Agnes Sharp and the Wedding to Die For by Leonie Swann

Bernadette and Jack are getting married. But the Foxglove Manor requires at least twenty guests to come. And it's not like the crew knows all that many people. So they start inviting anyone they can think of. They don't expect an old friend (?) of Bernadette's to show up. Nor do they expect her to die. Is this related to the verger who was also killed? Agnes does feel some guilt about forgetting to tell anyone that he was there. They found him eventually. 

The wedding does go off, but with more than the most important hitch. And the ending on this one was... not my cup of tea. I'm going to be VERY interested to read other reviews on this one. 

Three stars

Miss Sharp Investigates #3

Follows Agnes Sharp and the Trip of a Lifetime

The book comes out April 7, 2026

ARC kindly provided by Soho Press and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer, Tamara Moss

Sierra Angelos is back on the set of "The Escape Game." Season four will be particularly fraught as last season, her sister Alicia was killed and a number of people presume that she committed the crime. This year, she's back to try and figure out what happened. But the teams change every year so she's paired with new people with the book being told in third person point of view from each of the team.

Sierra, Beck, Carter, and Adi are competing against other teams to be the fastest to escape various rooms. And, like Sierra, they each carry their own baggage. 

Of course, as these books go, they will band together to overcome. The ending got a little bit convoluted, but I generally enjoyed this book and am excited to read the next in the series. 

Four stars

This book comes out April 7, 2026

ARC kindly provided by Penguin Random House and Edelweiss

Opinions are my own

Agnes Sharp and the Trip of a Lifetime by Leonie Swann and translated by Amy Bojang

Bernadette has won a trip. The rest of the house decide they're tired of the cold and the damp and they're going with her. All of them. Agnes isn't sure about it but she decides to go along. 

They end up at a remote health resort. It's... fine. But there are some odd things going on. And not just in Edwina's imagination. There's the young man that stows away in Edwina's clsoet and the boa constrictor that shows up (in Cornwall?). There's also a murder. And the hotel is cut off from civilization. So it's up to Agnes and the crew to figure out what's going on. As long as they're not chose as the most likely suspects first.

Four stars

Miss Sharp Investigates #2

Follows The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp

Followed by Agnes Sharp and the Wedding to Die For

The book came out September 3, 2024

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp by Leonie Swann

This book opens from the view of the house turtle. Someone is dead. Well, at least their toes are pointing up and no lettuce is being proffered.

We then move to third person omniscient with Agnes Sharp. There is just a little too much going on in Agnes's world on the day the book opens. Lilith is dead but they do not want the police; the police come anyway. And their news makes it advantageous to let them know about Lilith. Plus, the new lodger, Charlie, is moving in. 

We know from the beginning that Agnes is an unreliable narrator. She has a loud ringing in her ears and she can't hear during those times. Then there are the moments that she is pulled back into the past. And we actively read her thinking about deceiving the police and refusing to think of bad memories.

There are some other glimpses into other characters, especially Marshall who seems to have some memory issues though he also seems to know the identity of the killer. 

I'm assuming this is going to be set up as a series since we have many hints of each of the characters having pasts in various parts of law enforcement. Plus, we haven't learned nearly enough about new lodger Charlie and her handsome grandson. 

Four stars

Miss Sharp Investigates #1

Followed by Miss Sharp Investigates

This book comes out August 29, 2023

ARC kindly provided by Penguin Random House and Edelweiss

Opinions are my own

The Body under the Piano by Marthe Jocelyn

What happened if Agatha Christie grew up to be such a prolific writer because she solved mysteries as a girl? And what if she had a friend that was the prototype for Hercule Poirot? And a grandmother who strongly resembles Miss Jane Marple? You would get this series about Aggie Morton.
Aggie is sort of like Harriet the Spy but more focused on writing poetry than on spying on other people. She is supposed to be a part of a local fete welcoming refugees but she freezes and is saved by Rose. Rose is a beautiful local seventeen-year-old whose aunt is the local dance teacher and an all-around nice lady. Her mother, on the other hand, is known as being vituperative and mean. No surprise who ends up dead then. Aggie is the one to discover the body and becomes very curious, trying to solve the case with new friend Hector.
This book was a little too long but I think would be great for a reader who is ready for some more challenging material; the murder is off-screen (as it were) but the language is a bit higher than a lot of the middle-grade books I've read.

Four stars
This book comes out February 4th
ARC kindly provided by Penguin Random House and NetGalley
Opinions are my own