A Frightfully Fatal Affair

LoveReading Says

“You’re the dinner lady detectives. Murder’s kind of your thing.” The latest mystery in Hannah Hendy’s cosy-to-curl-up-with Dinner Lady Detective series opens with a lyrical, scene-setting prologue. A decomposing body lies in Dewstow Woods, a “dead weight under dead leaves. No longer a person, growing colder and colder. Just a vessel that used to hold some- thing much more.”

Quick as you like, the story shifts to a style that delivers minutiae detail on the comings and goings of the school canteen, where dinner ladies Margery and Clementine (the Mrs Butcher-Bakers) are wondering why maths teacher Mr Weaver has gone AWOL.

Then, when the Mrs Butcher-Bakers go to pick blackberries in the woods, they discover Mr Weaver’s body. His death is initially declared to have been caused by a heart attack, but what’s the significance of the symbols found near his body, and why does Margery have “the niggling feeling that there was something more to it all”?

Of course, Margery’s instincts are right - Mr Weaver was murdered - but Clementine insists they’re not to get involved this time: “This is too big for us, and if you got hurt again...” Suffice to say, the lure of the case is too much and, moreover, the police invite the Mrs Butcher-Bakers to go undercover. As more strange symbols appear in the village, the ladies are pulled ever-deeper into a mysterious, high-stakes case that delivers intrigue and warm comedy in equal measure. 

Reviewed by Joanne Owen
Joanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
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