BLOG TOUR REVIEW

Review for 'The Sunset Years Of Agnes Sharp' by Leonie Swann.

Read and reviewed in hardback for Leonie Swann, Allison and Busby, NetGalley and Goodreads.

Publication date 21st September 2023

This may be the first book I have read about this author but I cannot wait to read her next one!!


This novel consists of a prologue , 25 chapters and an epilogue. The chapters are short to medium in length so easy to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!


Well done and Thank You Leonie for a hugely successful start to what promises to be an addictive series!! This book is very smoothly written with vivid descriptions which really help you see what's going on around you as well as the storyline. The blurb and the cover compliment the novel perfectly. The illustrations on the hardback cover are brilliant and I absolutely loved the tortoise and footprints on the sides of the books!! Fantastic and unique!!



OMG!!!!! I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVED this absolutely addictive and truly unique book!!! Leonie's amazing and evocative writing skills really has brought everything to life all throughout this fantastic book dropping you straight into Sunset Hall with these absolutely amazing characters that I will not be forgetting for a very long time, if I ever do!!! This book really has been one of the best books I have ever read!!! It is ram packed with crime, mystery, laughter, dodgy biscuits, friendship, a grumpy tortoise, a gorgeous dog, suspense, twists and turns, pensioners, pacts and absolutely everything you could ask for in an unputdownable must read!! There was no way I could finish just one chapter as even though I kept telling myself I would and then go to bed, each chapter ended in a way where I just HAD to know what happened next and before I knew it I had devoured the whole book in one sitting in a few hours!!! The storyline was realistic which I always prefer as it makes it more enjoyable to read when you can see that it is something that could happen. This book is well constructed and was absolutely ram packed with action with so much going on that you will just fly through the pages!!! It is multi layered with all the fantastic characters backgrounds and personalities coming out and each and every character has their own personalities. It was a very compelling and addictive read!!! I would never have guessed who did what and I was completely shocked by the mega twist. An absolutely fantastic read filled with suspense, mystery, twists and much more (I can't say much more as I don't want to spoil it for future readers) Congratulations Leonie, it is getting harder and harder to surprise me and you did just that!!! I genuinely could not praise this book enough as words just will not give it justice so grab your copy today, you won't regret it!!!!

Clear your schedules and pick up grab the tissues as this book will have you laughing until tears are streaming down your face!!!



I loved meeting all the characters again who are a delightful mix of personalities with intriguing backgrounds and each one was very compelling. I have never met a group of characters like this before and I've never loved a group of fictional characters as much as I did with this gang!!!! The only downfall is that they aren't real which is gutted as I would definitely get along with this gang!!!! I can't remember the last time I laughed so much, especially considering it is technically a murder mystery!!! Such a bunch of fantastic quirky characters!!! Without going into too much detail as you really need to 'meet' these characters yourself!!! The main character Agnes is the one who set up Sunset Hall, a "care home" with a difference and a secret to hide. She loves her rules although not so much her medication, she also wants to break into another care home!!! Edwina likes to make dodgy biscuits and is very protective of Hettie the tortoise. Hettie is hilarious in herself and likes to refer to the gang as Big feet with Lettuce holding hands!!! Bernadette may not be able to see but her attitude more than makes up for her eyesight!! Marshall is another leader in the house who helps vet newcomers but is starting to forget things although remembers the umbrella. Winston is found in his wheelchair or racing in the stairlift. Charlie is the newest member of the "mad house" bringing with her Brexit. Brexit isn't just a reason for the TV being put in the cellar but Charlie's loyal and sweet dog who brings more adventure to Sunset Hall. There are many more amazing and unique characters waiting to be found between the pages of this fantastic book. Pick up your copy and meet them all today!!! I cannot wait to meet them all again and find out what other trouble they can get themselves in!! Leonie's evocative writing skills really have brought each of these characters to life throughout this book and it is really sad to say Goodbye but hopefully it won't be long until I meet them all again!!! I am a huge animal lover so any books that contain animals as part of their plot are always a huge hit for me and Hettie and Brexit have been massive characters with their own brilliant personalities and I will definitely be missing them until I see them again!! An amazing group of realistic, strong, hilarious and unique characters that I have loved getting to know in this amazing book and that will stay with me for a very long time!!!!

Congratulations Leonie on an absolutely successful book, an absolutely brilliant, unique, hilarious must read and I cannot wait until book 2 is translated into English!! A perfect start to what promises to be an immense series!!! Welcome to my favorite authors club and here is to your next guaranteed success 🥂!!!!


Overall an absolutely fantastic, hilarious page turner with absolutely bonkers and memorable characters!!!


350 pages.

This book is just £8.99 to purchase on kindle, £8.99 in paperback and £13.89 via Amazon which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!

Rated 5 /5 (I LOVED it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.

