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J.M. Hall has a lightness of touch that is hugely entertaining and the book is not only a delight to read, it’s witty and brilliantly plotted. Little hooks at the end of each chapter compel the reader onwards and the chapter summaries at the beginning are so intriguing it’s impossible to put the story down.
The plot flows at an even pace, with numerous humorous moments. There are a veritable plethora of red herrings and multiple suspects who could be responsible for Topsy's death, but WHY? Why would anyone want to murder a harmless, if slightly befuddled, old lady? They learn from Topsy’s daughter that recently she had been cruelty defrauded of her life savings by a telephone scammer. By the next Thursday Topsy is dead after apparently muddling up her pills. Yet something doesn’t feel right to her friends prompting them to do some sleuthing of their own. No further details to avoid spoilers. Daisy and Hazel think baby Teddy is enough to deal with, but as always the girls are never far from a mystery.
Creative Play
Set in the charming village of Thirsk, Yorkshire , when three retired primary school teachers, (Thelma, Pat and Liz), are faced with the suspicious death of a friend, Topsy, they reluctantly take up the task of uncovering the “ordinary evil” lurking beneath the unassuming facade of their quiet and comfortable neighborhood. Hazel Wong (Wong Fung Ying 黃鳳英, also known as Ying Ying Ying)- Vice-President and Secretary of the Detective Society
I really enjoyed reading along as the three friends and retired school teachers work their way through an unintentional post-retirement position: amateur sleuths solving a murder/mystery plot involving an ex coworker. Not what they had planned…but stumbled into nevertheless. The story takes a while to get going, with the author giving us time to get to know Thelma, Pat and Liz and their personalities, insecurities and family concerns. Thelma becomes concerned about one of her former pupils experiencing money problems, Pat is worried about her weight and her son and some unknown “internet problems”, while Liz is worried about her grandson’s tantrums in a highly regarded school. Also, Topsy’s death exposes a series of schemes targeting seniors, which has all three of the friends understandably upset.A Spoonful of Murder by J.M. Hall is a great cozy mystery that takes a trio of retired educators and turns them into amateur sleuths…a murder/mystery novel that was quite the enjoyable ride. THE AUTHOR: J.M. Hall is a 20-something PR executive based in New York City. A Philadelphia native, he began writing fiction during his time at the University of Miami before embarking on a career in corporate communications. During the day, he can be found getting top-tier press for his clients in outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Fortune and USA Today.
Without a hint of condescension, J.M. Hall imbues his senior citizen characters with warmth, humour and humanity. Certainly Liz, Thelma and Pat have their foibles and flaws, but there’s no writing off people just because they might be retired. Their collective experience of previously working in a school is pitch perfect, so that all three women are warm, quirky and just like anyone you might know in real life. This makes them so endearing and believable. The girls must work together like never before, confronting dangerous gangs and sinister private detectives to solve the crimes and discover the villain - before it's too late.This book follows ex colleagues Liz, Pat and Thelma as they meet up every Thursday to catch up on each other’s lives. One Thursday they bump into another one of the old colleagues, Topsy, and her daughter. It turns out that Topsy has been diagnosed with dementia that has been getting progressively worse since the death of her husband, and the only person in her life she has caring for her is her daughter. During this surprise encounter the girls are concerned for Topsy after she shares some insights into her life that aren’t quite right.
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