I do love a cozy mystery and this one is no exception. It has a strong sense of place and a large cast of characters who I found were very distinguished from each other, making it easy to keep everyone straight. Each character felt real and dynamic. Nora Breen is my first main character that was a former nun and I enjoyed the speculation on what challenges someone becoming a member of the public after so many decades would encounter. This is my first Jess Kidd book and several times throughout the book I was struck by how much this story benefits from a great writer. I think in other hands it would not have been as good of a book but each aspect- setting, characters, plot- was a step above most books and I found it really very enjoyable. I look forward to reading more in this series and more from this author.
This book will be released on April 8, 2025.
5/5 Stars

This is a wonderful Agatha Christie take on a the classic mystery. There are gothic elements with the big mysterious hotel and also pure thriller aspects as the reader desperately seeks answers.

I really enjoyed this mystery. A nun leaves the convent to find her friends who left months before. She lives in a boarding home called Gulls Nest with some quirky characters. Each character has a secret and one of them is a murderer.

A story set in the 1950’s that follows the life of Nora Breen, a nun who has left those days behind her when she left the world of a nun. She’s trying to contact her friend who seems to have disappeared, but she can’t seem to find where she has disappeared to, so she takes a chance that it might be where her friend stayed once upon a time, at Gulls Nest. It’s there that she begins to pay close attention to those staying at Gulls Nest.

This story weaves in and out, much like the sea itself, but ends in a way that is as wonderful as you’d expect from Jess Kidd.


Pub Date: 08 Apr 2025

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Atria Books

First, great cover. What looks to be the start of a series with former nun, Nora Breen, going to a hotel to find a friend who has seemingly vanished. An interesting premise. I like the authors style of handwriting.

Wow, this was my first book by this author and I would for sure read one. What a ride! I enjoy the suspense and the pacing throughout.

Murder at Gulls Nest by Jess Kidd. Publication Date: 08 Apr 2025. Atria Books. Mystery & Thrillers. 5 Stars.

Slow-burn story of a nun who leaves her cloistered world for reasons of her own—and to locate a missing friend—told in the surefooted prose of Jess Kidd..

It’s this thread of friendship that sustains the story through the rocky road of disbelief precipitated by the chilling murders of the innocent amidst long walks by the sea, strong tea and an apathetic, eccentric girl-child. The remaining characters still play upon the mind with the tingling upbeat fade of the last scene that is presaging a unique collaboration that may include romantic suspense, and who knows—maybe even a TV series.

Thanks much to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing this ebook for review.

I was pleasantly surprised when I first heard Jess Kidd was publishing a cozy mystery (one of my absolute favorite genres) I fell head over heels for Kidd’s previous book The Night Ship and eagerly added Murder At Gulls Nest to my TBR.

Former Nun, Nora Breen travels to a small seaside town searching for information on a friend who has vanished. She stays where her friend once stayed at Gulls Nest a peculiar hotel with even more peculiar residents. Hiding her identity she hopes to get to the bottom of the mysterious disappearance of her friend.

This is set up to be a series following the former Nun (Nora) set in the mid 1950s with a dreamy backdrop of the European coast. This tipped the scale and felt more literary cozy mystery (is that a thing?) if so sign me up! I felt like it didn’t follow the formulaic typical cozy and had a little more depth. It does bring an array of colorful characters, and a great amateur sleuth who I’m looking forward to seeing what she gets herself mixed up in next.

Thank you Atria Books

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Nora Breen entered a cloistered life as a nursing sister following a tragic incident as a teen. For decades she has enjoyed her quiet life of service and solitude. However things change when a young novice she had drawn close to leaves the order to settle into a seaside hotel, The Gull's Nest. When her chatty letters suddenly cease Nora is concerned that something has happened to her. Determined to uncover the truth Nora also asks to be released from her vows and departs for the Gull's Nest. Staying anonymous Nora finds the hotel guests to be a diverse and eccentric lot and her suspicions become stronger when a fellow guest is found poisoned and another disappears. I was intrigued with the premise of this series launch and was not disappointed. Nora is a different but strongly drawn protagonist. I found her inner musing regarding the adjustments needed to transition from Sister Agnes into the secular world to be insightful and heart warming. The character development was one of the narrative's strengths and the setting of a small English seaside town in the 1950s seemed realistic. I have read one of Jess Kidd's earlier books and this was definitely a departure from her earlier work showing great versatility as a wordsmith. The plot was tight and the interactions between the characters was engaging and revealing. moving the story along at a good pace. A very enjoyable read for this reader.

