The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp

A clever, crowd-pleasing cozy mystery about a lovable band of geriatrics swept up into a dark, at times madcap, murder investigation.

A band of lovable geriatrics who share a house in the quiet English countryside find themselves swept up in a murder investigation that escalates in The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp, a smart, clever cozy mystery by Leonie Swann (translated from the German by Amy Bojang).

 

The story is set at Sunset Hall, a dilapidated house in Duck End that belongs to Agnes Sharp, retired from the police force. Agnes now shares her domicile with five other, eccentric pensioners—three women and two men. The housemates long to stay independent and live on their own while battling memory lapses, hearing and vision loss, bad backs, hips, and more. However, when the body of a resident turns up dead in their garden shed, and a gun goes missing, their world is turned upside-down. Before the seniors can retrieve what they believe is the murder weapon, another aged woman is slain nearby. Can the two deaths be connected? This launches the housemates--and their pet tortoise--on a conniving, often madcap quest to find the killer while pitted against a host of obstacles, including their own limitations.

 

Swann’s perceptive storytelling resides amidst the offbeat—as evidenced in her other cozy, Three Bags Full, where a flock of ingenious sheep solves the murder of their shepherd. Via The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp, Swann once again perfectly balances playfulness and poignancy. She exposes and celebrates the elderly and infirm--their predicaments and secrets--delivering a refreshingly fun crowd-pleaser sure to charm mystery readers of all ages.

 

 

The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp by Leonie Swann (translated from the German by Amy Bojang)  

Soho Crime, $27.95 hardcover, 9780778387121, 360 pages

Publishing Date: August 29, 2023

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (September 1, 2023), link HERE

The Little Italian Hotel

 

A tender, hopeful story about a woman who, after her marriage comes undone, sets off on an inspiring Italian holiday with four strangers.

Five strangers are brought together on an Italian holiday in The Little Italian Hotel, a sweetly immersive novel brimming with the hope of new beginnings by Phaedra Patrick.

 

To celebrate 25-years of marriage, Ginny Splinter--a 49-year-old,  problem-solving, British radio talk show host--surprises her husband, Adrian, by planning an upscale trip to Italy for just the two of them. But when she presents the gift, Adrian announces that he doesn’t want to go on a vacation. He wants a divorce. Shaken and jarred, heartsick Ginny decides, on a lark, to invite four loyal listeners, at random, to accompany her on the trip instead. This is accomplished by her swapping out the pricy luxury accommodations she’d planned for her and Adrian in Vigornuovo, a small Italian village in Bologna, (10, 48) in exchange for more modest lodgings for she and her guests. The five strangers--ranging in age from 27 to 80--meet for the first time, where they all set off, touring Venice and Florence. The sights of Italy may be wonders to behold, but the life stories of the strangers--each on the cusp of change in his and her own life--prove equally enriching amidst the journey.

 

Patrick (The Messy Lives of Book People) is a beautiful writer of optimistic stories that probe the true meaning of life and the human quest to find happiness and fulfillment. In The Little Italian Hotel, she once again mines the bittersweet landscape of the human heart with great tenderness, insight, and wisdom.

 

 

The Little Italian Hotel by Phaedra Patrick

Park Row (Harlequin/Harper Collins), $18.99 original paperback, 9780778387121, 320 pages, Publishing Date: June 6, 2023

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (June 6, 2023), link HERE