The Marlow Murder Club is just plain fun to read; I think I had a smile on my face most of the time as I read it. Robert Thorogood has created the perfect trio of amateur sleuths: each smart, each funny, each resourceful, each flawed in some way, and a force to be reckoned with when all three of them stand together.

Judith Potts is one of those lovable English eccentrics who loves her whisky, shares her knowledge of crossword puzzles, and doesn't pass up an opportunity to go skinny dipping in the Thames. Becks Starling is the local vicar's wife, who has a touch of OCD (keep a tight rein on her when visiting a crime scene), plenty of useful local contacts, and really knows how to think on her feet. Suzie Harris, as a local dog walker, has her own contacts, and-- whether she realizes it or not-- is just as strong and important as the other two members of the Marlow Murder Club.

These three women share their findings with Detective Sergeant Tanika Malik, who finds herself as Senior Investigating Officer of multiple murders because her superior is on sick leave. At first, the three women drive Malik batty, but she soon sees that they can be quite a help to her, and she comes up with an ingenious way to bring them on board her investigation.

The Marlow Murder Club is being described as Agatha Christie-esque and compared with Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club. I think both comparisons are superficial and more wishful marketing than anything else. For me, the characterizations outshone the mystery because of its (to me) obvious plot connection to an Alfred Hitchcock movie, so as far as I'm concerned, this book is more Hitchcock than Christie-- which isn't necessarily a bad thing. As far as the Osman comparison, it's all marketing. Both books feature at least one elderly person solving a crime. For my money, Thorogood's The Marlow Murder Club is much the better choice. It keeps its focus and its humor, and the more manageable, smaller band of sleuths absolutely sparkles. I can't wait to see what happens in Marlow next.

Take a dash of Miss Marple's curiosity, add the self-assurance of a 77-year-old who doesn't mind swimming nude in the river near her house, and a brain that enjoys puzzles - and you have Judith Potts. When she finds her neighbor dead, she decides the police aren't taking the investigation seriously enough and begins her own sleuthing. She pulls in Suzie (the local dogwalker) and Becks (the vicar's wife) to help with her search for clues. Before long they are enlisting friends and acquaintances to give them details about the lives of their suspects, setting up appointments with the suspects at work to have the chance to ask them questions, and generally putting themselves in danger and driving the local detective sergeant to distraction.

There are impersonations, confrontations, a lot of gin being consumed (mostly by Judith), an adorable dog named Emma, and an overworked female DS who begins to suspect that the ladies may be onto the truth. The three sleuths are an odd mix of personalities and ages with Judith a fairly well off widower in a nice home, Suzie more of a free-spirit who stays busy with her dogwalking and dogsitting, and Becks determined to be the perfect housewife with a sparkling clean house and smartly turned out in her yoga outfit. But between them they know many of the residents in Marlow and can compare notes about what their questioning uncovers.

The story has the feel of a cozy mystery with its village setting, but the women seem more like Richard Osman's <i>The Thursday Murder Club</i> with its mix of members that each have a specialty that helps in the investigation. If you enjoy mysteries that include unlikely amateur detectives, female bonding, and small town settings, then you should pick this book up right away.

Judith Potts is a seventy something year old woman who enjoys crosswords from The Times paper, when she discovers a dead body. The Police have their theory, but Judith isn't so sure about that. Judith's suspicions are confirmed when another body turns up dead - there is a serial killer on the loose! Judith and her sidekick work to solve the crime.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a free advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Judith, a crossword setter is living a quiet life when she stumbles across her neighbour’s body. Although the police believe it could be suicide, Judith is sure he was murdered and is determined to bring his killer to justice. A cute cozy with a strong tenacious female lead and some great sidekicks. Thx to NetGalley & Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The best way I can describe the feel of this book is quirky Agatha Christie, particularly Miss Marple. I absolutely adored this book and these characters. I will say that for most of the book I did not see the connections, no did I feel like we were given enough to work the mystery out ourselves; however, I was just along for the ride. The book starts off with a comical scene and just continues from there. If you like friendship and mysteries, you should give it a try. Such a fun read thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an advanced reader copy.

This book had such an interesting premise, and I always have a soft spot for older protagonists -- especially ones who solve crime -- but both the plot and characters in this book fell a little flat for me. It was an enjoyable read overall, but nothing about any of the characters really stands out or makes the story particularly memorable after I reached the denouement.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for an honest review.

