A Cosy Murder at Wickham Green - A British Village Cosy Mystery #1012168

The chief judge tasted the damson jam. Twenty minutes later, he was dead.

It is Harvest Show week in Wickham Green, a honey-stoned Cotswold village with a slow church clock, a duck pond and a tea room that hears everything. Margot Ashby, retired school librarian and brand new owner of the secondhand bookshop on the green, has volunteered to run the tea urn in the marquee.

Then Cedric Hollingworth, the show's feared chief judge for twenty-two years, collapses after tasting the jams. The poison is in entry fourteen. And entry fourteen belongs to Margot's dearest friend, Dot, who cries at adverts and catches spiders in a glass.

Margot knows that Dot's prize damson jam only ever comes in her late mother's six-sided jars, tied with green wool. So why was there a round jar with a gold lid on the judging table? And where is Dot's real jar now?

With her elderly basset hound Wellington at her heels and a patient detective sergeant who is rather fond of her shortbread, Margot starts asking questions. The vicar's ambitious wife, the rival bookseller, the debt-ridden nephew and the sacked head gardener all had reasons to dislike Cedric. He had written every one of their secrets down. And someone in Wickham Green is quite prepared to kill again.

Perfect for readers who love:

• An amateur sleuth with a sharp eye and a kind heart
• A cosy English village full of gossip, tea and cake
• Fair-play clues you can solve alongside the heroine
• A loyal old dog who saves the day
• No swearing, no gore and nothing explicit
• The first book in a new British village mystery series