It’s been an enjoyable and murder-free time for Judith, Suzie and Becks – AKA the Marlow Murder Club – since the events of last year. The most exciting thing on the horizon is the upcoming wedding of Marlow grandee, Sir Peter Bailey, to his nurse, Jenny Page. Sir Peter is having a party at his grand mansion on the river Thames the day before the wedding, and Judith and Co. are looking forward to a bit of free champagne.

But during the soiree, there’s a crash from inside the house, and when the Marlow Murder Club rush to investigate, they are shocked to find the groom-to-be crushed to death in his study.

The study was locked from the inside, so the police don’t consider the death suspicious. But Judith disagrees. As far as she’s concerned, Peter was murdered! And it’s up to the Marlow Murder Club to find the killer before he or she strikes again…

Death Comes to Marlow is the second book in The Marlow Murder Club Mysteries. I reviewed the first book back in January 2021 and couldn’t wait to be back with the amateur sleuths Judith, Suzie, and Becks.

The book follows the case of Sir Peter Bailey who is killed when a heavy cabinet falls on him in a locked room the day before his wedding at his wedding party. Judith had received a phone call from Sir Peter asking her to attend the party and she seemed to think that he invited her knowing he was going to be killed.

However, given the cause of death seems to be blunt force trauma from the cabinet falling on him and that he was in a locked room only he had the key for the police are not convinced that his death is murder, whereas Judith certainly does.

Once again the three women are fast on the case to prove the police wrong and that Sir Peter was indeed killed and bring the killer to justice. The story moves along at a decent pace and just like in book one there are plenty of amusing moments, especially using the radio station Suzie works at to follow a potential subject – This I did laugh at.

However, whilst I enjoyed the book and will continue reading about the ladies and their detecting, this book felt more that Judith was in charge and the others just padded along behind her. I was also unsure what the returning officer brought to the table except to make it clear the police wouldn’t be looking into the case, I expect his return to have a greater impact later in the story.

The book is good fun and has an interesting plot you can perfectly visualise. The characters and how they conducted their business kept me interested and entertained throughout. I now look forward to reading book three.

Robert Thorogood is an English screenwriter. He is best known as the creator of the BBC 1 Murder Mystery Series, Death in Paradise.

Robert wrote for many years – selling scripts to the BBC, ITV and independent film companies – but before 2011 the only script of his that was actually broadcast was a Radio 4 afternoon play called From Abstraction about the life of Paul Wolfskehl.

In 2008, Robert entered the inaugural Red Planet Prize and was a chosen finalist, where he was able to pitch his ‘Copper in the Caribbean’ idea to Tony Jordan. By 2011, when the show was finally broadcast – making it Robert’s first TV broadcast credit at the age of 39 – Robert had become something of a poster boy for ‘never giving up on the dream’.