Seventy-seven year old, crossword puzzle setter, Judith Potts is my favorite! Thorogood's novel may be set in sleepy little Marlow, England on the banks of the Thames, but this isn't a sleeper of a novel. I enjoy a cozy mystery featuring unassuming amateur sleuths and Judith, Susie, and Becks do not disappoint. I though the mystery was clever with enough red herrings to keep readers guessing until the final reveal. The dynamic between the women is great and I appreciated that they were not friends before they started to solve the murders happening in Marlow.

My only issue is how Thorogood talked about character's body shapes and weights. It wasn't full-on fat phobic, but it's borderline and could have been handled better.

Judith Potts is a spunky 77-year-old senior citizen. Judith enjoys crossword puzzles, a good glass of whiskey, and the occasional nude swim. Yes, you read that correctly, Lol! 😂

When Judith is out for a skinny dip one evening, she hears a scream, followed by a gunshot. Judith contacts the police, but the officer dismisses Judith as an old lady who should mind her business. The news of her neighbor's murder does not sit well with gutsy Judith. She gathered her friends, aka The Marlow Murder Club, and they are determined to track down the murderer. According to Judith and her Club, this seems reasonable. What could go wrong?🤷

In the Marlow Murder Club, the main characters engage in humorous antics and adorable banter. Readers experience a suspenseful reality. Robert Thorogood's writing is quirky and unconventional. It is a pleasure to read. 4.5 Huge STARS!⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Marlow Murder Club is available on May 3rd.

Thank you, NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press, for this delightful adventure. Your kindness is appreciated.

I raced through this absolute gem of a cozy mystery set in the town of Marlow.

We meet our main protagonist Judith who hears a gun shot whilst skinny dipping in the Thames and then inserts herself into the murder investigation with some help along the way from a local dog walker and the vicarage wife.

The characters are engaging and loveable and I was really rooting for them throughout. There were places where I laughed out loud and I didn’t want to put this book down. I will most definitely look out for more from this author.

If you enjoy eccentric sleuths of a certain age, crosswords, and ensemble cast mysteries, you'll want to check out The Marlow Murder Club. Seventy-seven year old Judith Potts is just fine on her own, thank you very much. That is, until she overhears a murder.

Her questions bring her into contact with two women who are quite different from her. The three ladies set out to discover the truth and find friendship along the way. If you're a fan of The Thursday Murder Club, The Marlow Murder Club is a read-alike.

Full episode about The Marlow Murder Club will release on May 5, 2022 and be available for download on any podcast app. Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for a review copy. All opinions are my own.

I am willing to overlook the fact that the premise of this cozy mystery is practically copied and pasted straight form the Thursday Murder Club (which I love) for the fact that Judith Potts is an endearing old crow who I will always be interested in reading about! This was a wonderfully executed cozy mystery with wonderful characters and just enough plot to keep things interesting.

What an adorable main character and comrades! Move over Murder She Wrote…you have some competition! 77 year old Judith Potts is up for an adventure, no husband to please, drinking with no limits and swims naked each evening in the Thames! Yes, Why not? Her friends Susie and Becks join her when she investigates a murder next door. She was swimming naked when she heard her neighbor yell then a gunshot. She calls 911 and they are apprehensive to investigate. When they don’t do a thorough job, she goes back and finds his body.
These 3 hoots are funny and unafraid when their amateur sleuthing make several connections, but the body count continues to climb. They concocted many stories to weasel their way into offices and businesses and confront their suspects even when the police told them to back off.
The ending was surprising and fun to sum up all their clues they had gathered. If you are into an old vibe mystery, this one is for you!
Thank you Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for this delightful read in exchange for my review!

Judith loves swimming in the Thames. constructing cross word puzzles, and her life at the age of 77. So when a neighbor is murdered and the police haven't solved the crime, she enlists her friends Susie and Becks. These three mature women bring different but complimentary talents to the case, which is to be honest, a bit less interesting than they are. It's a cozy with good characters and atmospherics. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It would fun to see this trio again.

Judith Potts is a bit of an eccentric, living happily alone in the Marlow mansion she inherited from her late Great Aunt Betty, along with a portfolio of investments that keep her well off. Setting crosswords for national newspapers keeps her mind occupied. For physical exercise, she likes to slip nude into the River Thames, accessible via the boathouse at the end of her garden, for an invigorating, semi-private swim. It’s on one of these pleasant jaunts that she hears a shout and a shot ring out from the garden of her neighbor across the river, Stefan Dunwoody.