sly-humor, Kent, monastery, 1954, poisons, local-law-enforcement, cozy-mystery, ex-nun, boardinghouse, secrets, historical-fiction, historical-research, historical-setting, history-and-culture, missing-persons, murders, amateur-sleuth, middle-aged*****
1954 England. Nora has left the monastery and is searching for a younger woman who recently also left and has ceased their correspondence quite abruptly. She goes to the young woman's last address in Kent where she finds that she has simply vanished. Nora keeps her nurse/nun status quietly as she infiltrates the boarding house and begins to find more anomalies among the inhabitants (the meals are positively dreadful!), a murder or two, and crosses swords with the local police inspector. Fine descriptions of the coast and countryside as well as meaningful character development. I hope this is designed to be first in series because I really enjoyed it!
I requested and received a temporary uncorrected eGalley from Atria Books via NetGalley. Avail Apr 08, 2025
#MurderAtGullsNest by jesskiddwriter #NoraBreenInvestigates @atriabooks @simonandschuster #NetGalley @goodreads @bookbub @librarythingofficial @barnesandnoble ***** Review #booksamillion #bookshop_org #bookshop_org_uk #kobo #Waterstones #cozymystery #exnun #kent #murder #poison #historicalfiction

I absolutely love a good cozy mystery and this one was perfect.

Set in the 1950's we find Nora is searching for her friend Frieda, whose regular correspondence has suddenly stopped. When Nora goes to live at the last place she heard from Frieda, Gull's Nest, a hotel near the sea in Kent. She find a curious mix of long term residents. She begins her search but then people start dying and her investigations extend to include murder.

I find that I enjoyed the characters living in the Gull's Nest and all the surprising twists along the way.

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC for an honest review.

3.75 stars

A mystery with a different cast of characters. Set in 1954, ex-nun Nora has gone to a small British village to find out what happened to her friend Frieda. She and Frieda were in the religious order together, but Frieda left due to health reasons and Nora left because she was emotionally done with being a nun and is dealing with being back in the world after decades.

Frieda disappeared from a very odd boarding house. The woman who runs it disappears every day with mysterious headaches and she seems to share ownership with a sour-tempered housekeeper. Her very young daughter is a somewhat feral child who doesn't speak but spies on everyone. Other boarders include a young married couple, a bartender/chef, a photographer and an old puppeteer.

Nora is brusque, nosy, fearless and opinionated. It isn't long before the first body appears and Nora immediately gets into it with the local constabulary over whether the death is murder or suicide. In the meantime, she is still snooping around trying to find Frieda. She eventually forges a tenuous working relationship with the Inspector.

An interesting read with great characterizations. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I absolutely loved this book. It appears to be the first in a series so I will definitely be on the look out for future installments of the series. The author did a great job making you care about the characters. I had yet to read a cozy about a former nun but I think I found a trope to be on the look out for!

This was not my favourite read and I thought I would like it as I like a cosy murder and I have enjoyed previous books by Jess Kidd. Having said that, I am sure it will be a popular book and I will recommend it to patrons at the library.
It just moved a little slowly and the characters were not catching my attention. I am sure the murder was solved, but I didn’t hang about to find out whodunnit.

I really enjoyed Murder at Gulls Nest! This cozy mystery follows aspiring detective Nora Breen as she arrives in the small seaside town of Gore-on-Sea in Kent. Staying at the dingy and mysterious Gulls Nest, Nora is on a secret mission to uncover the truth behind a mystery close to her heart. However, as she starts poking around, a string of bizarre murders shakes the hotel’s occupants, forcing Nora to dig even deeper.
With danger closing in, she finds an unlikely ally in Inspector Rideout—the only person she feels she can trust. Given that this is the first book in the Nora Breen series, I suspect Rideout is meant to be her slow-burn love interest, but I didn’t feel much chemistry between them. That said, the real draw here is the mystery itself. Red herrings were flying left and right, making it a fun and engaging challenge to piece together the truth.
With so much happening in this book, I assume the next installment will be a bit more grounded, now that the town and its characters have been introduced. But I’m looking forward to more of Breen and Rideout’s shenanigans, and I’ll definitely be keeping up with this series!

A quaint coastal town. A missing person. A silent little girl who sees everything. A former nun who won't let it go. Murder at Gulls Nest is a historical cozy mystery set just after the World Wars with suspects a-plenty, and secrets everywhere.

I wanted to read this book in part because I don't have much experience with what is colloquially referred to as a 'cozy mystery'. I get it now. It's essentially equivalent to an old episode of Murder She Wrote. It doesn't mean that there is not death, or even gruesome things that happen or are described. It's more of a slow methodical approach to solving a mystery by moving through each logical piece of the investigation. The absence of the 'thrill' element that makes a thriller. That's what 'they' mean by low-stakes. The protagonist is not necessarily in direct line of danger. They just have a stake in finding out the answer to the mystery.

Our POV character is a nun who has left the cloister in order to track down her friend, also a former nun, whose letters have mysteriously stopped after implying in one of her letters that the people around her had everything to hide. Nora poses as an innocent guest in a board house with no knowledge of the place or agenda and tries to find out everything she can about the mysteriously missing woman who used to stay in the room there.

If she was trying to be subtle about her investigation, she failed. She wandered around that city asking direct questions that could only have raised red flags to someone trying to hide something. It was a full-fledged amateur investigation, but when a dead body turns up, the real authorities become involved as well.

