I have read one other book by Jess Kidd, The Hoarder, which I remember really enjoying, I also enjoy a mystery novel, so this looked like a really good fit. It was a slow burner, and it took me a while to read. It wasn't the page turner I was expecting, but by the end I was fully on board, and I really liked Nora, the main detective. I would certainly read another if this ends up a series.

Nora has stopped receiving letters from girlfriend Frieda, a former novice who has left the convent and gone out into the world. She, (Nora), is worried for her friend, convinced she wouldn't just stop writing, so she leaves the convent and heads to Gulls Nest, a boarding house at the coastal town of Gore-on-Sea where Frieda was last seen. Naturally all the residents have their secrets; Nora has to find out which one led to Frieder's disappearance.

*Many thanks to Netgally and the publishers for a copy in exchange for an honest opinion.*

Murder at Gulls Nest is the first book in the Nora Breen Investigates series by award-winning London-born author, Jess Kidd. Nora Breen is at Gulls Nest Boarding House in Gore-on-Sea, Kent, out of season, in October, sort of under false pretences. Mere weeks earlier, she was Sister Agnes at the Carmelite convent in Dollegau, but the regular letters from her friend, ex-novitiate Freida Brogan stopped arriving in August, and her last known address was Gulls Nest.

Freida’s letters convey her intrigue in the lives of her fellow guests, hinting that they all have secrets she intends to discover: did this put her in danger? Nora means to make subtle enquiries of the residents and staff at Gulls Nest and the people of Gore-on-Sea to find out what has happened to her friend. Initial enquiries of the priest, the hospital and doctors yield only that Freida seemed settled in the town.

When, at the police station, Nora manages to breach the barrier of a rude desk sergeant to speak to DI Rideout, he accepts her photo of Freida but tells her: “What you have to understand is that Gore-on-Sea is a place for roll-ins, roll-outs. Like the tide, yes? People come and people go.”

Before Nora has even been there a full day, one of the guests at Gulls Nest is found dead, poisoned by cyanide. What isn’t clear is whether the death is suicide, murder or an accidental ingestion intended for another. An item on the victim’s person suggests a connection to Freida, thus giving Nora the perfect excuse to investigate further, even when she is warned off by a dismissive Rideout. She carefully examines the scenes, and meticulously writes down her observations in a notebook.

Before the truth of the situation is finally revealed, Nora has to uncover the secrets that other guests, the proprietress, and her staff hold close, to rule out those less guilty. Another guest dies, a serious assault occurs, a séance is held, and a dog expires. Nora gets to drive a fancy car, poses as a nurse, and manages to survive two attempts on her life.

Kidd treats the reader to some gorgeous prose: “In the convent she had learnt to make her thoughts deep and slow. To consider her mind as a calm and receptive pond. Then every thought could be a carefully shied stone with a gentle answering ripple. Out in the world her mind is a bucketful of tadpoles; thoughts rush by, squirm away, grow legs— She was unprepared for the way that the world has set her thoughts swirling” and “…keeping custody of her eyes. This way she can take in a snippet of this and that, small details, so as not to get drunk on the world” are examples.

Kidd easily evokes her era and setting, and throws in plenty of red herrings to keep the reader guessing and the pages turning. More of Nora Breen is most definitely welcome.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Faber & Faber Ltd.

The plot was well executed, with plenty of red herrings to keep you guessing and the pace was good, The main character is a nun who has left the order. this is unusual and quirky enough to catch my interest and as this is the first book in a new series set in the 1950s I hope to learn more about her. Hopefully the touch of romance and friendship will continue and develop in further books, I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

A fantastic and highly enjoyable new mystery series set in a 1950s British seaside town featuring the intrepid Nora Breen, a no-nonsense newly de-habited nun who resolves to get to the bottom of the disappearance of one of her friends and ex-colleagues.
Nora discovers what life outside of the convent after 30 years is really like and is increasingly unimpressed. Setting wrongs to rights is her raison d'être and she won’t let anything nor anyone stand in her way.
I absolutely loved it and cannot wait for more in this brilliant series.
My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own unbiased opinion.

