Margery and Clementine are enjoying a peaceful middle-age together in the small, idyllic town of Dewstow, and eagerly awaiting retirement from their work on the front line serving meals to the students at Summerview secondary school. Their calm life is shattered when their kitchen manager is found dead in the school’s walk-in freezer. The police are adamant that it’s an open-and-shut case of accidental death. Margery and Clementine are convinced there’s something far more nefarious going on, and they take it upon themselves to investigate. While I really enjoyed reading this book, it is more of a comedy than a mystery. I'm not even sure I can call it a cozy. The characters are lots of fun and I can almost see this as a tv series. It did hold my interest but not really as much of a mystery. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced readers copy for review.

This book follows two dinner lady's, who try to solve a murder that happened in their kitchens at the school they work at.

This is book was not at all like I expected. It was very funny and lighthearted which I loved, I was expecting it to be very serious and thriller-like but it was very comedic. The two main characters, Margery and Clementine were in a relationship but this was not obvious until a third of the way through the book, so I would have liked more chemistry between them in the first half but other than that, I really enjoyed this book. The twist of the murderer itself, was not really a twist, as I had figured it out before we found out which was a little disappointing but it was still a fun read overall!

3/5 stars

It reminded me a little of the "downstairs" bit of "Upstairs and Downstairs". The characters are so petty and so is their life, but still, they on grow on you and they are hilarious in their pettyness. I grew fond of the main characters - yes, even Clementine who is exactly like a curmodgeony middle-aged husband.
As for the mystrey, there were really unexpected twists and turns that I did not see coming. All in all I spent some fun hours with the dinner ladies.I can recommend their adventures.

This was a quick read but I enjoyed it. The whodunit kept me guessing and the characters were entertaining. I hope to read further books with these characters.
I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.

This sounded like a promising cozy mystery involving two older schools dinner ladies solving the murder of their manager but it didn't turn out to be quite as much fun as I thought it would be. The kitchen manager was talked about as if she was a really fun person who liked to play funny pranks on people but most of the 'pranks' were mean and horrible and not at all funny. You'd think that might have been the reason she was found dead in the kitchen's walk in freezer but no, the police mark it off as an accidental death, despite there being copious amounts of blood spread all over the freezer and scratch marks on the door.

The two dinner ladies, Clementine and Margery are a couple, but I was a long way into the book before I realised that they were supposed to have a romantic relationship, as there were no signs of them being more than house mates. They didn't even seem that compatible as Clementine never seemed to listen to Margery and dragged her unwillingly into all sorts of things. I was also disappointed that their detective work also never seemed to lead to any serious clues and it took a nudge from someone else before they found any useful evidence. All in all a bit disappointing.

After the initial pages, I found myself not connecting with the story or characters, so I decided to pass on this book. Did not finish

A really good fun, cozy murder mystery. Margery and Clementine lead a quiet life. They've been together since their training days. Go to bed early and off to the local secondary school to prepare lunch for the pupils, as they have for the past couple of decades. You couldn't call them nosey - they are just interested in truth, justice - and the gossip on the bus of a morning.

Really enjoyed it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I read a free advance review copy of the book. This review is voluntary, honest and my own opinion.

A fun mystery written in the form of dinner lady detectives! Enjoyed all the interactions between the characters. Looks forward to more adventures with the Dinner Ladies. Thank you for the advance copy.

Slow paced but that would have been ok but damn the things that were sort of meant as “oh look that sort of funny thing happened in the past” were on the whole quite mean. I guess it’s very British with all this passive aggressiveness but it grated so much on me. And Margery and Clementine’s relationship is so unhealthy, I was so excited to have older dinner ladies, a couple no less investigate the crime but it just really really did not work for me.

A lovely cosy mystery! Sit back get comfy and enjoy!
Margery and Clementine are school dinner ladies and nosy or should I say inquisitive ! I love these characters they are ladies of a certain age with plenty of quirks and foibles
Caroline the school kitchen manager is found dead in a walk in freezer, the police label it an unfortunate accident , or is it? The detecting duo don’t think so and start to try and find the truth in their own unique and sometimes amusing way. Whilst detecting the ladies put themselves in considerable danger , and also receive some cryptic messages!
The characters are all amiable and have their own traits that make the book a great read!
I like the fact that Margery and Clementine are a couple I think this gives an added attribute to the story.
An enjoyable read and hope this is the beginning of a series for the dinner lady detecting duo.

