faith Martin, but I still found it very hard going. I don’t think I’ll bother with a third! I’m so disappointed, as I loved Hilary Greene series and couldn’t wait for the next one to be released!

This is the 2nd in the revised novels featuring the independent freelance travelling cook, Jenny Starling. Jenny's latest assignment in a two week cooking session during the festive season at Kelton Farm. However, the Christmas atmosphere and spirit is noticeably absent within the unhappy family ruled over by the unpleasant and detestable Stan Kelton. On Christmas Eve matters take a turn for the worse when one of the brothers is discovered to have been murdered. With the local police struggling to find any leads, Jenny finds herself a suspect, and once again turns amateur sleuth as she embarks on an investigation to find the killer. With its nod to the classic crime literature of the past, this is an entertaining and twisted festive crime fiction. There are great characters and, of course, the snow and atmosphere we need for this seasonal tale of crime.

The second story in the excellent new series from this author featuring travelling cook Jenny Starling, and already I am a big fan. In this book Jenny has been booked to cook at a farm over the Christmas holidays. The snow is falling thick and fast, and whilst struggling to reach her destination Jenny gets the feeling the family is not so popular locally. She arrives and meets Sid Kelton the owner, his obnoxious brother Stan, together with Stan's three grown up and children and one grandson, all requiring feeding. Once again Jenny finds herself caught up in a murder but there's something wrong here. How can it be that the most loved person gets killed instead of the most hated? Snowed in at the farm together with rather inept police detectives who for once absolutely welcome her input, Jenny faces a hard time even discovering a motive let alone unmasking the culprit. Recommended to all!

This is the second book in the series. Jenny Starling takes a job at the Kelton farm for the Christmas holidays but from the start there is definitely no Christmas atmosphere. With heavy snowfall she struggles to get there only to find an unhappy family. When the owner's brother is found dead the whole family is under suspicion.


Read how Jenny Starling solves this murder. This is a very enjoyable book loved it.

A nice mystery, well written, although a little predictable, it was a fun read which was hard to put down.

This book kept my attention until the very last page. It's a great cozy mystery to read during the holiday. It reminded me of watching a Columbo movie, always keeps you guessing with a somewhat distracted investigator. Jenny doesn't like being diverted from her true passion of cooking but uses her smarts nonetheless to find the culprit of the crime. It's fantastic cozy read for a snowy weekend!

The Winter Mystery, first published as A Fatal Fall of Snow in 2011 under Faith Martin's pen name Joyce Cato, is another fantastic addition to the Jenny Starling cosy mystery series. In this second book, amateur sleuth and travelling cook Ms Starling dreams of a relaxing Christmas in a country farmhouse surrounded by snow but her version of utopia soon turns to dystopia when a murder is committed. I couldn't think of a more perfect read than this as the nights draw in, it becomes chillier and Christmas is just around the corner. I didn't exactly warm to Jenny straight away in the first book, but I am beginning to like her nature and her integrity when investigating a murder that is baffling everyone around her.

The pace is ideal, not too fast, not too slow and the characters are well drawn as ever. These novels pay homage to the greats of classic crime such as Agatha Christie and have the same feeling and atmosphere as many of her stories. You can't really go wrong, and this will be especially enjoyable to those who prefer clean reads with no profanity or graphic violence. The writing pulls you into the book after the first few paragraphs and holds your interest until the very end. Through the twists and turns, I followed the clues alongside Ms Starling as I enjoy using my powers of deduction to identify the killer. The ending is satisfying and ties everything up neatly.

Many thanks to Joffe Books for an ARC.

Excellent book! Loved the characters and it was a great storyline. I would highly recommend this book.

Please note this book was first published as “A FATAL FALL OF SNOW” under Faith Martin’s pen name JOYCE CATO.

Jenny Starling, a traveling cook who always seems to find herself in the position of an amateur detective, is spending Christmas working for a dysfunctional family, to say the least. The farm is mostly snowed it and there's no signal for phones. Jenny feels a bit unnerved although she couldn't tell you why....

Until Christmas Eve when she finds herself sitting across the table from a man, obviously dead, with a knife still stuck in his chest.

The police who show up to investigate are of no help .... they have never worked a murder case and have no idea of where to start. Learning that Jenny has more experience with dead bodies than they do, they more or less give the lead to her and cross their fingers she can solve the case.

This is the second in this series, and it's an entertaining read. Jenny is a jewel ... I love her attitude and her outlook on life. The mystery itself is a good one, although I figured out the why ... but I wasn't as sure of the who. It's well written, engaging, full of interesting characters ...including the goose and the Pooch ... and I look forward to see where Jenny goes from here.

