This was a good cozy mystery. The characters were well developed and I liked the premise of the story. This was the third book in the #cornwallmurdermystery series. I haven’t read the first two, but there wasn’t a continuity issue at all. I liked the dual point of views between the two lead detectives.
That being said, I never really connected with book. There was never a moment where I became invested in the outcome or worried about any of the characters. On the plus side, I didn’t see the ending coming and I liked all of the characters. 3.5 ⭐️

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

“Murder at Land’s End” by Sally Rigby is the third installment in the captivating Cornwall Murder Mystery series. With a jaw-dropping twist and a vivid coastal setting, this crime thriller keeps readers turning the pages .

The crashing waves, sparkling like diamonds across the beach, frame the discovery of a young woman’s body on the rocks at Land’s End, Cornwall. Detective Lauren Pengelly and her deputy, Matt Price, are thrust into a complex investigation. Sophie Bethany Yates, known around the docks, harbored secrets that her family never suspected. As the team delves deeper, they uncover unexpected connections and cryptic messages.

Over the course of the series, DI Lauren Pengelly undergoes a remarkable transformation. Her mellowing demeanor positively impacts team dynamics and camaraderie. Rigby skillfully portrays the evolution of her characters, making them relatable , human and likeable.

Rigby weaves an intricate web of secrets, red herrings, and unexpected twists. The sexist attitudes prevalent in the fishing industry add depth to the narrative.

The inclusion of “The Three Fishers” by Charles Kingsley enhances the reading experience, tying the past to the present.

The rugged beauty of Cornwall serves as a vivid backdrop. The crashing waves, hidden coves, and rocky cliffs create an immersive atmosphere.

Land’s End itself becomes a character—a place where secrets surface and justice seeks its course.

Sophie’s hidden life unfolds gradually, revealing layers of complexity. Her bruises and the slip of paper hidden in her mouth hint at a deeper mystery.

The message—“Men must work and women must weep” (in the story this was seen as cryptic but it is immediately obvious what was meant by the message) adds an eerie dimension to the investigation.

Problems with investigation issues - Lack of knowledge of murder investigation and the roles of the police versus the medical examiner should have been caught by the editor as the book was reviewed. A seasoned police officer would NOT ask an examiner to tell them if fingerprints were "made by a female or a male" . For one thing, safe to assume the perp is male. Also, obviously the medical examiner cannot determine gender via fingerprints or fingerprint size. In this book, the medical examiner said that because the fingerprints bruises on the neck of the first victim were large, they were "likely made by a male," thereby decreasing the number of suspects. However, the mere act of strangulation, 96% which are committed by males, does this. Due to these statistics, strangling is a "gendered crime" and considered performed by a male unless evidence strongly and conclusively points to a female (with sufficient upper body strength to overpower another physically).

Few murders are even committed by females (134.7%} versus male. On the rare occasion the females typically chose poisonings, shootings, or murders that do not involve brute strength.. These facts are what should have narrowed down the suspect pool , rather than the "size of fingerprints" in strangulation.

Due to statistics, unless otherwise STRONGLY indicated any seasoned cop would assume murder was committed by a man, hand-down if victim is physically overpowered...

Other police procedural scenarios similarly caused me to shake my head in dismay, as they easily could have been revised had the author (or at least the editor) done minor due diligence research.

For example a cop would NEVER ever ask A Medical Examiner to interpret a message (an obvious message, that barely needed interpretation BTW) shoved down the throat of a victim (which once again points to a male perp, females seldom secrete a message in a victim's body orifices).Even junior murder investigators realize that is NOT the role of a medical examiner, but their job.

It is not a mystery that the message pointed to gender roles, it was obvious by the message - which pointed, once again, directly to a male perp with a problem with women working in the fishing industry. I wish these glaring issues would have been caught by the author, a mystery pre-reader, or the edutor. Also, a medical examiner does need to "define" what petechiae is, any one who has watched a murder show knows what that is, and anyone who doesn't can look it up if this is the first mystery they have ever read that involves victim oxygen deprivation.

Those issues kept me (they were all glaringly obvious and significant) from rating this book five-stars.

However, the pacing of this story is solid and the tension escalates with each new revelation.