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This was a perfect autumnal read, with an array of fun characters who made this engaging from start to finish. I love the idea of ordinary people trying to solve crimes in anything, and Agnes and her friends were hilarious throughout. Some parts meandered a little and I wanted the plot to be a bit more focused on the murders at points, but I found this a wonderful read overall.

Also, there was a tortoise and I really love tortoises.

If you like cosy crime, murder mysteries and quirky characters, I’d definitely recommend picking this one up!

A cosy crime mystery similar to the Thursday Murder Club series and will appeal to fans of the sub genre. I found it a little erratic and predictable but liked the characters of Hettie the tortoise and Brexit the dog much more than the humans.

Many thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting cosy crime mystery. a fun book. Recommended.

Translated from the original German, we meet a bunch of quirky elderly characters including a tortoise called Hettie.

The lead character is Agnes Sharp who owns Sunset Hall . She opened the hall to people in the same age bracket. . We start the story with Hetty finding the body of Lilith in the garden. She had been shot. Who committed the crime and why? When the police arrive to tell them their neighbour, Mildred Puck, has been shot, the residents conspire to pin Lillith’s murder on Mildred’s. But then there’s another murder..

Very much in the genre of Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club and Robert Thorogood’s Marlow Murder Club. If you like your pensioners feisty, quirky and able to solve murders, this one is for you.
Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an ARC.

They say German humour is not the best in the world, but I can say that they can be funny and there’s a lot of humour. I do remember Porno al Forno (porno cooked in the oven) and Guildo Horn & Die Orthopädischen Strümpfe (Guildo Horn and the Support Stockings) just to name a couple of examples.
That said I love Agnes and loved the groups of senior. I found them lovely, mad as a hatter and realistic. They’re not a fit group of people: Agnes has a hip issue; Winston is wheelchair bound and Bernadette is blind. There’s also Edwina who is a yoga fanatic and Charlie who’s healthy.
Hattie the Turtle was my love: wise, relatable, and curious. The most normal character living at Sunset Hall.
Two bodies and they must find a way to justify the first one as Lilith was killed and she’s now in your shed.
Agnes and her friends will start an investigation and it will not be easy as they have to go well beyond their comfort zone and visit the village and the different place which are not the loveliest places.
This is a not a classic cozy mystery: there’s a solid mystery and I couldn’t guess the culprit, there’s a village but not the “quaint village” you usually find in cozy mysteries.
There’s a great cast of characters that can make you laugh but also make you think that this is a realistic representation of being old.
There’s some very funny scene as the Q&A can be a bit weird and the answer a sort of non sequitur.
It’s the perfect book if you love black humour and want to read an original and compelling mystery
I discovered there’s already a second book, Miss Sharp macht Urlaub (Miss Sharpt Goes on Holiday), and I can’t wait to read it
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

A brilliant debut novel, quirky Murder mystery that I absolutely loved with OAP sleuths. I think this is part of a series so excited for more

So very different from my usual read - and quite amusing!

Sunset House is the home of Agnes Sharp; too large for her to cope with alone and with no intention of entering a nursing home, she has opened her door to like-minded people and they all co-habit fairly peacefully. When the police arrive to tell the about the discovery of a body next door, they are all feeling very relieved that it isn't about the body hidden in their shed! Collectively, they decide to solve the murder next door, then they have someone to pin the death of their body on.

A great cast of characters made this one a very funny read with never a dull moment. Sometimes, however, I though it all got just a bit too silly. Solving the death of the body the police recovered led them on a merry dance indeed. I loved the idea of communal living and this little gang work well together. It certainly made me laugh but there were times when I found it frustrating. For me, 4*.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

I really enjoyed reading this cosy mystery book. It was well written and very entertaining.
There were a lot of characters but I found it easy to follow. I loved the idea of a group of elderly people all living together in a normal house, no a care home.
There were a lot of secrets from the past, as well as the murders to solve. This was a great read and I will definitely be looking out for more books by Leonie Swann.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for my ARC.

I really enjoyed this well written cozy. A group of seniors living together solving a group of murders.Well written characters entertaining from first to last page.#netgalley #sunsetyearsofagnessharp

Leonie Swann’s The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp has been translated brilliantly by Amy Bojang. The original German novel was Mord in Sunset Hall. The publishers suggest it’s ideal for fans of Richard Osman. Speaking as one such fan, I think they’re right - for many reasons...

Agnes Sharp owns Sunset Hall and has opened her house to others of a similar age and with a similar mindset. It’s fair to say that none of them are in their first flush of youth. Indeed, the first (hot) flushes of middle age are now many years behind them too. It’s hinted that some of them have exciting pasts: Edwina, for example, was in the secret service – although it’s unclear whether she still remembers that or not when she makes one of her brief bumps into reality. Old age is taking its toll, both physically and mentally. The trouble is, Lillith is dead and Marshall did have the gun but cannot remember what he then did with it. They really need to work out what to with Lillith’s body. When the policeman comes to tell them that a neighbour, Mildred Puck, has been shot, Edwina blurting out “What a coincidence!” and clapping her hands isn’t the most helpful response. Then there’s another murder and the gun reappears.