Unable to breach the reinforcing wall Stefan had placed between his property and the eroding river, Judith hurries home to ring the police, then watches anxiously from her window:

QUOTE
If anyone had been out on the river at that precise moment and had had occasion to look up at Judith’s mansion, they’d have seen a very short and comfortably plump woman in her late seventies with wild gray hair standing entirely naked in her bay window, a cape over her shoulders as if she were some kind of a superhero. Which in many ways she was.

She just didn’t know it yet.
END QUOTE

Trouble is, the constable sent over to investigate finds nothing amiss at Stefan’s. His boss, Detective Sergeant Tanika Malik, gives Judith a courtesy ring the next morning that leaves them both dissatisfied, as the detective is sure that there’s a reasonable explanation for what Judith heard. Determined to find out more, Judith heads over to Stefan’s herself, fighting her way into the wildest corners of his river-facing garden to find the worst sort of proof: his corpse with a bullet hole directly in the center of his forehead.

While Tanika has to accept that Judith definitely wasn’t just imagining things, she does warn the older woman against imperiling herself by looking into the matter further. Judith, of course, pays little heed. Already unconvinced of the local police’s competency, she decides to take matters into her own hands when it comes to getting to the bottom of her friend’s death. But then the murderer strikes again, killing a seemingly unrelated taxi driver. Intrigued by this conundrum, Judith applies her considerable brain power to the task of tracking down a serial killer, picking up along the way a small group of women also concerned enough by the murders to get involved with solving them.

Among these women are Suzie Harris, a professional dog walker with empty nest syndrome, and Becks Starling, the prim and proper wife of the local vicar. These crime fighters use their various strengths and resources to track down vital information, forming in the process the Marlow Murder Club. But will their club prove short-lived when a killer decides to snuff out at least one of the pesky investigators who’s coming far too close to the truth?

Robert Thorogood has written a delightful Play Fair puzzler that hearkens back to the classics of the genre while providing fresh new twists. My favorite innovation of his was the formation of the titular club itself, with each of our sleuths being fully fleshed characters and not merely investigating machines with suggestions of personality to be sketched out, hopefully, in later installments of the series (and I do hope this is the first in a series!) It’s refreshing, too, that each of these women faces her own singular, quite modern, existential challenge:

QUOTE
When Becks’s phone rang, she was in the process of making mayonnaise with a hand whisk. She had a perfectly good food mixer that could have done the job in seconds. In fact, she lived next to any number of shops that would have sold her organic artisanal mayonnaise over the counter. But in the absence of knowing quite what she was doing with her life, Becks clung to the only truth she knew: she was a housewife, and as such, her only sanity was to be the best housewife there’d ever been. Ergo, the hand whisk.
END QUOTE

The thoroughly relatable amount of soul-searching that each of the women involved with the Marlow Murder Club has to do over the course of the novel fits perfectly with the classic/cozy vibes of the main plot. I was unsurprised to learn that Mr Thorogood is also a screenwriter, so easily could I envision every scene in this well-written, entertaining book. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if this was adapted for the screen as a quintessentially British murder mystery in the near future, though you should definitely still snag and read a copy of this delightful novel first.

Judith Potts is a seventy-seven year old living her best life: she’s a crossword setter for the Times newspaper, enjoys her whisky, nude swimming in the Thames, biking through her neighborhood, and answering to no one but herself.

While swimming in the Thames one night, she hears a gunshot and a shout from her neighbor. After the police don’t take her seriously about her neighbor’s murder, Judith takes matters into her own hands and investigates.

In a matter of time, she enlists the vicar’s wife, Becks, and a local dog-walker, Suzie, to help find the murderers - because there seems to be a murder problem in Marlow now.

This was a fun novel to read. I’m not usually into the “cozy mystery” genre but I enjoyed reading about Judith, her new friends and how they go about solving the murders in Marlow. While the plot is not completely original, the three women charmed me and I would read any forthcoming sequels. I highly recommend this book if you are into cozy mysteries. Also, what a great bookcover! It drew me in first.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I love these ladies! Each of them were so fun to get to know. The mystery aspect of the book did seem easy to try and figure out but it was a good journey overall. I love the little twist ending with Judith and would recommend this book to anyone looking for a wholesome whodunit. Definitely gives off Murder She Wrote vibes. Which I personally love!

“If we only did what was wise, nothing would ever get done, would it?“

THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB is a delightful mystery with delightful characters.

