The Queen of Poisons by Robert Thorogood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars rounded up **
💙💚🖤💙💚🖤💙💚🖤💙💚🖤💙💚🖤💙
The Queen of Poisons is the 3rd-installment in The Marlow Murder Club Cozy Mystery series. I really enjoyed the first 2-books and have been anticipating this one.
This series follows Judith Potts, a septuagenarian crossword setter, and her two best friends, Suzie and Becks, as they nose around their community of Marlow solving mysteries.
This particular story is set amongst the world of local politics, as the Mayor of Marlow, George Lushington, died mysteriously during a town council meeting.
After traces of the poison, aconite, are found in his coffee cup, it’s clear to all that Mayor Lushington was killed on purpose. Known for a track history of barging in to solve crimes, the police preemptively bring in Judith, Suzie and Becks, from the start as civilian advisors.
The women are allowed to interview suspects and search for clues to their hearts’ content. The ladies are excited for their role and dig in with great gusto.
This is going to be a tough case to crack though, but aren’t they all? Who could have gotten the poison into the mayor’s coffee, and for that matter, who could have gotten a hold of the poison in the first place?
This is such a cute Cozy series. I do love this friend group and the dynamics amongst them. IMO, this was a bit of an odd whodonit, like some of the details at the reveal just seemed strange to me, but nevertheless, I enjoyed it a lot.
I’m in for the long haul with this series, and am def hoping for more books. I’ll admit, my mind wasn’t 100% on task with this one, since I’m traveling.
With this being said, I still found this engaging and fun. I would recommend this series to all Cozy Mystery fans, in particular if you enjoy friendship groups solving mysteries together, or elderly amateur sleuths.
Thank you to the publisher, Poisoned Pen Press and Recorded Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’ll be waiting for more Marlow Murder Club!!!