Thanks to NetGalley and Canelo.

I received a copy of this e-arc in exchange for an honest review thanks to NetGalley and Canelo.

I love the idea of pensioners solving crimes anyway so this was right up my street!

I loved it, it was a fantastic lighthearted, mystery book!

It did take me a while to realise that Margery and Clementine were actually a couple, and not just 2 friends who live together 🤦🏼‍♀️

I’d love this to be a series! Though, how many murders can there really be in 1 town? 👀

This was a story of two dinner ladies solving a mystery. I enjoy cozy mysteries so I thought this would be fun, but it fell a little flat to me. I barely focused on the mystery and spent more time thinking about what an unhealthy relationship the two woman were in! I’m not sure what Margery sees in Clementine! She seems awful to me! Several parts of the book were a too far-fetched for me, but overall it was a ok story.

The premise was promising, but I was never able to connect with the characters (I can’t really enjoy books where one character is meek and allows others to trample over them for very long). And while the mystery was interesting, the pace was too slow for me; no sense of urgency or any reason for me to need to read just one more chapter.

I enjoyed this debut mystery by Hannah Hendy. It was a fun, quick read and I thought the actual mystery took a back seat to the interactions of the two main characters Margery and Clementine. The women are long time partners living a frugal life in a small English village where they work in the lunchroom of the local school. Even though the structure can be classified as a cozy mystery I found the ladies to have some thoughtful and astute views on life. It was a refreshing change to have the main characters be in their sixties. I hope there will be more books about Margery and Clementine.

This book is not bad, a decent story that has been created with some good characters, you don’t always get to know them as well as you should. Because of the age of the characters it’s hard not to draw comparisons to another book, the story is a solid crime fiction book, hence my rating. If you like crime, you’ll like this.

This was a light and quick mystery. An "accident" that seems very suspicious, but was it really an accident.

Margery and Clementine are a fun duo that seem to play off of eachother well. They dig into Caroline's death by investigating some of their fellow coworkers.

Even though this book had a light a fun quality, it seemed slow and I didn't feel like I was on the edge of my seat wondering whodunit.

I liked it, but I think I needed a faster pace and less predictable ending.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me a digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

I was given a chance to read an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the premise of this book. Lunch ladies solving a mystery sound right up my alley. A group of people we don’t normally read about and a crime perfect . However I found that for me this book was lacking a few things I needed to really enjoy it.

First off our main characters Margery and clementine gave off a less than healthy relationship a majority of the time. Neither one really talked about how they were feeling and. Majority of the time Clementine would just drag Margery into what ever scheme she wanted to accomplish without really taking Margery’s opinions into consideration. Now don’t get me wrong I’m very happy to have LGBTQ representation I just wish it was in more of a positive light.

Moving on to the actual mystery itself of was Caroline’s death an accident or not. I felt like some of the characters we were introduced to were there for nothing more than being an name that might be the murder. Which most of the time when it comes to mystery’s I want their to be a plot twist but there has to be build up finding out who was actually behind the whole thing was a let down as there was no build up to it no clues where myself as the reader may have been able to solve it prior to the characters figuring it out. Which I guess wouldn’t matter to everyone but it annoyed me.

I did enjoy the writing style of the author but the book itself fell flat for me.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of The Dinner Lady Detectives by Hannah Hendy in exchange for an honest review. Margery and Clementine have lived together for many years. They live in Dewstow. A friend, Seren, comes by to let them know that the kitchen manager, Caroline Hughes, has just died. A woman they have worked with for years. There was a report of scratches on the inside of the freezer and blood all over.
This was a quirky book. What an interesting life for the people of the village.

This book is described as a quintessentially British cosy mystery and I couldn't agree more. We follow Margery and Clementine as they try to unravel the mysterious death of a co-worker. This is a quick read, with lots of crazy hijinks and is perfect to cosy up with during the cold months.

I look forward to reading the next book!

Thank you to Netgalley and Canelo for the opportunity to read The Dinner Lady Detectives.

This isn’t my usual genre of book but I wanted to try different things and I am glad that I did! I really liked it and would like to read more by the author. Well done!