A Cold Nose for Murder (A Chatty Corgi Mystery, #3)

by Jennifer Hawkins

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

A Cold Nose for Murder is the third Chatty Corgi cozy village mystery by Jennifer Hawkins. Released 5th July 2022 by Penguin Random House on their Berkley imprint, it's 352 pages and is available in mass market 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. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a fun, very light, well written murder mystery series with an intelligent middle aged female protagonist named Emma and her saucy opinionated corgi whom she can understand perfectly well and who has opinions and suggestions about *everything* (the dog, not Emma). The author does a super job with the returning characters who are three dimensional, quirky, and mostly appealing. In small-town cozy style, the book is peopled by characters who are by turns nosy, exasperating, fun, or just odd. It's a nice distraction to figure out "whodunit", and the plot moves along at a good clip and doesn't drag or hiccup.

The story is lighthearted and flows well, and in good cozy fashion, the language is clean and the violence occurs off-page. The story is occasionally a tiny bit precious and over the top, but the protagonist has a talking dog (who only she can understand) and I never found myself being yanked out of the story. The author has clearly gone to some pains to learn about motorcycle history and there are small tidbits of trivia scattered throughout since the main plotline is built around an antique Vincent Black Lightning motorcycle.

Although it's the third book in the series, the mystery is self contained and the author is adept enough at providing the necessary character backstory, that it works perfectly well as a standalone. The story, climax, denouement, and resolution are all satisfying and cleverly wrought.

Four stars. Very fun. It would make a good selection for public library acquisition, and the series would be a nice candidate for binge reading poolside or possibly mystery book club discussion.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.