Seventy-seven-year-old Judith Potts isn’t one for staying out of other people’s business and when she hears shouting and a gunshot coming from her neighbour’s garden whilst she is out swimming she is certain that there has been a murder but the police don’t seem to think so. That is until Judith does a bit more digging and finds her neighbour’s body.

Given that Marlow is a sleepy village the police think that it is more likely her neighbour killed himself rather than was murdered but Judith is having none of it. As more bodies start stacking up Judith decides to get hands-on with the help of dog walker Suzie and a reluctant helper Vicar’s wife Becks.

As the list of suspects increases, Judith soon realises that her life may be in danger, but she isn’t a woman to be reckoned with.

The Marlow Murder Club is probably my favourite book of the year so far (I know we are only 20 days in). It is so refreshing to have a cast of older protagonists and a sleepy village having its name ruined by a string of murders and a local copper out of her depth.

The characters are charming, humorous, and clever as well as deceiving and happy to put their lives literally on the line to find a killer and to help the police officer, DS Tanika Malik, who has been put in charge of finding the killer or a team will be sent to the village to do her job.

The writing is superb. There are enough hints, twists, and turns to keep the pages turning and the setting is so perfectly written that you can visualise the whole book. I’d love to see this on the screen as it is definitely TV material, even if I do know the ending.

I would also love to see the women again, amateur sleuthing and helping out the police as they have a real knack for it. This is a book I didn’t want to put down and I finished it in the early hours of the morning as I just couldn’t stop reading and wanted to put all the pieces of the puzzle together.