I absolutely loved this beautifully written story. A bit different to lots of other detective stories out there it was somehow gripping but also wonderfully gentle and warm . Alice is fabulous as are her cast of friends. I can’t wait to read the second one!

A cosy crime that includes recipes! A fun read even though it was - for me - a little fantastical at times. Alice is a distant relative of Mrs Beeton, she is single and the wrong side of 50. She is also struggling a little financially as she keeps bailing out her younger brother who promises to repay her but never quite manages to. However she has her own very successful Good Household Management Agency - she provides staff to mainly rich clients and has built a very good reputation. If the The Good Household Management Agency have provided a member of staff then that person will be exceptional. Working with her are Jinx and Helly - close friends as well as co-workers. When Enya Fischer arrives, just before Christmas, with excellent references and in search of a position she is placed with the very wealthy Messents. Alice was slightly uneasy because everything was completed much quicker than usual but overall, she had liked Enya, her references had checked out and she had not wanted to upset Camille Messent. Everything seemed perfect until she received a call on New Year's Day to say that Enya was dead. With the police and family closing ranks, Alice investigates. As I said, a nice cosy crime which makes you suspend belief occasionally, but Alice is likeable although my favourite has to be Jinx. I only had one complaint and that was that it was slow to get going. The blurb tells us That Enya dies, but we seem to be a long while getting to that point. Another problem - and this doesn't affect the novel - is that in the arc that I received on Kindle the recipes are totally unreadable - the formatting if corrupted in some way, not that I would ever pick up a crime book if was going to look for a recipe. However, a fun read.

A cozy, Christmas whodunnit. Great characters and the story kept me engaged all the way through. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance reader copy.

I love a cosy crime book so this one was perfect, it was such a fun read overall with the perfect amount of danger and mystery.

From running the Good Household Management Agency, Alice is suddenly thrown headlong into going undercover as a housekeeper to solve the murder of Enya. I loved the premise for this book, the historical link to Mrs Beeton's recipe book (and the addition of recipes too always a bonus!), the hilarity brought by other members of Alice's team (especially Jinx), the twists and turns kept me on my toes too - all in all a great murder mystery! Would highly recommend!

**Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read an advanced e-copy of this book. All opinions are my own **

A thoroughly enjoyable cosy crime mystery with a cast of loveable characters. I devoured Miss Beeton's Murder Agency in almost one sitting as I became so absorbed in the story. Alice is a wonderful character; I loved her mantras, and the added recipes were a wonderful bonus. Jinx and Alice have a wonderful friendship, I could see them so clearly in my mind’s eye, I'd love to see their story on screen. This book had everything I love in a cosy crime book, a clever crime, good characters, humour as well as a little romance and a satisfying resolution. I found myself smiling while I was reading and when I finished, I was left wanting to read more. A great book, I really hope Josie Lloyd writes more and they become a series.

Oh man, I do enjoy a good cosy murder and this is a good cosy murder. I really hope this is the start of a series as I just adored Alice, Agatha, Jinx, and Helly. There is so much scope in the characters and the set-up of the household management company for many a great tale of detection and dusting!
The story itself is a traditional whodunnit, with dastardly villians, stately homes, and people using false identities - it was such a caper, it kept me guessing as to how everything was going to pan out. The descriptions of Alice's own family stately home were fantastic, I could really see it covered in snow, a little rough around the edges but still grand.
There is a real nostalgic retro feel to the book that I thought worked very well - moneyed people tend to cling to traditions so it didn't feel out of place. I know they re not the same genre, but it really reminded me of Mrs Harris goes to Paris - I felt that Alice and Mrs Harris were two of a kind.
The humour scattered through the book hits just right, in my opinion. It helps to bring the characters to life and makes them feel more relatable.
I'm definitely crossing my fingers for a follow-up as I love to catch up with the team again.
A great festive cosy murder with a sprinkling of laughs and the hint of some romance in the future.

Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency is a fun mystery that kept me entertained from the very beginning.
Alice is a wonderful character. Her detective skills and knowledge of housekeeping, a great use in helping her to work out the mystery of the death of the housekeeper newly assigned to the Messant household.
The support network around Alice was lovely and I really enjoyed her relationship with Jinx - and Agatha, a great detective on her own.
This is a great start to what looks likely to be a fun cosy mystery series, and I look forward to seeing what adventures come next for Alice and Agatha.

I absolutely adored Alice and Agatha! The investigation into Enya’s death was succinct and followed a logical path, but even so the reveal was exceptionally well done and the culprit a shock to the reader. I would have loved a little more development to the side characters so they weren’t JUST side characters to Alice.