What a brilliant cosy mystery this was, and as the first in a new series, hopefully a great indicator of what’s to come. Nora Breen is a suitably quirky character and I can see her getting into all sorts of mischief ahead! I also really enjoyed the dynamic between her and the dryly humorous DI Rideout as they move from sparring partners to something deeper. The plot was well executed, with plenty of red herrings to keep the reader guessing, and I loved how the original mystery which Nora sought to resolve turned into something else entirely, moving the plot beyond the obvious solution. Thanks to the author and publisher for an advanced copy of this book, I really enjoyed reading it.

Murder at Gulls Nest is (hopefully) the first of a new series of 1950's murder mysteries starring former nun Nora Breen.

In this first book, Nora has left her order to search for her friend Frieda in a seaside boarding house. Nora's friend has previously been a reliable correspondent, but the letters have stopped for some reason. Nora uses the skills learned in the monastery infirmary to be nosey and get involved in the lives of the fellow residents to investigate her friend's disappearance. She hasn't been there long when there is a death by arsenic - is it murder? Is it linked to Frieda's disappearance?

An amusing cosy read, I'll definitely be looking out for book two.

This is the first one of Jess Kidd’s books that I’ve read and I didn’t know what to expect. I enjoyed it. It’s quirky with some odd characters. At times it feels like a cosy crime mystery, but it’s also rather dark and foreboding, whereas at other times there’s some humour and also a hint of a romance. The setting is good in a fictional 1950s British seaside town.

It’s the mystery and the characters (there a lot) that stand out the most in my mind. Nora, the main character, is a no-nonsense person, who has just left a convent after 30 years, where she worked as a nurse. She went to the same guest house at Gore-on-Sea to find her friend, Frieda, a novice who had previously left the same convent due to ill health. Frieda had been writing to her weekly, but Nora hadn’t heard from her for some time and knew something was very wrong.

There are some very strange people. Among these people the ones who stood out for me are Nora, who is adjusting to life outside the outside world, whilst trying not to draw attention to herself. Dinah, who is eight years old, is the daughter of Helena, the owner of Gulls Nest, and is a very strange child. Nora first met Dinah hanging upside down from a curtain rail. Sometimes she hides in a small cupboard and doesn’t speak to anyone, living in a world of her own. Then there is old Professor Poppy, a Punch and Judy man with his puppets, and the mysterious Karel Jezek, who follows the young married couple Stella and Teddy. Teddy is suspicious of Karel, suspecting that something is going on between him and Stella.

Frieda had told Nora that she believed all the people at Gulls Nest were concealing some kind of secret. And indeed they were as Nora finds out. Life at Gulls Nest is tense, as all the residents’ secrets and past lives bubble away under the surface. Matters come to the boil as some of them die, or are they murdered? Nora helps Detective Inspector Rideout of the local police as he investigates the deaths as well as Frieda’s disappearance.

Overall I loved this book, crime fiction that is really in a category all of its own, that kept me wondering what was going on all the way to the end.

English author Jess Kidd has a varied bibliography that ranges across a number of genres. Her book Things in Jars was a gothic, slightly supernatural mystery story while The Night Ship dealt with the story of the 17th century wreck of the Batavia off the Australian coast. With her latest book, Murder at Gulls Nest she deliberately sits in the centre of a much loved sub-genre – the cosy mystery with an intelligent, nosey and intuitive ageing woman at the centre.
Nora Breen has been a nun for thirty years but has left her convent to find her missing friend Frieda. Frieda, ten years younger than Nora, also left the convent and had been living in a boarding house on the English coast, regularly sending letters back to Nora about her life. When the letters stop after the last one hints at fellow residents with secrets, Nora knows something is wrong and heads to the same boarding house to investigate. As she is starting to get a feel for the guests a young newlywed dies, a suspected suicide which Nora believes is murder. While the police are not keen for an elderly, amateur investigator (who has learnt everything she knows from crime fiction books), Nora stays on the case.
Kidd deploys plenty of suspects and secrets, red herrings and then reveals which turn the things that readers think they know about the characters on their head. And she does a good job bringing this tired, grey, post-war British seaside village to life. But in the end Murder at Gulls Nest does not deliver more than down-the-line cosy Agatha Christie-style murder mystery anchored around an amateur sleuth.

