"You know your social life needs work when your first Saturday night out in months ends in murder." ~ While at an Oxford art gallery, tearoom owner Gemma Rose overhears a sinister conversation minutes before a University student is fatally poisoned. Could there be a connection? And could her best friend's suave new boyfriend have anything to do with the murder? Gemma decides to do some snooping, helped by the nosy "Old Biddies" from the local Cotswolds village. But sleuthing isn't as simple as she'd imagined, particularly when she keeps bumping into her old college flame, now the CID detective in charge of the investigation. And with her mother causing havoc at her quaint English tearoom and her best friend furious with her suspicions, Gemma finds herself in a sticky spot...
The dead girl had no shortage of enemies and there are motives galore: was it the the angry rival student desperate for revenge? Or the resentful employee with a bitter grudge? Or maybe even a sly ex-lover determined to end their affair once and for all? Gemma finds that this mystery is turning out to have more twists than a Chelsea bun. Too late, she realises that she could be the next item on the killer's menu... or will her little tabby cat, Muesli, save the day?
(** Velvet Cheesecake recipe at the end of the story!)
This book follows British English spelling and usage.
Clean read: no graphic violence, sex, or strong language.
Genre: traditional mystery / British whodunit / cozy mystery series / culinary cozy mystery / cat cozy mystery / funny cozy mystery / women sleuth / amateur sleuth / English village mystery / British detective / cosy crime
The OXFORD TEAROOM MYSTERIES