The Potting Shed Murder is a modern take on the murder in the small village trope. Pudding Corner is a picturesque village in Norfolk, populated with eccentric characters forming a close-knit community. Everyone has their secrets. Eventually, one of these secrets will lead to murder.

One aspect I enjoyed about the book was Daphnes' experiences as a Black woman in a small, mainly white village. The book deals with the dual aspect of her concerns about being accepted into the community. Both a Londoner and also as a person of colour. She is also concerned about her children and their experiences and not receiving a white-washed education. It was good to read about other experiences of idyllic village life.

The plot was a little predictable. But this didn't stop the enjoyment of the book.

A cosy murder mystery?! What a time to be alive. I really enjoyed this book that sits so comfortably in this sub-genre of murder mysteries.

We follow the majority of the story with Daphne, one of the kindest main characters you will ever experience. This kindness really allows the world building and storytelling to shine through this book. You feel as though you are walking around the quaint little town of Pepperbridge alongside her.

Paula Sutton has a fantastic way of using this character and world building to keep the murder mystery just that - a mystery! There’s even times they’re not sure it’s a murder! I honestly forgot momentarily about one of the characters while we were focusing on the others as I was so invested in them.

It’s a slow burn to begin with, but it really picks up the pace (as I believe is fairly usual for this genre) around the 65/70% mark when it becomes impossible to put down, you just need to know what happens! This book is incredibly fun and I enjoyed reading it. It will be the perfect summer read for 2024!

Thanks again to NetGalley and dialogue books for this ARC. The Potting Shed Murder will be published 4th April 2024.

A good cosy crime, slow burn but wasn’t really for me

I just reviewed The Potting Shed Murder by Paula Sutton

A really nice, cozy murder/mystery, which reminds me of an Agatha Christie style, set in a proper English village, with a modern twist. Daphne is an interesting character who really wants to make herself part of the community, throwing herself whole heartedly into it. It’s what everyone imagines living in a quiet village would be like, little realising that they can still be a hot bed of passion, envy, cliques and one up manship. Nicely written and with a good twist at the end. An excellent debut, I look forward to the next book by this author.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Firstly thank you to NetGalley and Dialogue Books for sending me this Arc, and I can honestly say I have loved it. A murder mystery/whodunitstyle book set in a traditional English countryside village called Pudding Corner. Every name chosen in the book is so reminiscent of old school mystery books and made the whole story feel cosy and homely, despite the subject matter being a murder. It has the feels of an Agatha Christie and although set in present day you almost feel the village is in a Lorna Doone timewarp stuck in the 1950's.
The story revolves around the murder of the headmaster of the local school Mr Papplewick, and relative newcomer Daphne find herself becoming a sleuth in order to prove her new friend Minnerva has nothing to do with the crime.
This is such an enjoyable book to read whilst figuring out secret pasts of the villages and their interconnecting storylines and honestly I couldn't have wanted anymore out of a book in this genre.

Fabulous book, great read, I absolutely loved it. Extremely well written, wonderful storyline with a great cast of characters; some you love, some not so much , but all with their own backstory. Highly recommended!

Quite possibly the cutest cottagecore whodunnit in history. Absolutely adored this book by Paula Sutton.

The story follows Daphne Brewster, who’s moved to the Norfolk countryside from the him of London with her family. The village dynamics are a far cry from the bustle she’s used to, and she meets a range of charscters that she must learn how to handle. Scandal soon arrives in the form of the body of the schools headmaster, Mr Papplewick, being found in his allotment potting shed. Daphne finds herself immersed in a world of uncertainty, whispered gossip and raging accusations. Was Mr Papplewick murdered? Or did he really just have a heart attack? Daphne is trying her best to keep her head down, but it seems that she keeps uncovering new information.

This book was absolutely stellar. It is so cosy it’s ridiculous, and I just loved the accurate depiction of rural life in England. The characters are so typical of who you find in these settings (I could put names to a few from my village!!) and it’s so easy to get lost in the story. The different points of view keep you guessing and were a great way to get to know all of the characters. And the language… the language is so eloquent and delicious, but easy to digest.

This is cottagecore at its best! This book will be released 4th April 2024 and you MUST get this on your TBR so you don’t miss it!

Daphne Brewster has moved from London and is embracing her family's fresh start in the tranquil countryside of Norfolk. However, this tranquility is shattered by the discovery of the local headmaster's lifeless body in his potting shed, surrounded by his prized allotment cabbages.
The Potting Shed Murder is a fun read and a delightful debut, perfect for fans of cozy mysteries!