We have murders; we have a bunch of elderly people investigating them, both confounding and affirming stereotypes on the way; we have laugh out loud moments; and (in my case at least) we have tears. So yes, the book belongs to the same sub-genre as Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series. It would be equally fair to describe Osman’s books as perfect for fans of Leonie Swann. Both books were published close together in 2020 and were thus obviously written simultaneously; and both books feature a strong female character taking charge. If you look hard enough, I’m sure you’ll decide there are other superficial similarities between characters. It’s a coincidence! Both writers spotted the demographic trend towards an aging population and wrote books they hoped would appeal – and they do.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is very well written and translated indeed. In fact, it wasn’t until I’d finished the book and turned back to start again that I realised it was originally German rather than English. There is nothing to show it’s set in Germany and so it’s universal. I laughed so many times – and still snigger when I think of the visitor falling silent as they watch Hettie the tortoise walking past with Agnes’s false teeth perched on her shell in Chapter 1. However, this is beautifully echoed in a much grimmer manner later in the book. As well as being a cracking murder mystery, the book is a lovely study of the poignancy of getting older and how important (and exasperating) friends can be.

Please translate Book 2 soon!

#TheSunsetYearsofAgnesSharp #NetGalley

The residents of Sunset Hall have just been told, by the Police, that Mildred Puck has been murdered. She had been in a vegetative state since having a stroke many years ago. It seems a senseless murder. However, they are all hoping that the body of Lilith, currently residing in their shed, can be tied to the murder. When another murder follows shortly after, Agnes Sharp and her band of seniors decide enough is enough and decide to investigate just who is killing seniors. However, due to their ages, their bodies and more importantly their brains, don't always want to play ball and this leads to some ridiculous situations. Throw in a hapless burglar, a tortoise, a greedy grandson and a dog called Brexit and chaos will reign. Will the happy band solve the murders or die trying? Will their memories stay active long enough to remember what they were doing the first place?
Fun and games ensue in a light storyline.

I really enjoyed this cozy crime story where a quirky group of seniors attempt to solve a series of murders while covering up another unnatural death.

The inhabitants of Sunset Hall are an interesting bunch determined to be in charge of their own destiny - when one of their own is found dead - the death of a neighbour allows them to pin both deaths on the mystery assailant. Now they just need to find out who that is. To do so they need to go out into the village of Duck End and investigate.

This was a fun read which made me smile and grimace.

Feisty characters and a little madness!

Overall this was an entertaining read with an interesting cast of characters, but I personally feel like the book could have been significantly shorter than it was since it seemed to drag occasionally.

I’m a fan of a cosy Murder mystery so the synopsis for this one sounded like it would be a book that was right up my street which it was.
This is a must for Marlow and Thursday Murder club readers. A fun and easy read about OAPs attempting to solve the murder of Mildred and pin Lillith’s murder on them too!

I did finish this book, but it was a struggle. The plot and culprit became very obvious early one and the quirkiness felt contrived. Old people living together, solving crimes and being quirky with it has been done better by others. The characters all blended together. However, I did get a strong sense of place and could really picture the setting well.

A Small Problem..
The residents of Sunset Hall are about to get busy…very busy indeed. This group of OAP’s share Sunset Hall, led by the enigmatic and determined Agnes Sharp, have something to hide. When a situation falls into their lap they may well have found the answer to their …. little problem. The question is… can they pull it off? With a deftly drawn, eclectic and endearing cast of characters (including Hettie), a fun and frantic plot laced with the darkest of secrets and a pacy narrative this is an engaging and entertaining mystery with bags of heart.

*Many thanks to Leonie Swann, Allison & Bunsby, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
An example of a subgenre which has been gaining popularity recently, that is, a murder mystery which takes place in the world of senior citizens.
A group of elderly friends live under one roof and are involved in a series of events that stir their small circle. As the story continues we learn about their past although their memoery is not what it used to be, naturally. I think portraying characters in this way is definitely a big plus since flashs of past events add to the secrets and lead us to a better understanding of characters' actions.
An interesting read with a feeling of well-developed characters.

I like the start with Hettie the tortoises’s view of the world. It’s an easy holiday read that you can pickup and put down without missing something. Those who like Richard Osman books will like one.

Sadly, this didn't do anything for me.

The first couple chapters were so frantic with so many characters thrown into the mix, it put me off from the very beginning. It all felt a bit too much.

I'm not the right reader for this, but sure plenty of people will like the Osman vibes, just didn't meet the mark for me,