Mostly Murders

“Even the prettiest villages have their dark side, Maya. Let’s not forget that.”

When her husband Rajiv gets a job at a university, Maya and Rajiv and their daughter Anya move from New Delhi to the small British village of Merrywick. Rajiv loves his new job, but Maya is struggling to settle in. She misses her old job, her old food and her old sense of being a part of the community. She tries to make friends with the other mothers at Anya’s school, but only manages to antagonise one of them, Constable Fiona Trent who had her eye on the cottage Maya and her family are living in. When Maya spots a runaway Siberian Husky, she tries to bring him back to the pet shop and suddenly finds herself embroiled in a mystery reaching far beyond an adventurous puppy.

A fun cosy mystery novella serving as an introduction to The Merry Masala Murders series. Maya has just the right amount of nosiness for an amateur sleuth to discover things without being too much, and she is a great example of a resilient immigrant working hard to fit in while still maintaining strong ties to her Indian background through her food. Merrywick is a small and cosy village while still harbouring deadly secrets, and the cast of characters introduced are fun and colourful.

A Pinch Of Poison, book 1 in The Merry Masala Murders, releases August 15, 2026 and I will definitely be reading it when it is available.

Cosy mystery – Prequel novella