How can a fan of cozy mysteries pass up one that calls itself “A British Stately Home Mystery”? When it involves a ghost hunt and a cafe called the Happy Huffkin Cafe? I was all in for Amy Myers’ Murder in the Grotto. Unfortunately, there was very little that appealed to me in the mystery, including the amateur sleuth.
Cara Shelley is forty-something, and runs the cafe at Tanton Towers. But, she answers to the Tanton Towers owners, Max and Alison Pryde. It’s even worse to answer to Max’s eccentric Aunt Izzy.
Ten years earlier, Izzy’s nephew Tom, was president of the Tanton Ghost and Phantom Society. He died of a heart attack after the group spent a night on the grounds looking for ghosts. Now, Izzy wants to recreate that night, and invites all of the group to spend the night in the grotto on the grounds, hunting for ghosts. She’s convinced Tom was murdered, and she hopes the ghost hunt will reveal his killer. Instead, another member of the group is killed.
Although DCI Andrew Mitchem has a full team investigating the latest death, Izzy recruits Cara to look into Tom’s death. So, Cara interviews members of the group, while trying not to get involved in the current investigation.
I’ll admit I didn’t care for the characters in the book, including Cara. And, Izzy drove me nuts with all her schemes. But, Murder in the Grotto also contained one of my pet peeves in cozies. Although Cara is manager of the cafe, she was never there to do her job since Izzy dragged her into one plot after another, and she was always interviewing members of the Society. Is that any way to run a cafe?
Murder at Tanton Towers is the first in the series, followed by Murder in the Grotto. One book is more than enough for me.
Amy Myers’ website is https://amymyers.net/
Murder in the Grotto by Amy Myers. Severn House, 2025. ISBN 9781448309993 (hardcover), 208p.
FTC Full Disclosure – I received a galley from the publisher, through NetGalley, with only a promise of an honest review.
Over the last several years, more cozy detectives are actually working their real jobs. I guess somebody didn’t get the memo.
That’s too bad. I must admit that I’ve never read one of her novels, but I have read quite a few of her short stories, and enjoyed the ones about Victorian-era chef Auguste Didier in EQMM. I’ve also read several about (also Victorian) chimney sweep Tom Wasp. Those sound better than this book. There are 10 Didier novels and three featuring Wasp.
Some time ago I’d read about Murder in the Grotto coming out in May, but upon checking I saw that it was the second in a series. Being a stickler about reading books in order, I got the first one, Murder at Tanton Towers. Not that I’ve read it yet, but it will now be especially interesting to see what I think of that one.