I was hooked early with this book and I am glad that I finished it but I did lose interest through the middle. It wasn't that it was too cosy, it just became really repetitive. All of the revelations and development came in the last quarter-ish of the book which felt too late. I wanted them more concrete and drip fed throughout to keep my interest up. Instead, the middle became a sequence of X person worrying about Kristen and suggesting Jeremy was an arse.

A bit of an odd rate and read really. I didn't want to ever give up but I also wasn't thrilled.

4.5 stars. I was pleasantly surprised by this - I thought it would be a cosy mystery with 4 women trying to solve a murder, and what I read was a twisty turny mystery where I began to suspect each of the 4 women as actually having done it… while I did find the character of Jeremy became almost a little too pantomime villain over time, I found I liked all the women and with the story developing over time, I kept changing my mind on whodunnit (I did guess correctly before the end though!). Tennis features of course, but not exhaustively so and wouldn’t be off putting to anyone who doesn’t want to read a shot-by-shot description of matches.

In short - good mystery, characters you’ll care about, would recommend!

I received a free ARC copy of this via NetGalley and publishers Orion, in return for an unbiased review.

A hot summer's day. A tennis championship in the home counties. Cake, lovely cake.

What could possibly go wrong?

When the coach drops dead after tucking into the cake...

Excellent