On this Mysterious Monday, we are taking a quick look at a
delightful cat cozy in the Oxford Tearoom Mystery series by H. Y. Hanna. Till Death Do Us Tart is the fourth book
in the series, but it’s the first one we’ve had a chance to read. As you might
have guessed, this series is set in Oxford (the one in England), and there are
tasty pastries involved. That’s because the main human character, Gemma Rose,
owns a place called the Little Stables Tearoom. She also has a tabby cat named
Muesli, and she (Gemma, not Muesli) has a penchant for getting involved in
murder investigations.
The story
Till Death Do Us Tart
has Gemma’s mother entering Muesli in the Cotswolds Cat Fancy Club Show at the
Meadowford village fair. Things go weird when a rather odd woman accuses Gemma
of trying to poison her cats. Then this odd woman also accuses the rude and
snooty Dame Clare Eccleston of trying to poison the prized cats, whereafter Dame
Clare Eccleston drops dead. Heart attack, as the doctor quickly proclaims, or…murder?
Gemma’s mother and her band of friends involve themselves in
trying to solve the murder, and of course Gemma gets drawn in too, despite
the protests of her detective boyfriend, Devlin. Will they be able to convince anyone in authority that a crime was actually committed, or will they just spook the culprit into killing again?
The verdict
We found this to be a totally enjoyable and very funny read.
With the odd murder and touch of humor in an Oxford setting, this book is sort
of like Midsomer Murders meets Inspector Lewis, only with tea and cats.
(That sentence will only make sense to you if you are addicted to British
mysteries on PBS, which if you aren’t, what on earth is wrong with you?) We add
the Oxford Tearoom mysteries to the series we want to read from the start and
give Till Death Do Us Part a very enthusiastic Two Paws Up.
Highly recommended!
(Note: The ad below is an Amazon Associates link. If you purchase the book through this link, we get paid a little tiny bit!)
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