Judith Potts is something of a local celebrity in Marlow—but she doesn’t quite know that, content to wear her cape, work through her puzzles, and take her nude swims in the Thames. When the peace and quiet of Marlow is interrupted with a murder, Judith must get involved. After all, the victim was her neighbor, and she heard the gunshot.

But the murders are just starting. Judith pairs up with Becks, the prim vicar’s wife, and Suzie, a headstrong dog walker, to follow the puzzling clues left behind.

Initially I thought this one was going quite slow, but soon enough, I was 50% through it, thoroughly hooked. The mystery was strong, with some parts more obvious than others. The writing was a bit clunky and overly wordy at times.

This one’s for readers who like:
- Murders in English villages
- Charming, up-to-no-good amateur sleuths
- Heartwarming friendships and a feel-good conclusion

Big thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this eARC. My review will be shared on Goodreads and Amazon.

The game is afoot in the small English town of Marlow when 77-year-old Judith Potts discovers her next-door neighbor’s body with a bullet hole in his forehead. Judith lives on her own, enjoys her whiskey straight, occasionally skinny-dips in the Thames and has a casual approach to keeping her manor home clean. She also spends time forming (not solving) crossword puzzles, a skill that comes in handy as she sets her sights on solving the murder. Nosy and shameless, Judith approaches several suspicious villagers who she believes are involved in the death. Suzie, a free-spirit dog-walker, and Becks the wife of the local vicar, join forces with Judith as they become the Marlow Murder Club fueled by whiskey and gossip about townspeople. There’s more to Thorogood’s work than a run-of-the-mill cozy. Judith, Suzie and Becks are complex characters that have pasts they are reluctant to reveal. That said, their interaction and snarky comments are hilarious, but the murderer kills more than once. Are the three amateur sleuths up to the task?

This is my first cozy murder mystery book. It isn't my usual genre that I am drawn to, but the synopsis made me think of the TV show Only Murders in the Building. I enjoyed that and wanted to see if I'd like to read one as well.

Judith is a single woman in her late 70s that enjoys living alone, drinking cheap whiskey, swimming nude in the Thames River, and setting crosswords for the paper. One day she is swimming in the Thames and hears her neighbor get shot. The police don't act on the matter and she starts to investigate it herself. Ultimately she teams up with Becks, the local vicar's wife and Suzie, a local dog walker. Together these women set out to solve the murders and find the killer.

I enjoyed this book and the friendship the 3 lonely women formed. There are some plot points I feel were a bit silly, such as the police trying to pass off the first murder as a suicide despite the victim having a bullet hole in the head and no gun found. It seemed the police were being portrayed as completely incapable of solving a crime. The ended had twists I didn't fully see coming, which I enjoyed. The lengthy, full explanation from Judith did seem a bit out of the blue given the story up to that point, but nonetheless.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and I am interested to see where the next one takes these 3 women. I also will be adding more cozy murder mysteries to my to read list.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for giving me an advanced readers copy for free in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

"The Marlow Murder Club" by Robert Thorogood is a fun and delightful cozy-mystery!

Seventy-seven-years-old Judith Potts certainly enjoys her daily dose of whiskey, skinny-dipping in the Thames, and creating crossword puzzles for The Times newspaper. She's up for a new challenge though, and she's taking it on with everything she's got!

During an evening dip in the Thames, Judith hears a gun-shot coming from the direction of her next-door neighbor's yard. When the police discover Stefan Dunwoody’s body they declare it a suicide. A bullet wound in the forehead? No weapon discovered? Judith's convinced it's murder!

When Judith meets Becks Starling, the sweet wife of the local Vicar, and Suzie Harris, a dedicated dog walker, they both agree to assist in the 'unofficial' murder investigation and The Marlow Murder Club is formed!

Question: When a third murder is reported does that mean there's a serial killer on the loose?

A cozy mystery with a septuagenarian protagonist? I'm all in! I love this main character and her unconventional ways. She's a kick in the pants, on the hunt for a cold-blooded killer, and I'm rooting for her all the way. Her cohort's are equally interesting, convincingly quirky, and this becomes quite the trio!

A fun read with delightful characters, and an ending that's edge-of-your-seat exciting. I'm so glad I squeezed this one in and I can't wait for book #2 in this new series!

Was it over-the-top? Yep. Did you need to suspend belief? Absotively! But that's the best part!

Thank you to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press, and Robert Thorogood for a free ARC of this book. It has been an honor to give my honest and voluntary review.