Death in Cornwall by G.M. Malliet

 Title:  Death in Cornwall

Author:  G.M. Malliet

Narrated by:  Lorna Bennett

Publisher: Dreamscape Media

Length: Approximately 11 hours and 03 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Netgalley.  Thank-you!

 Happy Mystery Monday!  I have been in the mood for mysteries a lot recently.  I was happy to review Death in Cornwall on audiobook from Netgalley.  I found out once I started listening that this is book four of the St. Just Mystery series.  It was fine to read as a stand-alone book, but I do want to now read the rest of the series!

 DCI Arthur St. Just and Portia De’Ath decide to celebrate their engagement by visiting the small town of Maidsfell in Cornwall. The world has just opened up after being shut down for COVID.  The people in the small town of Maidsfell are up in arms with each other as local fishermen want to build a spillway to help their business, but others are afraid it will ruin the view for tourists which also support the local economy.  After a local aristocrat, Lord Bodwally is found murdered, St. Just and Portia are on the case to find the murderer.   Did someone take the local political disagreement too far?  Was it someone from Lord Bodwally’s past? 

 I enjoyed this audiobook.  I love British mysteries and relished Lorna Bennett’s narration of the audiobook with her British accent.  The book is set in beautiful Cornwall, which I’ve always wanted to visit.  I related to the people of Maidsfell as I also live in a small community that has tourists in the summer.  It’s a love / hate relationship with tourists and trying to make your local economy and community work.  I also really liked how they kept referring to the “plague times.”  I at first thought, why are they talking about the black death?  Then I realized they were talking about the COVID-19 pandemic.  The story had interesting twists using the pandemic as businesses try to reestablish themselves and go back to normal.

 This was a traditional British mystery with some sly bits of humor thrown in.  I laughed out loud as St. Just mused before the murder about how all of his vacations are always ruined because murder seems to follow him in his wake.  The same thing used to always happen to poor Hercule Poirot.  St. Just and Portia methodically work through the possible witnesses and killers as they unravel the mystery.  I did not guess the ending and I greatly enjoyed the process of getting there.  I also really loved all of the characters in the village and St. Just and Portia themselves.  I especially love Portia’s last name of De’Ath.  Ha!  I will be looking up more mysteries by author G.M. Malliet.