The denouement delivers a heart-pounding climax that leaves no room for respite

 “Murder at Land’s End” is a masterfully crafted mystery, blending suspense, emotion, and unforgettable characters, however it could have been even better with a few minor tweaks. I hope the author chooses seasoned mystery fans or retired police professionals for early first readers in the future.

I’ll start by saying I haven’t read the first two books in this series, so that may have affected my feelings towards this book. It was ok, definitely not a favorite but I was interested enough to stick with it and finish it. British police procedurals are a favorite genre of mine, and while I did like how the team appeared to have grown in cohesiveness, one detective in particular just bugged me as he would grab on to each suspect of the minute as the killer without thinking through motive or ability. Rather than have several suspects at any given time he just seemed to latch on to the most recent suspect as ‘the one’ . The investigative procedures seemed shallow to me, and comments like they needed to find any possible connections between the two victims, when in fact they had gone to school together, the connection was pretty obvious. DS Matt Price was likable and had an interesting background, his struggle to have a family life while being a police officer added a warmth to the story.,
While not my first choice of a series it was pleasant enough (but please stop having characters constantly tapping or drumming their fingers!).
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

My first book by Sally Rigby. This book was a hit for me right out of the gate. Not one of those quick to solve mysteries. Really enjoyable. Well done.

Love the Pengelly and Price series. Plenty of thrills and a quick and easy read. Great characters. Enjoy the style of writing. Plenty to keep you enthralled. Look forward to the next instalment. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for chance to review it.

Cornish-coast, families, family-drama, family-dynamics, fishing-community, investigations, local-law-enforcement, murders, Penzance, pet-dog, procedural, read, suspense, teamwork, thriller, unputdownable*****

DI Lauren Pengelly was recently transferred to this assignment as was her DS Matt Price who is recently widowed with a small child. The first body was found at the shore at Land's End and things went downhill from there. But. The team really is and their cooperative efforts brought the suspense to a surprising end. Great read!
I requested and received a free temporary EARC from Storm Publishing via NetGalley. Thank you!

Murder at Land's End is A Cornwall Murder Mystery Book 3 by Sally Rigby. It was lovely to catch up with DI Lauren Pengelly, DS Matt Price and the rest of the Penzance team. It begins with a body of a young woman found at Land's End. How did she end up here? Why did this happen? Who is the person involved? Lauren and Matt are tasked with finding out. They soon discover the name of the victim - Bethany Yates. Bethany's friend Imogen Halford points them in Samuel Finch's direction as he is Bethany's boyfriend. However, all is now how it seems, when a second young woman's body is found. How are the crimes connected? Lauren and the team over a course of days investigate and in a satisfying conclusion, the killer is unmasked. I loved how it was written - fast paced and enjoyable with great descriptions of characters and locations.

*I have not read the first two books in A Cornwall Murder Mystery Series*

Despite this being the third book in the series, I think it could easily be read as a standalone. I did miss some context here and there but overall it did not affect my reading experience.
Murder at Land's End revolves around Detective Lauren Pengally and Deputy Matt Price. You also get a great insight into their team as a whole. Each person on the team has their niche, personality-wise. Rigby did a great job bringing the characters to life. I sometimes had to eye roll at the dialogue between characters. It got a little much sometimes, especially Pengally's character. It was minimal enough that the book was still a great read.

The plot is pretty cut and dry. There was no big twist that had my jaw on the floor, but it was very enjoyable nonetheless. While I wouldn't call Murder at Land's End a thrilling read the plot is fast-paced. The progression of the case is quick and there is no lag. I've had a busy couple of weeks and finding time to read has been a challenge, but I constantly felt the need to pick this book back up. I knew if I had even ten minutes to read the case would progress, it made it easy to prioritize. The case is wrapped up at about 85% through the book. The next 5% is them celebrating a case well done, naturally. The last 10% was disappointing. Pengalley and Price confront someone who is threatening Pengalley's family but it all feels rushed. Like Rigby forgot that element of the plot until she had all but finished the book and knew she had to wrap up that plotline so the reader isn't left hanging. It winded down the pace I had come to love throughout the rest of the book.

Murder at Land's End was a great read that I would recommend to mystery lovers as both a standalone or part of a series. This book is set in the UK so the verbiage and actions of the police force are quite different from what you could be used to. It also revolves around the fishing industry, if that is an interest of yours I am sure you'll love this read.

I want to extend a big thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy of Murder at Land's End!

