A Recipe for Murder by Roderic Jeffries

​   Every so often I’m just in the mood for these random old timey British mysteries. And Endeavor press/Lume are always willing to accommodate, because they frequently offer them as promotional freebies. This is in fact a second read by the author for me. The first one did nothing, but was too forgettable to put off the next. And this one was actually decent.
    Which is to say it was it was very, very British in just the right way and very short as to not overstay its welcome.
   It’s a story of a murder (obviously, otherwise it would say a recipe for pie or something), but a murder that plays out as a kind of a snafu following a botched robbery following a not properly thought out gift following a not properly thought out affair.
    You know exactly what’s going on the entire time, there’s no mystery, it’s more of a procedural if that, with the readers following the events along as the police tries to sort things out. The proceedings are elevated by entertaining characters and some charming repartee. And then there’s a silly slap on the butt or slapped onto the butt sort of an ending.
    It reads like a kind of mystery the author must have written tons of, one of those jobbers for a paycheck, but it’s amusing enough of a quick diversion and not too terribly dated either, although obviously older. Oh, as far as recipes go, this is definitely not the one to follow. Might try pie instead. Just as messy, but at least there’s potential for greatness there.