This was a middle of the road cozy mystery for me. It had all of the right components - a village of quirky characters, an unlikable character murdered, and an amatuer slueth. It was fine, but it was missing something for me.

The narration was fine.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #DreamscapeMedia for a free copy of #TheMurdersInGreatDiddling by Katarina Bivald. All opinions are my own.

Thanks, NetGalley! Simple village full of characters and a "visitor" to the world, add a mystery and you have a much enjoyable read. It's about relationships new and old and how to blend them together to solve a mystery. That what a village may look like is not necessarily what its heart is to the people who live there! I must add the cover is soooo inviting.

This quirky whodunit set in a struggling English village was delightful and cozy, full of deceptive characters and led by a curmudgeonly author/amateur detective. Who doesn't love a book about books? It could have been shorter. Lots of characters to keep track of, so I kept consulting the list of characters on Goodreads.

The audiobook narrator was charming and engaging.

3.5 stars.

I enjoyed this. It really captured my imagination. Lots of red herrings making me suspect first one culprit then another. I liked the role books had to play, which you wouldn't know from the title. Some quite unbelievable parts, but a very satisfying conclusion. Helen Lloyd was a good reader.

Fun little cozy mystery with a good narrator. Though I normally listen to audio books on 2x speed, I did have to slow this one down to ensure I didn't miss anything.

How charming!! I love reading & cozy mysteries so this was the best of both worlds. An homage to the greats like Christie, this was such a successfully cozy and endearing book. A true love letter to the genre and readers— kinda felt like it was made for me. I also listened to the audiobook and I really enjoyed the narration and would recommend listening to it !

The Murders in Great Dibbling by Katarina Bilvald
Stars: 4
Audiobook

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Why are we so fascinated by small English villages and murders? I don’t think in reality that many people are violently killed in rural England all that often, but maybe they are and I just don’t have a real understanding of the crime rate in Great Britain. Regardless, there are a lot of authors writing mysteries set among lush green hills in quaint countryside settings, some with better results than others. Bilvald’s book is one of the better ones I’ve read and I hope this is not the only outing for novelist turned amateur detective, Berit Gardner.

A Swedish-British novelist, Berit’s last novel has been an unqualified success and she isn’t quite sure how she feels about that. She certainly is having a hard time starting her next book but she is quite happy to be in her little Cornish cottage in Great Dibbling. Though Great Dibbling is not one of those picturesque seaside villages along the coast of Cornwall. In fact, the town is a bit down at heel, but its inhabitants are trying to bring some life to it. And then at a party hosted by at the manor of the local book-loving grandee, Daphne, the village is witness to the murder of her not-so-beloved nephew in the house’s library. Berit is there, along with her newly acquired “assistant” Sally, the daughter of Berit’s agent, who was sent down to help light a fire under the author, and soon Berit finds that helping to solve a murder might be more fun than writing her next book.

Bivald populates Great Dibbling with some truly unique and wonderful characters and she slyly reveals why each one might be ready to commit murder. There are tongue-in-cheek moments, like when she has the village launch a murder festival complete with an array of famous authors which had me chuckling. Bivald also reminds the reader that things are not always well in small towns and that racism is still a real part of life for many people, there always has to be an other.

Helen Lloyd was the narrator and I loved her reading of the novel. She really brought both Berit and Sally to life. When reading their internal thoughts, it really felt like we were being let into the working of their brains, how they were processing things, giving voice to Berit’s strength and no-nonsense attitude and Sally’s insecurities.

As I mentioned, I really hope this isn’t the only book featuring Great Dibbling and I look forward to reading more books by Bivald.

The Murders in Great Diddling by Katarina Bivald is an absolute gem of a novel that masterfully blends mystery, charm, and humour into a story that is as heartwarming as it is intriguing.
Berit Gardner, an author desperate for a story, finds herself in the midst of one she couldn’t have possibly imagined. The small village, with its oddball residents and air of secrecy, provides the perfect backdrop for a mystery that is both captivating and laugh-out-loud funny. When an explosion at a village tea party turns the quiet community upside down, Berit becomes entangled in a series of events that are equal parts bizarre and brilliant.
The novel is much more than just a mystery; it’s a celebration of the power of stories and the connections they forge. Bivald’s wit and humour are on full display, making the book a compelling and uplifting read. The idea of turning a murder investigation into a book and murder festival is just the kind of quirky twist that makes this novel so enjoyable.

When an outsider, a writer, witnesses that first murder in the sleepy little Cornwall village of Great Diddling, it gives her a chance to exercise her skills in deciphering human nature and making a story to fit the data.

In this mystery, no one gets hurt who doesn't. at heart, deserve it, the village survives the onslaught of both police and reporters as well as hordes of festival-goers when the bright spark politician has the idea of turning Great Diddling's criminal misfortune into a weekend Book-and-Murder festival—and casting villagers as literary lions Margaret Atwood and Ian Ranklin to comic effect.

Helen Lloyd, the narrator, did a nice job with the various Cornwall voices as well as the writer's slight Swedish accent.