Desperate for a change, Daphne and her family move to a quaint little village in Norfolk. Determined ti embrace village life. Daphne acquaints herself with a number of characters in the village. When a pillar of the community is discovered dead in their potting shed, Daphne finds herself drawn into the complicated lives and dirty secrets of the villagers. 

I really enjoyed the structure of this book. It's quite late on that we discover the body because the start of this book is taken up with introducing our main character and her motivation for leaving London, as well as the characters who will eventually become suspects. Multiple characters had a motive for murder, and we learn many of these before the murder has even happened. It was a really good way of setting up this both as a series and as a single murder mystery. I certainly would be interested in meeting these characters again. 
The mystery itself was solid. There were a couple of red herrings I fell for, and I guessed the twists only a page or so before the main character got there. I didn't feel that Daphne did a whole lot of actual solving in this. It was often a result of nosiness and luck, simply being in the right place becuase she was trying to befriend her new neighbours as opposed to any actual motivation to solve the crime. That being said, I'd be interested in how Daphne develops if there are further books.

This had all the flavour of a farce. Good natured humour, an absolute sans froid when describing murder and so many connections, links, lost loves and mad unknowns that made the murder all rather jolly. The book bounces along in amateur detective mode with the village characters getting more rounded as their past in revealed in all its bizarre finery. The bumbling nature of the plot is great and made it a fun and lovely read.

Daphne Brewster and her family are settling into a wholesome new relaxed pace of living in the sleepy Norfolk village of Pudding Corner after recently moving from their busy, stressful lives in London.

When the local headmaster is found dead in his potting shed amongst his cabbage in his allotment, the village is buzzing with speculation, gossip and pointing fingers and Daphne can't resist doing some digging of her own to find out who killed Mr Papplewick herself.

My Bookish Thoughts 💬
I really enjoyed curling up under my sick blanket with a hot chocolate in hand and escaping into this cosy crime novel.

Being a city girl, I enjoyed immersing myself in the lives of the colourful residents of a seemingly quiet and peaceful village community and getting to know their back stories and links to each other.

After finishing this novel, I sat pondering for a while on whether the definition of great cosy crime should include reveals that take you by suprise or, if the writing should assist you in uncovering the criminal and their motive yourself. After some reflection I shifted from believing it should be a suprise to concluding the essence of this genre is for you to have fun with and play amateur sleuth yourself, unravelling the mystery.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Dialogue Publishing for the gifted ARC copy.

There are lots of colourful and quirky local characters here to keep things interesting. The amount of secrets seething under the surface though is astounding but at the same time fairly usual for a small English village setting. An interesting and unusual amateur detective with a large busy family make this a different read. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Daphne Brewster moves from south London to the sleepy village of Pudding Corner with her young family. She enjoys making new friends, starting a new business and learning to garden. But when the local headmaster is found dead in his potting shed on his allotment she soon comes to realise that not all is as it seems.

When her new friend Minerva is accused of being his murderer, Daphne decides to investigate. Her clumsy efforts to find out the truth make her question her assumptions about the local villagers and lead her into jeopardy.

Colourful local characters and an interesting amateur detective make this a fun read.

An enjoyable cosy crime.

A really gripping read, I thought the characters were intriguing and I'm going to look out for more by this author.

3.75 stars!
What a delightful cosy crime novel this was!

I was drawn to this book based on the description and glad I was able to read it! What appears to be a nice quiet town is in actuality a town full of secrets. It was a joy to read and solve the crime alongside the main character, Daphne. While I did predict the ending it didn’t take away from the enjoyment of the story line or the characters.

The multiple pov were at times confusing, especially when they changed in the chapters rather than strictly dedicating one chapter per view, but you get use to it. It helped enrich each character and their development as well as their involvement in the many secrets that were discovered. I also really enjoyed how we had characters of all ages, backgrounds and races in this novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dialogue Books for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley, however all opinions are my own.

How I read this book: eBook.

So the reason I wanted to read this book is because the description of this book sounded like it would be such a good read. I'm not going to lie, as much as I did enjoy the overall story, I just found myself a little bored through some of the book. All of the juicy bits of the book were so exciting and took me by surprise that when it come down to the "cosiness" of it all I just wanted more! I do understand that this is to show how unchanging this small village in Norfolk is supposed to be and to give us such a huge amount of information of the characters within but all I could keep my mind on was who did it? This however gave us multiple perspectives throughout the book, mainly focusing on Daphne's, and this was something I really enjoyed. I am also so appreciative of the author for putting who everyone is in the start of the book with a little description of each character because then if I ever got anyone mixed up (which I did because I'm really bad with names) I was able to go back to the start and just give myself a little reminder. I also found it really difficult to feel empathy with a lot of the characters because the whole village was honestly given off rich white tory vibes, and I found myself only loving 3 characters throughout the book. I did not expect the twists and turns that we were going to get throughout the book (and trust me there were a bunch of them!) and I actually found myself audibly gasping. It was also interesting to see how differently Daphne was treated by certain characters due to her being a POC, as well as Minnerva for her being a traveller. It definitely puts into perspective how nasty the real world can be. I would recommend this to anyone who loves a good cosy mystery book as it is such an easy read. However as much as I love mystery I think maybe cosy mystery isn't the genre for me.

