Georgie Radcliffe finds herself acting as an amateur sleuth because she a) pays attention and b) is a keen horticulturalist. She lives at Radcliffe Hall in Buncombe-upon-Wooly, a small village in the Cotswolds in the 1930s. In that tiny village, there have been four murders, three of which she solved through her horticultural knowledge.

So far you’re thinking that this is about as cosy as cosy mysteries get, and you wouldn’t be wrong, but there are three critical distinctions.

1. There is a bite of acid because Georgie is curmudgeonly.
2. It’s a self-aware cosy mystery with touches of meta critique of the genre, including murder tourists – more on those later.
3. There’s a freshness to it due in no small part to the fact that homosexuality is accepted with not an ounce of homophobia in sight amongst the characters.

Georgie is sure that the council chairman has been murdered (this would be murder number 5 within the space of a year) but his death is ruled as due to natural causes. Frustrated by the local police’s lack of interest, she contacts a famous detective based in London. Only, the detective sends his secretary, Sebastian Fletcher-Ford, who on the surface is a glossy thoroughbred of a man. With his perfect jumpers, crisp trousers, shiny shoes and general air of handsome flirtation, he is the opposite of the serious detective that Georgie had sought out.

Georgie is a lovable grump and I’m such a sucker for a woman grump. She has made herself indispensable to her family and the village and put her own dreams on a dusty shelf. This status quo is shaken up not by the murders, but by one Sebastian Fletcher-Ford. For the first third of the book, Georgie is scathing in her takedowns of the flirtatious Sebastian. Things begin to change during a single memorable conversation. From that point on, the reluctant warmth and interest from Georgie is delicious. She bends ever so slightly towards him while he openly beams at her. To quote the murder tourists, this is the romantic subplot and it’s lovely.

The main plot is the mystery of who killed the council chairman. This is a mostly well-plotted part of the tale. There are clear clues that lead you to the murder. Not that the story is predictable. There are red herrings and a few twists. I would describe the mystery plot as satisfying, if a little saggy in the middle when not a huge amount happens.

About those murder tourists. They have been drawn to the village by the crime spree. They’re avid devotees of murder mystery novels who visit notable sites where murders took place, and visit the murder exhibition hosted in the village hall. It’s a lot. They form part of the meta critique of the genre – both novel and true crime. Critically, this angle is not patronising nor does it seek to shame true crime aficionados. It’s a kind-hearted takedown of the genre.

There is a great cast of side characters: Georgie’s dramatic sister, slightly ditzy dad, her reporter friend Arthur, her one friend in the local police force, and the characters who make up the victims, suspects and witnesses in the mystery plot. I really really enjoyed my time with them all.

I had a good experience with this book. Yes, there are flaws (like that saggy middle I mentioned), but it was an enjoyable week of early morning reading. Give this book a go.