Murder at Gulls Nest is the first instalment in a tantalising new cosy(ish) mystery series planned by author Jess Kidd.

It's 1953 and former cloistered nun Nora Breen emerges from decades in a northern-English convent following the disappearance of her friend Frieda, a younger woman who had previously abandoned her noviciate, from a seaside town in Kent, England. Fortuitously, Nora is able to move into Frieda's old room at Gulls Nest, a rather bleak guesthouse overlooking the beach at Gore-on-Sea. Having chosen to hide her connection to Frieda, she sets about getting to know each of the other residents, the acerbic housekeeper, enigmatic landlady Helena Wells and her curiously off-beat daughter Dinah. She's barely scratched the surface of Frieda's disappearance when a shocking event occurs - one of her fellow lodgers is poisoned with a cyanide-laced cup of coffee!

The rest of the book follows Nora's enthusiastic and remarkably insightful investigation of the crime, carried out in parallel with the official police investigation of what's at first deemed to be either an accidental death or suicide. Her relationship with Detective Inspector Rideout develops from antipathy to an uneasy mutual respect to a fondness by the end of the novel that bodes well for future series instalments. Humour is brought into the story via Nora's occasionally abrasive and impetuous behaviour towards those who underestimate her, the antics of Dinah, the landlady's mute but precocious 8-year-old daughter, and her bond with a friendly seagull, whom she names Father Conway.

Nora Breen is an engaging protagonist, for whom the reader develops empathy over the course of the story, as details of her past gradually emerge and she adapts to the challenges of life in the secular world. Her evolving relationship with D.I. Rideout is well-developed and charming, raising the expectation that both lonely characters might find some mid-life comfort together in future instalments. The setting in time and place is also very well executed, post-war privations still affecting the population of the shabby beachside town where the story is set. I've previously enjoyed Jess Kidd's writing in the literary fiction genre, and find her new venture into crime writing very exciting!

I'd enthusiastically recommend Murder at Gulls Nest to any reader who enjoys high-quality mysteries, historical settings and quirky characters.

My thanks to the author Jess Kidd, publisher Faber and Faber Ltd. and NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review this title in advance of its publication on 13 March 2025.

Mahoney, Mrs Cauley, Renata, Bridie Devine, Ruby, Mayken and Gil are just some of the marvellous characterisations I’ve come across in the four novels I’ve read by Jess Kidd. Here it looks like she is establishing her first series with ex-nun and amateur sleuth Nora Breen at the helm. Will the author add to her collection of great characterisations with this?

I’d highlighted this book as one of my most anticipated in my Looking Forward post at the start of the year. I’ve always liked the quirky nature of Jess Kidd’s work, the hints of the supernatural, and of course her characterisation, perhaps all realised most strongly in “Things In Jars” her Victorian set mystery, which made it into my 2019 Top 10. The four novels to date have been set at different time periods and locations and it seems now she is hunkering down to explore a series, set in the 1950s.

Nora Breen has left the convent to discover the whereabouts of her friend, another ex-nun who has disappeared. Nora turns up at the out-of-season coastal town of Gore-On-Sea and finds a room at the same lodging house her friend went missing from, “The Gull’s Nest”. There are a couple of the unusual characters we expect from this author including an aging Punch and Judy man and a child who does not speak but turns up squeezed into cupboards or upside down behind curtains, and indeed, Nora herself, fits the quirky bill. Compared to her other works this feels more generic and the genre here is cosy crime, which can sell very well. It follows a fairly standard formula of Nora going it alone, Miss Marpling her way around Gore-On-Sea questioning suspects so she can piece together what is happening before the police do. There is a touch of the supernatural and the odd off-the-wall occurrence, best represented here by a rabbit breeding vicar but I don’t know whether it is because she is establishing a series or aiming for a more mainstream work but the elements I’ve really liked in the past in her books feels more muted here.

It reminded me of a novel I read last year “The Night In Question” by Susan Fletcher, which was well received, where a resident in an Assisted Living Home sleuths, in as much as the set-up and tone is similar and there the main character reflected on her life a fair deal and here we have Nora considering hers and her brave move in leaving her religious order after 30+ years. Florrie in that book is much older but both their brave moves into new lives causes reflection both forwards and backwards in time whilst navigating some quite grisly events in their new environments.