Sally Rigby’s Murder at Land’s End is the third book in the Cornwall Murder Series. I hadn’t read books 1 and 2, but this appeared to work equally well as a standalone. The series features DI Lauren Pengelly and her deputy DS Matt Price.
The premise starts off excellently, with a solid beginning. The corpse of a young woman is found on the rocks just off the coast of Land’s End. Pengelly and Price are the first detectives to arrive on the scene. The woman is identified as Sophie Bethany Yates. She has a fishing line wound tightly around her neck, and an excerpt from a poem, The Three Fishers by Charles Kingsley is found in her mouth. It comes to light that Sophie has been working secretly on a boat as a fisherwoman and one of the first lines of enquiry, is with her crewmates.
Pengelly and Price also consider Sophie’s boyfriend to be a person of interest. He was having an affair with another local young woman. Then the woman he was having an affair with also is murdered and the same poem is found in her mouth. Is this a crime of passion or do the team have a serial killer on the loose?
This is a fast-moving police procedural with many twists and turns and the descriptions of the Cornwall coast are very evocative. It is a little unfortunate that the pace and twisty story is only maintained for two-thirds of the book. In the last third, it slows down considerably and the ending is more of a whimper than a bang. The other issue I had was with the dialogue which reads more like a screenplay than a novel. Characters were either raising one eyebrow or two eyebrows when asking questions. They had downturned mouths or were grimacing when replying to questions. They spent a lot of their time pacing with adrenaline. When these avid descriptions accompanied every piece of dialogue, it made the conversation too exhausting to read.
Taking everything into account, this ends up as 3 star read
My thanks to NetGalley, Storm Publishing and Sally Rigby for the ARC in exchange for an open and honest review.

I really wanted to love this book. I had read the previous one, and although I had issues with some things, the mystery kept my attention and I saw promise- so was excited to read this.
Alas, I am in the minority here. It took me forever to read this. I will say, for the most part, I liked the mystery. However, the interaction and internal thinking of the characters became tedious and monotonous. I also felt the ending was a bit of a let down.
However, many others really enjoyed it. So if you like police procedural, with a big focus on team relations and thoughts, you might love this!
Thank you NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the ARC. This is my honest review.

I sat down to read a couple of chapters before bed and ended up reading the whole book! The first chapter hooked me in, with a fresh balance of cut family life and early, gruesome work calls. The plot is interesting and balances well the victims life and friends, alongside a slowly bonding police team. The unpicking of the crime is interesting, unusual and challenges some potential beliefs of small seaside towns and fishing crews. Enough twists and discoveries to keep me entertained without confusing me. I felt part of the book and the wish for a play date with dogs when it is all over!

Murder at Land's End by Sally Rigby

Read this as a stand-alone and not as the 3rd in a series. Still found the plot good and felt the author gave enough background to quickly catch up with DI Lauren Pengelly & Sgt. Matt Price.

The third in the series, but Sally gives enough detail of the lead characters' backstories that it can be read as a standalone.

When Sophie's body is found on the rocks with a piece of paper stuffed in her mouth containing a quote from a poem, it looks as if the murder might be a hate crime. But Sophie's boyfriend has things to hide - as do other people in her life. And as the bodies stack up, the connections between the victims grow more interesting...

Fast-paced and tense, with beautiful descriptions of Cornwall, and lead characters you can really care about.

This is an interesting case with a fisherwoman's death and the case seems to be a hate crime. The murdered woman has a piece of paper in her mouth with the text “Men must work, and women must weep.” I found this to be a refreshing read because it was a bit different. Sally Rigby always write enjoyable books, and this one is no exception. This is an action-packed book filled with twists and turns!

“For men must work, and women must weep”. (from 'The Three Fishers' by Charles Kingsley)

This is a standard police procedural set around Land’s End the South West tip of Cornwall. A scenic location marred by the discovery of a body at the base of the cliffs, the body of a young woman, Sophie Yates, who had been working secretly on a trawler, unbeknownst to her parents. The death is seen as suspicious by the Penzance police, led by DI Lauren Pengelly. The fishing community in the region is conservative and doesn’t take well to the idea of women working on the boats, but could their be more behind the death than mere misogyny?
Detective Inspector Lauren Pengelly, her deputy Matt Price and her team follow up the various leads. The team work well together and there is no friction between the police. Sophie’s boyfriend is a person of interest, he wasn’t happy that Sophie worked on the boats. There are other suspects with various motives. The pacing is good but I would have liked more twists and a more complex ending.