Alice Beeton, a fictional distant relative of Isabella Beeton of The Book of Household Management fame, runs an agency providing domestic staff to wealthy households in London, as well as sharing the original Mrs Beeton's passion for cooking. When Alice places a new housekeeper, Enya, into the household of wealthy art dealers the Messents and Enya is later found dead, Alice finds herself investigating out of a sense of duty to establish what happened to the young woman with the perfect CV.

This could be described as a cosy crime novel, and it's certainly the perfect choice to read over the festive period, dotted with Alice's recipes and filled with escapades and Alice's cast of idiosyncratic friends, including fashionista Jinx, the ever-helpful Massoud who turns up at the drop of a hat to ferry Alice around in his limousine, and Alice's dog, Agatha. It also contains more than a passing nod to golden age crime fiction, and is an absorbing and complex mystery in which Alice's intuition and skills of observation mean she runs rings around the official police investigation.

I hope this book will be the start of a series. The characters were very well drawn and memorable, and I'd happily follow them on further adventures.

An absolute joy of a cosy mystery. I’m hoping this is the first of a series and I’ll be waiting for the next one! Fabulous cast of characters and plenty of red herrings.
The formatting of the recipes was off though, they were totally unreadable.

2.5⭐ rounded to 3⭐

Alice runs the Good Household Management Agency, providing discreet domestic staff to extravagant townhouses and sprawling country piles. So when Camille Messant calls in urgent need of a new housekeeper, Miss Beeton sends out new hire Enya. In the early hours of New Year’s Day, Alice finds out that Enya has been found dead. As the police struggle to drum up an adequate investigation and the wealthy family and their party guests close rank, Miss Beeton takes it upon herself to solve the crime…

The writing style made this book a very easy read, which turned this book into a quick read despite the slow start. Although, I did feel like my interest lessened as the actual plot doesn't start to take place until around 24% in as throughout the book, it doesn't feel like a lot is happening as a lot of the action seems to happen off page, which I thought was odd as it makes it hard to be invested in the story. This is because some of the main 'detective' work is only revealed at the end in an attempt to wrap everything up. There were quite a few things that lacked logic for me but I guess without those things, we wouldn't have this book.

I was so confused about Alice's and some of the other character's ages as there would be times where they came across as quite young (in the sense of being a young soul), but then they would say something and they sounded like they were in their 50's, which caused such a disconnect for me. The same could be said for the time period as it mentioned Covid-19 which started 5 years ago but then it mentioned the beast from the east which was 6 years ago, so I was confused when this book was even set. Then the love interest aspect to this book was so strange to me - the female love interest falling in love seemed to happen way too quickly, like love at first sight, whereas the male love interest acts so disinterested right up until the end? Then the way that he starts magically appearing wherever she was, came across as if he was stalking her. To me, the chemistry between these characters was as flat as a pancake. It comes across as forced. To add to this, I became tired of the constant references to Mrs Beeton throughout, like at first I thought it was a nice touch but then it grew very repetitive.

The ending felt rushed to wrap everything up as it felt like all of the remaining questions were left too late for them all to be answered in the detail that they needed, in order to provide sound logic. Another issue was the formatting of the recipes - I know this is just an ARC so I hope that when it comes time for publication, that the formatting is corrected as it made it impossible to read the recipes or to even know what the recipe was for as it was a bunch of broken up words. I do think that if this is fixed, it would be a nice touch to the book to make it feel more cosy, although I do think they're better suited at the end of the book rather than throughout as it often took me out of the story.

Thanks to HQ and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book early, in exchange for an honest review.

⚠️ CWs: cursing, alcohol use, murder, dieting, gun, physical assault, body injury detail; mentions death, covid-19 pandemic, car accident, comments about weight, ageism, mental health illness (OCD), past drug use, gambling⚠️

I’m afraid this story was so painfully slow and meandering that I got bored and gave up before I finished it. I didn’t need to know the decorations our heroine liked or her fashion choices etc. In the first 10% of the book literally nothing happens other than the victim gets a job. Sadly I can’t recommend

A very enjoyable read, lovely characters and a twisty tale with a lovely ending. I hope it becomes a series.

Alice Beeton is a distant relative of the Miss Beeton of Miss Beeton’s Book of Household Management fame. She runs the Good Household Management Agency providing domestic staff to the rich and famous. When she employs a new hire named Enya on the same day that she is asked to provide the Messant household with a housekeeper immediately, it seems too good to be true. When, only a few days later, Enya is found dead, Alice Beeton feels responsible. With the police investigation not going anywhere, Alice decides to do some investigating of her own. After all, she’s a huge fan of murder mysteries. How hard can it be to unmask a murderer?

