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 .

Set in Birmingham in the 1960’s Miss Hortense, a retired Jamaican nurse, finds herself solving the murder of one of the members of the local "pardner" savings group that she herself was once a member of.

She’s a strong, memorable character—a mix of Miss Marple and Sherlock Holmes. This murder mystery read is perfect for fans of strong female characters -I hope we get to see more of Miss Hortense in the near future!

An engaging read with hints of Miss Marple and Poirot, and from the ending it looks like Miss Hortense will be back to solve another case so that’s a story I’m looking forward to reading. I loved the banter between Hortense and Blossom which added to the storyline so hopefully we’ll see more of that in the books to come. A delightful 5 star read for me.

What a brilliant character. I warmed to Miss Hortense immediately; the writing brought her vividly to life and I felt as if I could see and hear her. She’s a powerful figure, blessed with an enquiring and intelligent mind, ideally suited to investigating the crime at the centre of this tale. I felt as if this story gave real insight into the community in the late 1960s. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to uproot from a warm and vibrant country and culture to a cold and often antagonistic country where immigrants were treated very badly.

This is such a clever story. It’s original, skilfully plotted and bursting with life. I loved the patois and the pages literally flew by. More please and I hope this is received to widespread acclaim. I loved it.