Miss Hortense, what an addition you are to the cosy mystery genre! Miss Hortense is a retired nurse, living in Birmingham. She is originally from Jamaica. Miss Hortense is involved with her community in a pardner. I had never heard of this and it was interesting to learn about it. She is removed from the pardner, after an incident and quietly gets on with her life, solving a mystery here and there. Miss Hortense is friends with a lady named Blossom, who I absolutely adored. She is a great character and if there is a second book I hope she features more. There is a lot of characters in this book and sometimes it was hard to keep track of who was who. I liked the use of the Jamaican dialogue. It gave it a more authentic feel. I hope this is just the beginning for Miss Hortense and her friends. I would definitely be diving straight in to the next book.

Thanks to NetGalley and John Murray Press, Baskerville for giving me the opportunity to read this fab book.

Miss Hortense is an interesting character to read about. Having emigrated from Jamaica, she has lived her life here in the greyness of the UK, working as a nurse for over thirty years, and helping her community through the pardner. I'd never heard of pardner schemes before the book, so it was interesting to learn about how it worked, and still works, as a way of helping communities build up funds.

There is quite the cast of characters, and it was sometimes difficult to keep track of who was who (especially when they weren't who everyone thought they were...) But I mostly managed to keep up! I liked hypochondriac, talkative Blossom. And the book builds a real sense of the community that Miss Hortense has been living in for so long. You get a sense of each person as you read, and the slang helps build the picture and feel of the community too.

I would have liked perhaps a little more Miss Hortense herself - she is a little like Sherlock in that we see some of the things she does, but we're not privvy to all the thinking and working out she is doing. I had no idea what was going to play out in the book, and it finishes with rather a grand all-in-the-room reveal (a la Christie) where the plot was layered upon layer. If you asked me to explain what had happened, I'm not sure I'd give a very clear account of all of the ins and outs, because it did keep twisting and turning. But I don't think that matters too much! It was enjoyable to read, and I'd very happily come back to see what mystery Miss Hortense solves next.

What a great addition to the amateur sleuth genre. Miss Hortense is a retired nurse, living in Birmingham at the end of the 20th century. Her retirement is far from sedate and despite her upright manners and politeness, she's certainly not to be trifled with. She's a force of nature. Forget girl power, this is older woman power. She's Miss Marple but with a handbag full of back up items in case she needs to disable an attacker.

I absolutely loved Miss Hortense. What a great character I tore through this fantastic book. It's such a novel and fun story. The characters are distinct and singular and the story was fiendishly clever. I really enjoyed the writing style and the slang/patois of the dialogue, along with the multiple cultural references. This felt fresh and new and was a great book. I hope this is a series.. Mel Pennant has written a blinder here .