This is #3 in the Cornwall Murder Mystery series, but can be read as a standalone with no problems.
Thanks to NetGalley and to the publishers of this book for giving me a free advance copy of the book to preview and I am leaving this review voluntarily. My rating 3.5 rounded up to 4.

When the body of a young woman is found by the coast, Detective Lauren Pengelly and her deputy Matt Price are first on the scene in Murder at Land's End by Sally Rigby. Sophie Yates was well-known around the docks—a pretty girl from up the coast, always dreaming of something more. As locals jostle the barricades for a better look, whispers go around that Sophie’s boyfriend, Samuel, is more than capable of murder.

The story became a bit tedious and repetitive toward the end. Plus, every time a character came up in their investigation, the team was too quick to think they were the murderer. Billy, especially, and he was a bit irritating in his behavior.

The storyline was okay. The culprit did become predictable. The overall story just felt a bit slow and disjointed at times. However, I loved Dani and really liked DS Matt Price and Lauren. I liked their relationship and the tension. I liked Lauren because she is a strong female protagonist with flaws and who has family issues, but she is also determined in her quest to find answers.

I may check out more books by this author. Overall, it is an okay read.

#MurderatLandsEnd #NetGalley @Stormbooks_co

Murder at Land's End was a book of twists and turns that some might not see coming. Since this is book 3 in the series I was a little behind in who the characters were and how their lives intertwined. Yet I was able to figure it out and once I did I just couldn't put this book down.

DI Lauren Pengelly and DS Matt Price along with their band of police officers are trying to figure out why a young women who is a part time fisherman would be found on the rocks by an upscale hotel dead.? The dead girl was Sophie Yates and when Pengelly and Price found her she had fishing line around her neck and a puzzling note. A passage from a poem that relates to the sea.Why was that in there? Was Sophie in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or was she trying to tell them something? The one conclusion was that she was a women and woman should not be out fishing. It wasn't until another young woman is found that made the police think that they might have a serial killer on their hands.

One thing they did find out was that Sophie's boyfriend became their number on suspect because he was also having an affair with the other young girl whom they found dead.Was this the reason for the killings or was there something else.? Possibly just a hatred of women on the sea, or maybe they were all wrong and both women knew something else that got them both killed. Will Lauren and Matt and their fellow police officers figure this all out before there is another killing? On top of this Lauren has a family issue she promised her aunt that she would help with. Will that distract her from doing her job properly? I really had to read on to be able to find out what really happened..

This is a real thriller that surprised me. It was a pretty fast read which I like especially in a mystery. I really liked the character of Lauren Pengelly. Here is a woman who is incharge of a group of officers and she knows she must keep her head in the game. Nothing can distract her , even the problems with her family. She has big ambitions for herself and she knows she cannot screw up. There is also alot going on with Matt Price. A single father whose wife was killed and he lives with his parents so they can help with raising his daughter. This is when I wished I had read the other two books to get the background of all these characters. Other than that I totally enjoyed this book. A true mystery with many twists and that is what I love in a book besides great characters.

Thank you Sally Rigby for a very interesting book and Storm Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC. I will look forward to anything written by Ms. Rigby.

This is an outstanding Police Procedural driven story. The two main protagonist are DI Lauren Pengelly and Sgt Matt Price, they are likeable, believable, and enjoyable. Will this book keep you up at night, making your heart pound? The answer is no, will it entertain you, and keep you engaged with the characters, a definite yes! I highly recommend it. Thank you #Netgalley #StormPublishing #MurderAtLandsEnd
carolintallahassee

I love this series! It takes place in my favorite places to visit, Penzance, Land's End, and St. Ives, so far. Hopefully there will be one on the Scillies! The books are about a group of detectives in Penance and with this being the 3rd book in the series, you get to know better with each book! This one starts off with finding a girl dead on the rocks at Land"s End, and it's decided quickly that she was murdered, not just drowned like the usual dead body washed up on the rocks. And the team follows the clues to the conclusion. Interesting story and mystery. Highly recommend this basically cozy series.

I couldn't put this book down. It kept me guessing the whole time and I needed to know what happened. It was well written and very easy to read and follow. I can't wait to read more from this author!