This was a small-town cozy murder mystery will fit the bill for diehard fans of British village murder mysteries; there aren't any real surprises, the humor is broadly splashed, the characters are generally pleasant in their eccentricities, and moral decisions make perfect sense. This is lightweight entertainment, ideally suited to whiling away a reader's time—and there's absolutely nothing wrong with THAT.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape media for the advance copy of this audiobook in exchange for my unfettered opinion.

When a recalcitrant author tucked away in a small English village is sent an "assistant" she didn't ask for in order to keep an eye on her, the last thing writer Berit Gardner expects is to develop an unexpected fondness for young Sally, her domineering agent's downtrodden daughter.

But that is just what happens as Berit and Sally deal with the aftermath of an unexpected murder at a tea party, which then unleashes the unearthing of any number of secrets held by the inhabitants of the village - culminating in a most unusual literary festival.

This is a complicated story with any number of characters. Perhaps a few fewer would have been better! But it's enormously entertaining, and Bivald has been creative in coming up with distinctive character quirks. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it highly. Will be hoping for more from this author and the excellent narrator!

Unable to give feedback as title didn't want to downland to the netgalley shelf app. I'm not sure if this is an error in my part or if the app is just not the best working app.

Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest feedback and review.

At first glance, the concept of a murder writer solving a murder had promise, a la Murder She Wrote. Combined with the fact that cozy mysteries are one of my guilty pleasures, I was very excited for this read. With many cozy mysteries I go in knowing it will likely be short and low-key bad, with very little depth to the characters. When I saw how long this one was, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I was hoping for similar vibes to the Marlow Murder Club and the Thursday Murder Club.

With The Murders in Great Diddling, however, I felt like there was so much going on that it was hard to keep track of. There were so many characters and I never felt particularly attached to any of them. Instead, this listen felt like a slog to get through. The changing point of view might've benefited from a full cast of narrators. Also, I think this book would've benefited from a touchstone character (for instance, Berit could've easily been it for this one) much like Judith is to the Thursday Murder Club.

The bright point to the book was definitely the voice acting. Helen Lloyd was fantastic. I usually can't get past accents since I listen at 3x speed, but I think she did a great job.

This was a cute story with interesting characters. I enjoyed the setting and liked looking at a murder through the lens of a writer. I thought there were so many eccentric characters and liked seeing how they attempted to change the narrative. The narrator had a soothing voice and I would recommend the audiobook.

This was a fun cozy mystery with a bit of a twist. An author who writes mysteries must work to solve a mystery in the town she has moved to recently. I liked the book but the change in point of view was at times confusing. Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy of the audiobook

Thanks to Dreamscape & NetGalley for providing an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This one just wasn't it for me: it was trying very hard to be many things and not succeeding at any of them. Is it a cozy mystery, in a little English village full of quirky characters? Or is it a feel-good piece about a town making a name for itself by putting on a doomed book festival? Or is it the story of a police detective with a sad dating life, or a writer struggling with writer's block? It is, unfortunately, all of these in one book. Too many characters, none are particularly compelling, tough to keep everyone straight or care about them. By the time the extremely sidelined mystery was solved, I no longer gave a crap who dunnit. The book was very slow moving, even on audio. The voice acting was capable enough, but not compelling enough to create a touchstone character (presumably that would be Berit, but we get much more of the inner workings of pretty much everyone else but not our supposed protagonist).

Meh. 2 stars

The story was good, but I couldn't fully enjoy it because maybe audiobooks are not my thing.
The change in the characters narration sometimes got me confused which made me go back in the book to listen to it again a few times.
Maybe I'll read it on print.

I was hoping a bit more from this book.

I did not know who the murder was. However this was a it boring of a book. I did struggle getting through it.

A writer writing about a murder in her own town while solving it. She used the cop them betrayed him.

“The Murders in Great Diddling" by Katarina Bivald is the perfect book for a nice cozy read for the weekend especially a rainy dark day. The quirky characters make the story very enjoyable and engaging to feel like part of the storyline.

I picked up this book because I thought Great Diddling was a great name for a town. Then I found out that the author is Swedish. I've tried a few Scandinavian novels but haven't enjoyed them and I was starting to think that, like Russian literature, it just wasn't going to be something I liked. Well, Katarina Bivald proved that wrong. Perhaps because it was set in England it was familiar but whatever the reason, I found myself really entertained by the story and the characters.

It kind of reminded me of M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin series and I had to check to see if the narrator was the same as I've listened to several books in that series. I looked through Helen Lloyd's listing of books on Goodreads, but I haven't listened to anything else she's narrated. She was great as the narrator of this book.

This story turned out to be much more bookish than I thought it would be. The village puts on a literary festival and there is a lot of talk about books.

I enjoyed the characters. However, there were a lot of characters and it made it difficult to follow the audiobook because I couldn't remember who some of the characters were. Also, the story doesn't stay focused on the murder - I actually forgot for a while that someone had been murdered as I got caught up in the flurry of activity around the literary festival.

The festival definitely provided levity. The town wants to have big-name authors give talks. However, they don't have a lot of time to pull it off and none of the authors can make it so the organizers had to find impersonators. You can imagine how that went.

Overall, it was a great book with fun characters and I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

My review will be published at Girl Who Reads on Friday - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2024/08/2-more-mysteries-to-add-to-your-reading.html

A sweet little English cozy mystery. I did get a little lost with all the characters but I loved the idea of the festival and how the town came together.