While I enjoyed the story, I didn't find myself very invested in the drama. There is plenty of mystery to go around, and I found a lot of the historical elements to be intriguing and interesting, but I didn't feel engrossed. I think I would have enjoyed a more emotional experience. It almost reminded me of a Sherlock Holmes style novel, if that's your thing. If you like finding clues and analyzing people, trying to crack the mystery before the characters, you're going to love it.

I appreciate the opportunity to read this early reader's copy from the publisher and netgalley, and I will be interested to read the next installment of this new mystery series by Jess Kidd.

Nora Breen is adjusting to life as a former nun. She left her order when letters from another former novice stop arriving. Nora and Frieda developed a friendship during Frieda's time at the order recovering from an illness. The last place Frieda was living was at Gulls Nest, a boarding house in a seaside town. When Nora arrives it is clear multiple members of the household are hiding secrets. Nora begins to investigate when a murder occurs at Gulls Nest determined to learn if it has anything to do with the disappearance of her former friend. She attempts to team up with Detective Inspector Rideout but he is not interested in being assisted by the former nun.

I really enjoyed this book! Nora is bright, caring and very funny. Following her adjustment from life as a former nun was very entertaining. I also enjoyed all of the characters staying at Gulls Nest. The mystery was well plotted and paced. There were a good number of twists and turns. It does appear that this will be a series and was very happy to discover that when I finished. I would love to continue to Nora on other adventures and to possibly see what develops between her and DI Rideout.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Murder at Gull’s Nest by Jess Kidd
Stars: 4.5
52 Book Club Challenger: #3 (Book whose title starts with an M)

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Nora Breen has been a nun at a monastery in northern England for over thirty years, since she left her home in County Mayo as a young woman. When Frieda, a former novice and her friend, seems to go missing, Nora decides it is time for her to rejoin the world and find herself taking lodging at Frieda’s last address: Gull’s Nest in the seaside town of Gore-on-Sea. When Nora arrives, she finds a slightly shabby establishment populated with a unique cast of characters. She decides to keep her connection to Frieda hidden as she searches about for clues to what happened but when one of the lodgers ends up dead (is it murder? Was it suicide), Nora decides she might just need to local constabulary to help her - whether they want to or not.

I love Jess Kidd’s novels and I was thrilled when I received this ARC. Kidd’s writing style immediately pulls you in, the stories have excellent plots but the characters bring the world around them to life. Nora is a character we don’t always see a lot of, but she is one that has so much to tell us. She is just finding herself again after thirty years behind the veil; she is still coming to terms with the events that happened in her late teens. Twice in her life she has had to leave home and establish herself in a new place and this time, at this juncture in her life, she wonders if it was the right call.

There has always been an element of mystery in Kidd’s books, but I am thrilled that it sounds like this might be the first of a few Nora Breen novels. When I finished, I was happy to think that there would be another chance to spend time with Nora and get into the backstories of some of the other characters; Gore-on-Sea definitely has a fair share of unique people and in Kidd’s hands, I know they can tell us some amazing tales.

One thing about Jess Kidd is that she is an extremely talented writer. I don’t know how she does it so consistently, but her prose is beautiful in the way that many modern classics are– it’s dynamic and interesting, even when explaining things that could be boring. Her very skill at narration gets you wrapped into the story immediately, caring deeply about Nora Breen before any murder even occurs.

In an era of “cozy” mysteries published at every corner, Kidd is the savior we all need. I have felt wrapped in warmth and joy whenever reading a Kidd book, and Murder at Gulls Nest is no exception. This is a murder mystery that firmly maintains an atmosphere that is comfortable and fun, just as much as it is engaging and intriguing.

I highly recommend this to fans of historical fiction and cozy mysteries.

Murder at Gulls Nest May sounds like just one more historical cozy mystery. But it’s written by Jess Kidd, who has a real way with words. “The villas set their faces to the weather as best they can, some more senile than others, with pitted stone facades, blank windows, dank gardens, and roof tiles liked bockety old teeth.”
It’s a great plot with an engaging main character. “Jesus, who would want to read about a failed old nun with her stipend and secondhand shoes?” Well, as it turns out, I did. Nora Breen has left the monastery to determine what has happened to her pen pal. She comes to Gore-on-Sea, a down at its heels seaside resort. She rents at the same boarding house where her pen pal resided and it’s not long before dead bodies start piling up.
There are plenty of fascinating characters, a bunch of red herrings and I admit it took me ages to guess the murderer.
Kidd has done a wonderful job putting the reader in time and place. Everyone seems to have secrets and I enjoyed watching Nora suss them out. There’s also the lightest touch of humor, mostly at the expense of the desk sergeant.
This is just fun entertainment. I recommend this even to folks who think they don’t like “cozies”, thinking they’re too insipid. This appears to be the first in a series and I will gladly seek out the next.
My thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for an advance copy of this book.