Alice with more than a little help from her friends Jinx, Helly, Barney, Jacques, and Massoud, to name but a few, soon discovers that investigating a crime is much harder than it looks between the covers of a book. And much more fraught with danger too. Going undercover in the Messant household to replace Enya, Alice Beeton finds herself taking risks and not getting anywhere fast. But, as she reflects 49% into the book: “Being stuck in the middle was part of the process.”

There’s a lot going on in this book apart from the murder which is not surprising since this appears to be the first book in a planned series which means that several characters and backstories had to be established. If I’m honest, it was a bit (too) much for me at times. More than once, I found myself wondering ‘who are you again?’ about secondary characters, and some plot developments were outrageous enough that I found myself rolling my eyes. At the same time, the writing was smooth, and the story was intriguing enough to keep me turning the pages.

There are recipes in this book, some going back to the original Mrs. Beeton and others more modern. These recipes are placed right behind the place where a dish is mentioned right in the middle of chapters, and I’d love to tell you more about them. Unfortunately, the formatting of the ARC the publisher provided me with meant that they were literally unreadable. That is a shame since most of the dishes mentioned in the story sounded very yummy and I wouldn’t have minded trying my hand at recreating one or two of them.

Overall, this was a fast-paced, thrilling mystery, and captivating crime-caper with a few too many wtf moments for me to rate if five stars. If you like your cosy mystery with a large dose of mayhem, a host of larger-than-life characters, a cute little doggo, as well as plenty of action, and you don’t mind suspending disbelief once or twice, you’re going to love Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency.

It was a pleasure to read this wonderful mystery crime book. The characters were great along with a storyline that kept me hooked from start to finish. I’m hoping this may be the first of a series!
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Written more like a rom com than a murder mystery this book does not take itself seriously. This cozy book is ideal to read in one sitting. Agatha Christie meets Mrs Beeton. I did find it a tad slow to begin with as it took some time to identify all the characters.
Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for the advance copy of this book.

Cosy crime is obviously a very well populated genre at the minute, and is difficult for an author to really stand out. Ms Lloyd tries hard with Miss Beeton and her culinary connections - sadly my e- book had problems with the recipes and they were unreadable but I imagine they add to the enjoyment. However, it didn't quite work for me and I did find it slightly tedious at times. It feels the ending is setting this up for a series and it maybe if this happens the author will be able to expand on the characters and make them more rounded.
Thank you to netgalley and HQ for an advance copy of this book.

What a gem of a book. The characters are well drawn and the story pulls you in from the beginning. I really liked Miss Beeton and her fellow work colleagues. This is a cosy Agatha Christie type book which was the author’s intention but set in modern day London. Please, Josie Lloyd write more stories about Miss Beeton and her new agency - I would definitely be an avid reader of them.

Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for this ARC.

Alice Beeton, in her 50s, a distant relative of THE Mrs Beeton, runs The Good Household Management Agency which supplies staff for rich people. Her useless brother Jasper has inherited the family pile, Hawthorn Hall, which is a moneypit that even Alice's loans can't help much. She loves baking and murder mysteries and has a dog called Agatha after Agatha Christie.

One day, a new woman on Alice's books, Enya, that Alice rather hastily supplied due to an emergency, is found murdered at the clients' house, the Messents, during a posh New Year's Eve party. Alice decides it is her duty to find the murderer as the police don't seem to be terribly interested, so she inveigles herself into the household in question and begins sleuthing. She finds out soon that nothing in this case is as it seems.

The pace of the book is slightly uneven, with the first quarter being used to introduce the characters. I'm sure this won't take up so much time in further books. The more the story progresses the more things happen at once and the tension ramps up.

Alice is an interesting, well-liked character and has friends everywhere so when she needs their help they all rally around and help devise a daring plan to catch a murderer.

The setting is London at Christmas time, and the feel is distinctly Victorian though people have air fryers and everything. It might have to do with Alice herself who is a rather old-fashioned single and childless woman and a stickler for politeness and good manners.

The chapters are interspersed with old-fashioned recipes directly from Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management. As the measurements were in imperial, I mostly skipped them, but they are a nice touch. They might have been better collated at the end of the book though as they interrupt the reading flow.

This is a new cosy murder mystery series and the sequel is already expertly set up when dishy Detective and potential love interest Darren Rigby who she impressed in this case, asks for her help. I will happily read new instalments to see how this evolves!

This book is incredibly entertaining. I couldn't finish it fast enough! The characters are mostly lovable and warm, there's a cute dog and the mystery isn't too taxing, plus the cover is lovely. Recommended if you like cosy murder mysteries with a slightly Victorian feel and a likeable sleuth.

4.5 stars