Seven Lively Suspects - Katy Watson

It's been an up and down kind of week - I've been having problems with my foot that I'd been assured by consultant were arthritis and would be helped by a steroid injection. After a very long wait, I finally had an appointment for that injection on Monday. Just before needles were brandished it turned out that over almost 2 years of consultations and scans (4 appointments in that time) they had the wrong foot. No injection, the arthritis in my left foot isn't bad enough to warrant it and it wouldn't have done anything for the actual problem in my right foot. So back to the beginning but with much less mobility and much more pain than I had 2 years ago. I'm both angry and upset which is a poor combination online. 

I'm making good progress on a jumper though and been listening to a couple of audio books whilst I do it. I've been sent a review copy of A Very Lively Midwinter Murder which made me realise I hadn't read this one yet. It's still in hardback and I didn't like book 2 in the series enough to want to buy it until the paperback release. 

I enjoyed Seven Lively Suspects far more than A Very Lively Murder - which was okay (thoughts here) which I felt lacked character development and had too high a body count. Seven Lively Suspects reins back considerably on the murder and does much better by its 3 main characters who are really starting to come to life. With book 5 due out in the spring this series clearly has no shortage of ideas to play with.

The charm of book one was in the 3 strong female leads - all actresses who have played or are playing the same fictional detective (Dahlia Lively) along with the references to various golden age crime writers - Agatha Christie in an obvious candidate but in book one there were references to Dorothy L. Sayers, and in this book I thought I saw parallels to Josephine Tey. If there were similar references in book 2 I missed them. 

Here our actress detectives are asked to join a true crime podcast set to re-examine a cold case, Caro the middle Dahlia has a connection to the case in that she testified against the presumed culprit and helped send him to prison. The mix of guilt and fear she feels is persuasive, and so is the friendship between the three Dahlias.

 The mystery hangs together nicely, I guessed the wrong murderer, and Caro's, now a true crime writer herself, appropriation of Katy Watson's books is another amusing touch as is the literary festival setting. Cosy crime isn't normally my thing but I like this series for its homage to the golden age and the fun it has with what it's doing. I didn't like the narration of the audio book - I found the tone mildly annoying, the accents felt off, and the humour over stressed. It wasn't enough to stop me from listening, but enough to think I'm much better off reading the physical book.