Many thanks to the author / Joffe Books / Netgalley / Books n All Promotions for the digital copy of THE WINTER MYSTERY. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Jenny Starling is spending Christmas in a snowed-in country house cooking all the traditional meals that she loves. But the family she is working for are not full of the seasonal spirit. Actually, they don't seem to like each other. Someone is found dead on Christmas Eve and Jenny gets the blame.

This is the second book in Faith Martin's new series in the JennynStarling Mysteries. Jenny works as a cook who hires herself out. She has taken a job working for a farming family that will last for two weeks over the Christmas holiday. The family are not very nice people. She knows that she has made a mistake taking this job. I did guess where this story was going and who the killer was, but when they are well written books like this one is, it does not put me off reading it. I look forward to reading the next book in this series.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Joffe Books and the author Faith Martin for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Clever, clever, clever! Another cozy mystery that would warm your heart and tingle your grey cells in this holiday season.
This time Jenny is hired as a cook for the Christmas holidays. Her employer, the farmer Stan Kelton is despised by everyone, even his own family. He is rude, vulgar and domineering and as soon as Jenny arrives at the farm, she senses the tense atmosphere and the resentment emanating from each member of the family and realizes that this is going to be one of those Christmases! Gloomy and dispirited!
The only person, doing his best to keep the peace, is Stan’s older brother Sid, a kindhearted and gentle soul who is housebound due to illness.
Then the inevitable happens. Someone is murdered in the kitchen of the farmhouse. If you think the victim is the despicable Stan, guess again!
None of the family has an alibi for the time of the murder. The police is baffled and once again Jenny comes to the rescue. But she soon realizes that in order to unearth the identity of the killer, she should find an answer to this simple question: Why? Why would anyone want to kill the victim?

Thanks to Faith Martin, Joffe Books and the NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy.

5 stars

In this story, Jenny is spending two weeks over Christmas in the Kelton household. Plodding through the deep snow to finally get to the farm, she finds the atmosphere in the home stifling. Stan Kelton runs the home like a tyrant, even though he is not the eldest son. He is rude, short tempered and totally unredeemable. There is nothing likeable about him.

Jenny thinks it is going to be a very long two weeks. When a body shows up in the kitchen no less, Jenny’s week is going from bad to worse. The detective who shows up to investigate the murder is not very competent, so it’s up to Jenny to ferret out the murderer.

This is a delightful little cozy, but with an edge. I like Jenny and especially liked the Pooch and the gander characters. The book is very well written, a true Faith Martin tour de force, as it were. She is such a fantastic writer. It doesn’t seem to matter to what she turns her hand. I really enjoy the Jenny series and anxiously look forward to reading the next in the series.

I want to thank Joffe Books and NetGalley for forwarding to me a copy of this remarkable book for me to read, enjoy and review.

Jenny Starling is Faith Martin's traveling cook and wherever Jenny goes, murder apparently awaits her arrival. With no plans of her own for the Christmas holiday, she takes a job cooking for a farming family. This isn't going to be a warm and fuzzy holiday though, as the head of the family, Stan is cruel, cold, and quite an unpleasant character. He treats his children, his older brother and everyone around him with scorn, and honestly, I don't believe he possessed even one redeeming quality. I disliked the character of Stan more than Ebenezer Scrooge(before his ghostly visits) and that says a lot about how well the author made this gloomy and cold location and this character come to life.
When Jenny discovers a dead body in the kitchen and when the police seem clueless, she must use her sleuthing skills to unmask the killer. I was pretty certain of the killer's identity once the victim was revealed, but I didn't know the why. As the story progressed, I made my usual guess at whodunit and I actually got it right(which doesn't happen too often). It didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story and I hoped I would leave this family better off than the way I found them.
I didn't like The Winter Mystery quite as much as I enjoyed The Birthday Mystery. Part of that might be due to it almost being Christmas and not only did I feel sorry for Jenny having no family or friends to share the holiday with, but also because this family was so broken and beaten down. I do look forward to reading the next book in this series. 3.5 stars
I received a DRC from Joffe Books through NetGalley.

