Book Review - A Brush With Death by Fiona Leitch

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Title: A Brush With Death

Author: Fiona Leitch

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: One More Chapter 

Publication Date: 12th February 2021

Rating: 4 Stars

Jodie ‘Nosey’ Parker is back!

When a body turned up at her last catering gig it certainly put people off the hor d'oeuvres. So with a reputation to salvage, Jodie’s determined that her next job for the village’s festival will go without a hitch.

But when chaos breaks out, Jodie Parker somehow always finds herself in the picture.

The body of a writer from the festival is discovered at the bottom of a cliff, and the prime suspect is the guest of honour, the esteemed painter Duncan Stovall. With her background in the Met police, Jodie has got solving cases down to a fine art and she knows things are rarely as they seem.

Can she find the killer before the village faces another brush with death?

Well this was rather unpredictable but having seen the resolution in full, I'd also say it felt far more complicated than anticipated too! 

It was lovely to be back with Jodie Parker, in Penstowan, Cornwall, and I loved the various male admirers she clearly has even if she isn't quite ready to admit to them, or pick between them! 

I found the start of the book felt a bit slow to me, in that I kept expecting a dead body and disappointed it hadn't happened yet.  The build up though was needed, and all my guesses as to who was going to be killed were incorrect, and that's before you even try to solve the murder. 

It was the dynamic between Jodie, who is ex-police and current detective for the town Tony, and how they are both trying to look into this death, even though Jodie isn't a PI, as you may half expect from this sort of book.  Tony is starting to exchange information with Jodie and listen to her theories and it's starting to feel like they could be a team to be reckoned with, even if Jodie is helping in some sort of voluntary role. 

Set amongst an arts  and literary festival, there are plenty of familiar faces from the first book but equally this could easily be read as a standalone,   I love that in Jodie's role as a caterer she is able to be invited to these various events and possibly blend into the background, so she can get to hear things she may not otherwise. 

It's an enjoyable second book in the series and I'm certainly keen to read the next one to see how the regular characters develop further, and to see just what will happen next! 

Thank you to One More Chapter and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.