I’m not sure that this book offers anything radically new in this genre and I rather think that I might have expected that from this particular author. It’s certainly an enjoyable example of cosy crime and I’d be very happy to see what Nora Breen gets up to next but from a delightfully unpredictable author this veered too much towards the predictable. This could, however, be a commercial hit which would tempt new Kidd readers to explore her back catalogue.

Murder At Gull’s Nest is published on March 13th by Faber & Faber. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

4★
“ ‘Miss Breen.’ Rideout looks exasperated. ‘Really, must I say this until I’m blue in the face: leave this investigation to me!’

‘So,’ says Nora. ‘It is an investigation.’ ”

Detective Inspector Rideout is exasperated indeed. He first meets Nora Breen when she comes to the station to report her friend missing. Because the officer at the desk keeps ignoring her presence an continues writing something, she takes finds a unique way to get his attention – and eventually get Rideout’s as well.

Her feet were sandy after walking on the beach, and she had taken her shoes off during her lengthy wait. The desk officer, who doesn’t seem to have noticed her, orders her to put her shoes back on. She refuses.

“Detective Inspector Rideout surveys Nora Breen across a tacky, cup-ringed table. The weapon of assault, a pair of ugly auld shoes, lies between them.

Rideout looks amused, Breen looks unrepentant.

The inspector leans forward, chin on his hand. Nora both likes and dislikes the way he’s looking at her. As if she’s the entertainment, or a puzzle he could solve. Either way she’ll be sure to disappoint.

‘I misunderstood what your officer was requesting of me.’

‘You threw a shoe and hit him in the eye. Did you think that’s what he was asking for?’

Nora can hardly answer that. ‘Actually, I threw both shoes but only one hit its target.’

Rideout raises his eyebrow.

But I’m getting ahead of the story. The promotional material lays the groundwork that Nora Breen is a nun who has left her convent to find her friend, a former nun who had to leave the convent for health reasons and wrote to Nora every week without fail to share her life ‘outside’. When the letters stopped, Nora left to investigate.

She books herself in at Gulls Nest, Gore-on-Sea, which is indeed where it is located just above a beach. It’s a strange boarding house with unusual residents, dreadful food, and a landlady who’s always resting with a headache while her young daughter runs around in costumes, causing mischief, hiding and not speaking.

“Outside, the sky is brightening, which is of no concern to the room, daylight being dissuaded by heavy velvet drapes and the sombre yews that crowd about the window. The drapes move. Nora notices. The movement increases to a gentle sway. The curtain twists apart to reveal a child cocooned in its folds.

Nora introduces herself as a retired nurse, there for a holiday. She nursed many soldiers during the war (WW2), and it makes sense that she has earned a break now. She has been instructed not to encourage the gulls, but being a newly independent woman, she tames one who comes to her windowsill to eat from her hand. She names him Father Conway for his steely expression.

She tries to be carefully inquisitive without letting anyone know that the missing woman whose room she is now renting was her best friend, Frieda Brogan. Residents include a troubled young couple whom she watches have an argument on the beach, and when the husband’s hat blows off, he just storms away. A young man following some distance behind the pair stamps violently on the hat. Nora is intrigued.

Occasionally, her mind harks back to the circumstances that led her to join the convent and how she learned to live a quiet, cloistered life without causing too much friction. But as we see her today, it’s hard to imagine her being at all submissive.

“Controlling her temper was her greatest trial in the convent. But this wasn’t the worst of her shortcomings. Her inquisitive nature was judged to be disrespectful. Her cleverness the sin of pride. These were traits that found her scrubbing a far greater share of bathtubs than any other postulant. Now, out in the world, she can exercise these unfavourable traits. This thought fills Nora with a strange mix of relief and alarm.”

She grows increasingly angry about her past and how much she has missed, and seems to want to make up a bit for lost time. She tries some whiskey at the pub and she accepts cigarettes from Rideout and others and learns to smoke companionably as they chat. It’s a bad habit but a good strategy for making comfortable conversation. She is adaptable and enjoying it.

