The Murders in Great Diddling by Katarina Bivald
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars**
The Murders in Great Diddling is an Adult Mystery that follows the events in a small British village after a tragic explosion kills a not popular local citizen.
Berit Gardner, an author, moves to town searching for inspiration. There’s got to be stories just waiting to be told amongst the rag-tag group of locals. With a book deadline looming, she needs a story to pop up soon.
Berit never could’ve predicted she’d become a part of the story herself though, which is exactly what happens after an explosion in the village’s grand manor library, where Berit, amongst others, are attending a tea party.
A man is killed and the town descends into chaos.
The citizens of Great Diddling, each more eccentric than the last, band together and come up with a plan to turn the town’s new found notoriety into a windfall.
Thus, the Book & Murder Festival is created hoping to bring some needed tourists to town. Little did they know how much this would end up changing all of their lives.
I enjoyed this story quite a bit. While it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, I still found it to be entertaining and humorous. I love a bit a chaos.
I listened to the audiobook and highly recommend that format. The narration by Helen Lloyd was beautifully done and I swear, I could listen to her voice all day. It was perfectly matched to this story.
I was expecting a more Cozy feel. It def did contain some Cozy elements, but to me the tone, overall, felt more along the lines of The Thursday Murder Club as opposed to say the Nosey Parker Mystery series, in that it has some more serious issues explored alongside the actual mystery.
I feel like this was a good start to a series, although it will take me some more time to get attached to these characters.
I did love the setting. I thought Great Diddling was a lot of fun, the town struggling and then coming up with a plan to sort of reboost their economy, even if it was on the heels of a tragedy, was clever and I was rooting for them.
Overall, I found this to be engaging and amusing, even if slightly confusing at times due to the vast cast of characters.
Thank you to the publisher, Dreamscape Media, for providing me with a copy to read and review. If this series continues, I will absolutely pick up the next book!