The Winter Mystery is the second book in the new Jenny Starling Mysteries series by Faith Martin. Both books have been completely independent of one another and it is not necessary to read them in order of writing to enjoy them. Jenny Starling is the central character and she works as a cook for hire. In this book she has accepted a job to cook for a farm family for two weeks over the Christmas holiday.
From the first page, the reader is plunged into a cold that has been created by an extraordinary snowfall. They sympathize with Jenny and agree with her negative assessment of the situation and the inhabitants as the book opens with Jenny trudging through snow that hasn’t even been plowed, not to mention that although the farm’s patriarch has carts and horses he hasn’t bothered to send anything for her to insure she is spared ill effects from the elements.
As Jenny meets the various members of the household she is quick to question how wise it was to agree to a two week stay. The patriarch, Stan, is filled with hatred and anger which he spreads around equally among his two sons, his daughter, his brother, and his grandson. Jenny comes in for her share as well, with his insistence that she will have to mop the floor every time someone comes in as they aren’t going to take their shoes off when coming inside for any one of their several daily trips. She learns almost immediately the only person who demonstrates any compassion toward others is Sid, Stan’s brother. While the children and grandson may have some positive personality traits, Stan has managed to bully them all to the point they have become defeated in any attempt toward kindness or independance.
Martin is excellent in creating such an atmosphere it feels as if the reader is actually experiencing the cold, inhospitable weather and the equally unpleasant atmosphere that pervades the farm’s inhabitants. As expected, a murder occurs and Jenny hikes to the nearest telephone callbox to call the police. While not totally incompetent, the police as clearly out of their comfort zone in considering murder and are greatly relieved to learn of Jenny’s experiences in solving murders in the past.
As soon as Jenny’s skills are realized, the police inspector in charge begins to include her in his efforts to solve the murder, all the while hoping she will prove to be as talented as her reputation indicates. The inspector’s sargeant is moderately more self-assured, but still needs Jenny’s help to reach the correct solution.
The reader has ample opportunity to solve this mystery along with Jenny. There are logical clues throughout the book, although not so obvious as to call attention to themselves. I solved this mystery prior to the end, but didn’t have the clue as to what would provide the solution to Jenny until she was explaining it until she named the killer and explained how she reached the correct conclusion.
This is an enjoyable series and was as excellent in terms of clues and solutions as the first book in the series. It was a little more difficult to read because Martin does such a good job of describing the scene, leaving the reader to desire some warmth and human kindness throughout the book. Jenny, the plus-sized and unexpectedly sexy protagonist is someone you want to know even better and would welcome in your world.

It Jenny Starling goes to work on Kenton farm for two weeks over Christmas to cook for the family.
soon becomes clear that it’s not the happy family Christmas she was expecting. Sid Kenton owns the farm but is in poor health due to an illness when he was a young man. His younger brother Stan Kenton runs the farm and the family with a rod of iron and is universally disliked.
On her first full day there Jenny finds a body at the kitchen table with a knife sticking out of his chest. As the farm is pretty much cut off due to heavy snowfall it soon becomes clear that the killer must be someone very close. The whole family have opportunity but what is the motive?
With the local police clearly out of their depth Jenny has to roll up her sleeves and help them unmask the killer.
Really enjoyable and easy to read.

The great character of Ms. Starling is back, but a little slow this time. The book is very well written, but not as captivating as the first one in the series. Beware the genetics described in the book is not correct, two brown-eyed parents CAN have a blue-eyed child.

Jenny Starling has been hired to cook for a family over Christmas. The daughter, Delia has told her father she is not cooking for them. This is a family who is controlled by the younger brother, not the owner of the farm. His older brother has deferred to Stan as Sid's health is not good and he cannot get out to do the work. Jenny's second day there a murder happens. Jenny's help is needed again to solve the mystery. This is the second book in this series.

Thank you NetGalley and Joffe Books for this arc.

I really enjoyed this # 2 Jenny Starling story. Kept hearing echoes of Miss Marple during my reading. It wasn't a fast paced book, yet it was a very compelling read. I love Ms. Martin's characters and especially Pooch and the goose in this one. A very nice cozy read.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Joffe Books for an advance copy of The Winter Mystery, the second novel to feature travelling cook and amateur sleuth Jenny Starling.

With no lucrative catering jobs on the horizon Jenny takes a job as temporary cook for the festive season at the Kelton farm in rural Oxfordshire. As soon as she gets there she realises she’s made a mistake as tensions are simmering in the Kelton household and the atmosphere is distinctly unpleasant. This culminates in a murder on her second day there and doesn’t get any better when Inspector Moulton, called in to investigate and feeling out of his depth, recognises her name and starts expecting her to solve the case for him.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Winter Murder which is an interesting mystery with a very likeable protagonist. I must admit, however, that the plot is more transparent than the previous novel and it wasn’t long before I had a good idea of how it was going to turn out. This did not, however, spoil my enjoyment of the novel in the slightest as it is Jenny’s interactions with the other characters and Ms Martin’s warm, inviting writing style that provide the fun in the novel. The plot is fairly standard, multiple suspects with no alibi, no visible motive and secrets to untangle, all of which Jenny handles with aplomb and a certain verve.

I said it in my review of The Birthday Mystery and I’ll say it again with more conviction in this review. There is little, apart from job and status, to differentiate Jenny from Ms Martin’s other character, DI Hillary Greene. They are both tall with ample hourglass figures, an easy air that leads to confidences, a tough, no nonsense approach which inspires respect and ability to put the facts together in a coherent manner to catch the perpetrator.

The Winter Mystery is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

I got this as a arc e book from this site. I enjoyed reading it. It had a good story to it. I liked the variety of characters in it. It is my first book by this author. I hope to read more books by this author.