“She notices that her prayers have a stiff formality now. Like the first inroads after a bad argument with someone. She doesn’t expect an answer.”

When someone dies at Gulls Nest, she tries to convince Rideout it’s a crime, not an accident. She pesters Rideout with ideas and clues and suggestions and asks that he call her by her surname, Breen, as the police do in detective novels.

When someone else dies, she really starts snooping. I enjoyed the variety of characters and the atmosphere of the big old house and the beach. I have to admit that I found nothing welcoming about the place. It was appropriately old and spooky.

It’s not what I expected from Jess Kidd, who often uses magical realism, but I enjoyed her venture into the cosy mystery genre. I think the ending leaves no doubt that there will be another one coming. Rideout and Breen? Breen and Rideout?

Thanks to #NetGalley and Faber and Faber for a copy of #MurderAtGullsNest for review

Jess Kidd is one of those writers who can do anything. And she does it very well. I've read several of Ms Kidd's work and Murder at Gull's Nest doesn't resemble any of them. What she gives us this time is a pure murder mystery with a nosey and likeable amateur detective, a group of suspects as long as your arm and a murder or two thrown in for good measure.

Nora Breen has left the convent she has resided at for decades and headed to Gore on Sea because she is on a mission to find out what happened to Frieda Brogan, another sister who has left the order. But as Nora begins to ruffle feathers in her investigations a death occurs. Nora now has to convince local inspector, Rideout, that there's more to the death of Teddy Atkins and the disappearance of Frieda than he thinks.

The question is, can Nora solve the mysteries before more residents of Gull's Nest are hurt?

I thoroughly enjoyed this murder mystery. Nora is a truly engaging character and I hope that we see her again in another adventure. Even though this story wasn't gory I wouldn't call it cosy either. Jess Kidd treads a fine line that reminds me more of Christie than newer authors. That's probably the highest praise I can give it. There were lots of un-Christie-like touches though. It's impossible to say that the style was entirely Jess Kidd because her novels are so diverse I couldn't possibly put her in any genre.

Excellent. Highly recommended.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Faber & Faber for the advance review copy. Most appreciated.

Our first introduction to Nora, and she's wonderful! She's starting a new life away from the convent where she's been for 30 years, and finds herself in a seaside guesthouse, where she's getting used to life back in the real world!

there's a really great cast of intriguing characters she meets at the boarding house, and she is soon starting her investigations into the disappearance of her friend and the discovery of a dead body. There's lots of gossip from the other residents and she's also in touch with a local Inspector and I really loved the banter between them all. It has that cosy feel, but there's a real depth to the characters as they have their own little stories to tell, and secrets revealed.

A fabulous read and I'm already eagerly awaiting the next in the series!!

Jess Kidd has done it again! Murder at Gull’s Nest is an absolute delight. An atmospheric, witty, and intricately plotted mystery that kept me hooked from start to finish. Kidd’s signature lyrical prose is as mesmerizing as ever, painting the salty air, crumbling cliffs, and shadowy secrets of the seaside setting with vivid detail.

The characters are unforgettable, brimming with charm and eccentricity. The mystery itself is expertly woven, balancing eerie gothic elements with sharp humor and heart. Every twist felt perfectly placed, keeping me guessing yet completely immersed in the world she created.

If you love a clever, beautifully written mystery with gothic undertones and a dash of dark whimsy, Murder at Gull’s Nest is a must-read. Jess Kidd continues to prove she’s one of the most talented storytellers out there!

How excited was I to read the most recent offering from one of my favourite authors Jess Kidd. Set in the 1950’s Murder at Gull’s Nest is a wonderful murder mystery full of the quirky characters all who have their own secrets and faults. Nora Breen , an ex nun, leaves her convent to lodge at Gulls Nest in search of a friend who has gone missing but then the murders start mounting up and she is determined to discover the culprit. This book is full of the atmosphere of the 1950s seaside resort with its fairgrounds and dodgy dealings and I just couldn’t put it down. It kept me guessing until very near the end with its red herrings and stories. I will be looking forward to the next book as this promises to be a series and Nora is bound to get herself involved in another mystery. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this novel in return for a honest review.

