Welcome once again to 1921 and the village of Walmsley Parva, deepest Kent, where in the once-wealthy house The Beeches, American adventurer Beryl Halliwell has taken up residence with her friend Edwina Davenport, a local lady who can’t get staff these days. All Edwina has left is her scruffy gardener Simpkins. And to her annoyance, Simpkins has taken up residence in the potting shed, which is hardly proper. This starts another fine-feathered genteel mystery for Beryl and Edwina, last seen investigating pigeon-racers in Murder Flies The Coop.

MURDER CUTS THE MUSTARD gains its title from the unexpected inheritance of a mustard and pickle firm by a villager. But before we reach this point, the death has occurred of the shabby boozer, Hector Lomax. The brother-in-law and housemate of Hector Lomax was Simpkins, and the men had been quarrelling, which is why Simpkins took himself off to the shed of his employer. Constable Gibbs – a lady constable, nice touch – is investigating, but Beryl and Edwina are asked to look into the matter by Simpkins’s stout-hearted young son.  What else are private investigators for? I for one think the contrasting ladies are a fine guide to the summer of 1921, and we see what life was like for villagers recovering from the Great War as well as a serious drought which afflicted the fruit growing area.  

In MURDER CUTS THE MUSTARD, a typewriter is a means by which a woman can improve her prospects. Before the War such machines were usually the preserve of men, because women had lower earning power and men took all the clerking jobs. But as we see, so many men were removed from the industries that women moved into their posts and typing started to become a woman’s job, upon which women could leave menial tasks and earn better. I love meeting this kind of social history in mysteries. Author Jessica Ellicott has researched carefully, so we see the first radio results of the Epsom Derby, among other niceties. Settings vary and we get a continual arrival of new characters as the story unfolds and new motives keep being introduced. The exciting historical sleuth story MURDER CUTS THE MUSTARD is constantly full of information and surprises, which will keep you coming back to this series for more.  

Book Summary