My Favourite Characters:

Patsy: Okay so Patsy is one of the side characters but I actually adored her regardless of how nosey she was. I loved getting to learn more about her throughout the book and I loved the character growth we got with her.

Minerva: Minerva is such a gentle angel and I loved her so much. I just wanted to wrap her up and give her the biggest cuddle.

Daphne: Okay so yes Daphne is the main character but she's got a heart of gold and took no shit. I was rooting for her throughout the whole book!

My Least Favourite Characters:

Marianne: Marianne was the one who gave off the biggest tory vibes. I honestly hated her so much and whilst most of the other characters seemed to gain some redeeming qualities, she absolutely did not.

Augusta: Listen, I did end up feeling sorry for Augusta. It didn't make me like her any more though. She does seem to have a little bit of character growth at the end but it wasn't enough for me to forgive everything that she had done up until that point.

Timothy: Timothy had literally the smallest part in the story but I loathed him. I'm so glad we didn't get any more of him within the book.

(If you'd like to see more of my reviews please go to my blog:
https://doesden.blogspot.com/)

3.5 stars
Im partial to a cosy murder mystery and this delivered, what appears to be a cosy village turns out to be one filled with many long kept secrets.
Daphne moves from London to escape the crime and busy lifestyle, only to find herself wrapped up in a murder with many hidden secrets being uncovered along the way, and while I did guess who the murderer was this didn’t take away from the enjoyment of the story line!
I didn’t expect this to be multi pov in part so this took me some getting used to when there was so many characters involved but once I got to grips with these I enjoyed all the story lines of each character each with a piece to the puzzle

I have just finished The Potting Shed Murder and what absolute delight it was! I have been eager to read this since I heard about it at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival so I was absolutely ecstactic when I saw it pop up on Netgalley.

Daphne Brewster and her family have recently moved from bustling London to the wonderful sounding Pudding Corner in Norfolk. A cosy sounding village and a quiet life is just what the Brewster family need following hectic careers and soaring private school prices made them rethink their lifestyle.

However, when the beloved local headmaster Charles Pappleworth is found dead at his allotment, although tragic, people are convinced it was natural causes. He was teacher and the stresses had obviously contributed to his heart attack........... When word of murder spreads, we slowly learn that there are a few suspects that would have liked to have seen the end of Charles.

I absolutely loved Daphne and her investigation, she is like a younger Miss Marple! The village characters are a wonderful addition and I particularly loved hearing about the grumpy Warburton sisters, Nancy and Patsy who run the local store - their backstory was written perfectly and gives you a greater understanding of why they are like they are.

I am eagerly awaiting the next book in the series!

Pudding Corner. Such a nice, quiet village after crime-ridden London.

Or so Daphne Brewster thinks.

Until one wet, stormy night, when a body is discovered in a potting shed at the allotments.

And it turns out that more than one villager has a motive for their demise...

Excellent, hopefully the start of a super series

Daphne Brewster's move - with her white husband and biracial kids - to the wilds of the English countryside and the quaint village of Pudding Corner has gone unexpectedly well. All three of her children love it there, and Daphne herself, as a black British woman, has found the adjustment easier than she expected, despite the alarming night time quietude of her immediate surroundings.

She loves their new home, and has even began a small business of her own in the village, customising and restoring furniture, that is in great demand. In the process, she has made friends with Minerva, a shy woman who is part of a Wiccan community in the woods. Minerva's son Silvanus soon becomes fast friends with the Brewster children.

Still, all this is about to go pear-shaped with the mysterious death of the populous school headmaster, Charles Pappleworth. Because in this safe little corner of the bucolic countryside, it turns out that Charles Pappleworth has been murdered!

When suspicion unexpectedly falls on Minerva, Daphne throws herself into Miss Marple-style amateur sleuthing, to her husband's immense dismay, and with some entirely unexpected consequences...

This is a charming and wholesome take with well drawn characters, great good humour, and a surprisingly long suspect list. A very enjoyable read. It gets 3.5 stars.