annieb123
Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.
A Body in a Cornish Village is the seventh Kate Palmer village cozy mystery by Dee MacDonald. Released 17th Aug 2023, it's 258 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free, along with the rest of books in the series.
Readers who enjoy British village cozy mysteries are in for a treat. Series protagonist Kate is a village nurse who is involved with a local expat American retired inspector. She keeps finding herself in the middle of village mysteries from poisoned pen letters to murder and the crimes show no signs of stopping. This time, a cookery show is in town and the show's unlamented writer / producer inconveniently drops dead leaving a plethora of credible suspects for being responsible for his demise..
The author is quite adept at characterization and setting. The characters live and breathe and the dialogue was never clunky. There were several seemingly disparate plot threads which intertwined into a satisfying denouement and resolution. Despite being the seventh book in the series, it worked well as a standalone, though there are some spoilers for earlier books if read out of order.
Four stars. This is definitely one for British village cozy readers. Very well written and constructed. Clean language and mostly off-page violence. The clues and plotting are "fair play" and readers are invited to figure out the puzzle alongside Kate.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.