ISBN: 9781915523471 | £9.99 / $18.99
A cosy cheese-scented mystery with delightful characters, a dash of murder and tons of intrigue, perfect for fans of The Thursday Murder Club and The Maid.
Cheese-obsessed Bird Nichols has just inherited her grandmother’s estate in a quiet, quirky Californian town. But when a body is found on her property, her life begins to get rather loud…
Bird Nichols is ready to make a fresh start in a familiar place. Last year, her
parents died together in a car crash and her beloved grandmother is
presumed dead from an ocean drowning. Bird is now moving onto her
grandmother’s California coastal property, and finally living out her dream.
Bird loves cheese like nothing else. It’s her autistic special interest, and she
designs her boards along her sensory needs, and other people love them,
too.
But just when everything seems to be going right, the local troublemaker ends up dead on her rural road.
Grizz, the closest thing Bird has to family, is the sheriff department’s favourite suspect, but she is determined to prove Grizz’s innocence. So now, Bird needs to unpack her possessions, assemble her pretty cheese boards, and find the true murderer before they strike again.
My Review
Thanks to the team at Datura, and especially Wagma who organised the tour, for sending me a copy of this novel.
Bird has lost both her parents and probably her grandmother, and inherited the family house and land in California. Autistic and obsessed with cheese, Bird is finally able to give up her night job stacking shelves and focus on her business making custom cheese boards for events. Her only remaining family is an old friend of her grandma’s Grizz, who lives in a static caravan on her land. He’s been keeping an eye on the place and had to run off some local trouble makers a couple of times.
On the day Bird moves in, she and Grizz have to run off the same person, and demand he tidies up the mess he’s made. Later, after a trip into the local village to get food and making a new friend (an Englishman who makes grilled cheese sandwiches), Bird finds the body of the trouble maker.
The police automatically assume Grizz and Bird are responsible. Through a series of investigations of her own, Bird discovers the truth about the murder and is almost murdered herself, three times.
I enjoyed reading about Bird’s adventures as she tries to navigate the social connections of her new home, communicate with the police in a way that won’t get her arrested, and deal with her grief at losing her grandmother. She develops new friendships as she investigates and still manages to get her cheese boards to customers on time.
And acquires a new cat. Since her potential boyfriend also loves cheese and fosters kittens and cats, it’s a brilliant way to spend time with him.
The crime was clever and the hints and red herrings, especially about the surprise twist, were very well done. I even enjoyed the first person narrative. Bird is a funny, clever character, with flaws and skills, and Cato is clearly drawing on her own experiences of being and autistic person to flesh out the character.
The descriptions of events and California are clear and evocative, and I found it possible to ‘see’ them in my mind. It explores the parts of California most people don’t think about – the less well off, the rural, and old tourist towns struggling to survive, away from L.A. and Hollywood or the wine country.
Cato is a good writer and this was a fun novel. If you like cosy crime and want to visit California in fiction, I recommend this novel.
Loving cheese and cats is optional, but you will learn stuff.
Meet the Author:
Beth Cato hails from Hanford, California, but currently writes and bakes cookies in Red Wing, Minnesota. She usually has one or two cats in close orbit. A 2015 Nebula finalist, she is the author of the cozy mystery CHEDDAR LUCK NEXT TIME as well as fantasy like A THOUSAND RECIPES FOR REVENGE. Her short stories can be found in publications ranging from Beneath Ceaseless Skies to Uncanny Magazine. In 2019 and 2022, she won the Rhysling Award for short speculative poetry. Her website BethCato.com includes not only a vast bibliography, but a treasure trove of recipes for delectable goodies. Find her on BlueSky as @BethCato and Instagram as @catocatsandcheese.
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