A fun, easy read set in a dilapidated seaside town in the 1950s. I liked Nora's character and will definitely read the next in the series when it comes out.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

I love Jess Kidd! And she doesn’t disappoint. I love Nora - a sassy sleuthing ex-nun! I loved the setting, the range of characters and the hint to the mystic. I guessed the killer, which I like (but not early in the story!). I can’t wait for the next! Read it read it read it!

What a great new cosy mystery character Nora Breen is! I really enjoyed this book with its mixed bag of characters and I loved the relationship between Nora and Inspector Rideout, who I found hilarious. The story kept me guessing enough to keep turning the pages. I really hope the next book in the series will be published soon as I can’t wait to see what happens to Nora next. Thank you to NetGalley and Faber & Faber for letting me read and review this book. 4.5 ⭐️

Murder at Gulls nest is my first outing of Jess Kidd and first in a new series from the author
Set in the 1950’s England Nora Breen is an ex- nun who has just left a convent in Co Mayo where she has been residing for the last thirty years Where she was also a nurse looking after sick people. When she finds out about Frieda a former novice that has left the convent that she was still writing too has gone missing, So Noreen decides to visit the last place that she was seen, A boarding house calls Gulls nest in a small beach side town in Gore on Sea.
When she gets the boarding house is a little worse for wear Inside it there is an eclectic bunch of characters residing there. She starts investigating where her missing friend is but whilst she is there one of the residents is found dead. With the help of the local police inspector investigates not only where Freida is gone but resident of the boarding house found dead.
I was excited to read this as I have heard good things about this author. This is lovely, quaint cozy mystery, which has some great characters in it. Especially Nora who is trying to get to grips with her new life away from the convent. This is a great start to a new series, and I will look forward to more. 5 stars from me.

I’ve read three books by Jess Kidd and so far they’ve all been completely different. This new one, though, is described by the publisher as ‘the first in a sparkling new 1950s seaside mystery series’, so presumably she’s going to stick with one style and genre for her next few books. The series stars Nora Breen, a former nun who has left the convent that has been her home for the last thirty years. She’s an interesting and unusual character and I enjoyed meeting her in this first novel, Murder at Gulls Nest.

Gulls Nest is a guest house in the seaside town of Gore-on-Sea on the southeast coast of England. It’s also the last known address of Frieda, who was once a novice at Nora’s convent before leaving the order and promising to keep in touch. Frieda had been a good friend of Nora’s and when her letters stop arriving, Nora becomes so worried that she also decides to leave and travel to Gore-on-Sea to find out what has happened. Once at Gulls Nest, Nora learns that Frieda disappeared one night without explanation, yet no one else seems to be concerned about it, including the police. Convinced that something bad must have happened to her friend, Nora takes the room that was once Frieda’s and begins to investigate.

As Nora gets to know the other lodgers, she discovers that some of them are not what they seem and appear to be hiding secrets. Then a murder takes place, which may or may not be linked to Frieda’s disappearance. Nora is sure that if she can solve one crime it could provide clues to the other, but Inspector Rideout makes it clear that the police don’t want or need the assistance of a middle-aged ex-nun. Of course, Nora isn’t going to give up that easily!

Murder at Gulls Nest is as entertaining as I’ve come to expect from Jess Kidd’s books, with her usual array of colourful, quirky characters. Some of the most memorable are Professor Poppy, an elderly puppeteer who runs a Punch and Judy show; Dinah, the young daughter of the Gulls Nest landlady, who never speaks but sees everything that’s going on; and the exasperated Inspector Rideout, who wants Nora kept away from his investigation at all costs. I loved Nora’s relationship with Rideout and look forward to seeing how it continues to develop in the next book. As for Nora herself, although I couldn’t quite believe that she had until recently been a nun, I did like her as a character and enjoyed seeing her interacting with the other residents of Gore-on-Sea. I particularly loved the chapter where she’s invited to afternoon tea with the vicar and his ‘family’ – and I won’t spoil the fun by telling you what happens there!

At times this felt like a parody of a mystery novel rather than one to be taken too seriously, but at other times it became surprisingly dark, which kept things interesting all the way through. There’s also a good sense of time and place, bringing the 1950s British seaside setting to life. I hope we don’t have to wait too long for the second book.