Happy Wednesday book friends! Are you a fan of found family trope? Check out Welcome to Murder Week by Karen Dukess. Thank you Simon & Schuster Audio for the gifted copy!
Cath, grieving the sudden death of her mostly absentee mother, discovers her mother planned and paid for a trip to a small English village. Cath can’t believe her mother wanted to take her on a week long murder mystery adventure the village is putting on to boost tourism. Cath goes on the trip and ends up discovering more than just whodunnit. Here’s the full summary from the publisher:
When thirty-four-year-old Cath loses her mostly absentee mother, she is ambivalent. With days of quiet, unassuming routine in Buffalo, New York, Cath consciously avoids the impulsive, thrill-seeking lifestyle that her mother once led. But when she’s forced to go through her mother’s things one afternoon, Cath is perplexed to find tickets for an upcoming “murder week” in England’s Peak District: a whole town has come together to stage a fake murder mystery to attract tourism to their quaint hamlet. Baffled but helplessly intrigued by her mother’s secret purchase, Cath decides to go on the trip herself—and begins a journey she never could have anticipated.
Teaming up with her two cottage-mates, both ardent mystery lovers—Wyatt Green, forty, who works unhappily in his husband’s birding store, and Amity Clark, fifty, a divorced romance writer struggling with her novels—Cath sets about solving the “crime” and begins to unravel shocking truths about her mother along the way. Amidst a fling—or something more—with the handsome local maker of artisanal gin, Cath and her irresistibly charming fellow sleuths will find this week of fake murder may help them face up to a very real crossroads in their own lives.
This is the charming and delightful story. It’s a murder mystery without an actual murder. Cath teams up with Wyatt snd Amity to try to solve the pretend murder. They roam the village looking for clues and interviewing “suspects.” Honestly, the whole thing sounded extremely fun. But Cath and her new friends also dive into the mystery of Cath’s mother and why she booked the trip. The village’s mystery has nothing on the mystery of Cath’s mother. It’s an emotional journey for Cath as they uncover surprising truths. Cath also surprises herself with her attraction to the handsome local pub owner.
This book has a something for everyone. A cleaver fake murder mystery, family secrets, romance, jocular humor provided by Wyatt and Amity, and emotion. This one tugs at the heartstrings as Cath opens herself up to new friends and love while coming to terms with the mystery of her mother. Narrator Carlotta Brentan does a fantastic job voicing the many different characters and bringing the story to life.
I really don’t know why this book hasn’t gotten the attention from bookstagram that it deserves. Do yourself a favor and pick up this lovely, witty, and heartfelt book asap.
What’s an underrated book you think deserves more booksta love?
About the Author
Karen Dukess is the author of The Last Book Partyand Welcome to Murder Week. Karen has been a newspaper reporter in Florida, a magazine publisher in Russia, and a speechwriter on gender equality for the United Nations. She has a degree in Russian studies from Brown University and a master’s in journalism from Columbia University. She lives outside of New York City and in Truro on Cape Cod, where she interviews some of today’s most acclaimed writers as host of the Castle Hill Author Talks for the Truro Center for the Arts.
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