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| About the Book |
Death at the Village Chess Club
With her Curiosity Shop open for business, Alice Carroll is finally settling into life in the picturesque Cotswold village of Little Pride. But then her old life comes knocking… Alice’s ex boyfriend, Steven, who dumped her to travel the world, has run out of money and asks Alice to sell off his collection of chess sets.
Alice decides to host a tournament to showcase the boards, and her plan seems to be working. That is, until chess pieces begin to mysteriously disappear. And when a body is discovered outside the tournament, Alice realises that the victim was a pawn in another, far more dangerous game.
As the host of the event, Alice is eager to help the police investigate. She doesn’t know why anyone would be interested in stealing random chess pieces, let alone willing to kill for them, but she’s determined to find out. Can she solve the case before someone else gets hurt? Or will this be one gambit too far for Alice?
Purchase Link - https://mybook.to/VillageChessClub
Author Bio –
Debbie Young writes warm, witty, feel-good contemporary fiction inspired by life in the English village where she lives with her Scottish husband and their teenage daughter.
Her Sophie Sayers Village Mystery series begins with "Best Murder in Show" and the first seven books run the course of a calendar year in the life of a classic English Cotswold village. Originally intended to be a seven-book series, further books will follow, due to reader demand.
She also writes the romantic comedy mystery series, Staffroom at St Bride's, set in the staffroom of an English girls' boarding school. The series will eventually be six books long, running the course of an academic year, and the first book is "Secrets at St Bride's".
Her books were shortlisted in 2020 and 2021 for The Selfies Award, given to the best self-published adult fiction in the UK.
She also writes short stories and has published three themed collections, "Marry in Haste", "Quick Change", and "Stocking Fillers", and had stories included in many anthologies.
When she's not writing, she does other bookish things, such as speaking or reading her work at literary events, such as Crimefest, the leading international crime writing event, the Cheltenham Literature Festival and the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival, the event that she founded for her local community.
She's a member of the Society of Authors and the UK Ambassador for the Alliance of Independent Authors.
She loves reading, bellringing, singing in the local choir, gardening, knitting, sketching and travelling with her family in their camper van. Her many hobbies mean she is never short of ideas for her gentle tales of rural life.
Social Media
Facebook: @DebbieYoungAuthor
Twitter: @DebbieYoungBN
Instagram: @debbieyoungauthor
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Bookbub profile: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/debbie-young
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| My thoughts |
I've made no secret of the fact that I love Debbie Young's Sophie Sayers series (I confess, I think I'm a little in love with Hector... or maybe it's his bookshop?) so when Ms Young started another, different, series also set in a fictional English Cotswold village close to where the Sophie Sayers series is set, I read the first one with some trepidation. I liked it ... and now there is the second in this new series and I'm terribly torn! Do I root for Hector's Bookshop or for Alice Carroll's Curiosity Shop? But, were I to get the chance to actually visit the Cotswolds, I've a feeling I'd spend quite some time browsing Alice's intriguing shop because it sounds fascinating!
In other words, I thoroughly enjoyed this second in the series of murder mysteries. It was, to be honest, a little predictable but this is a cosy mystery, meant as entertainment not as a full-on police procedure 'whodunit' - it's the journey alongside the characters as they unpick the puzzle (or in this case, a game of chess) that counts, and the characters are definitely delightful and very much worth getting to know.
A quick-read, light, pleasant adventure, ideal for ignoring the rain as it pours outside, me curled up before a roaring winter fire, cup of tea and packet of chocolate digestives to hand, thoroughly engrossed.
Highly recommended. But beware: you might end up wanting to buy a themed chess set after reading this - or find yourself searching out knitting patterns, needles and some wool...
Looking forward to the next one.
Definitely * * * * * 5 stars
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Amazon Author Page: https://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick
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