A Pen Dipped in Poison: A witty and cosy mystery story, perfect for fans of Richard Osman

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And the theme of the poisoned pen letters and the reasons behind them just didn't quite work for me. Sitting in the conservatory with her after-lunch cup of tea she tried to rake her thoughts in the same way as she'd planned to rake leaves, but whenever she gathered ideas from one thought, along came a gust of another idea, scattering them again. This book is set in a town in Yorkshire with three retired primary school teachers Liz, Pat and Thelma as the main characters.

I haven't read the previous book by this author and found that there were a lot of characters to keep track of and I found the 3 main characters were not particularly different and or interesting. But when poison pen letters start landing on the doorsteps of friends and neighbours in their Yorkshire village, old secrets come to light. I really enjoyed the school setting of the book, and finding out what it is like behind the scenes there. The characters are likeable and quirky, the story moves quickly and this talented author leaves us wanting for more …!This time around I didn’t guess who was behind it all, and I did last time so I was expecting to be able to crack it!

All in all though if you do like you’re cozy crime and don’t mind putting the work in to sit down and read in more than one sitting then I think you would enjoy this.You couldn't even tell that these women were friends with the way they spoke to each other like strangers. It felt like the characters were stuck in the past and I did find myself getting frustrated with how out of touch they were.

A gently quirky cosy mystery with plenty of twists and turns , and an intriguing cast of characters – some endearing, some not so much! I won’t talk too much about the plot other than to say it resolves (as the title indicates) around poison pen letters, and that delving into the who,what, where, why and when allows Hall to show us all over again why retired primary school teachers are really superheroes! I am hoping the next book in this series, if there is one, will go back to all the things that I loved about the first book. This makes a great light mystery read for fans of the cosy genre and those formerly or currently employed in the UK education system will find plenty familiar within these pages!

But, despite the poison pen letters (a stable of classic mysteries) nothing moves this plot forward. The dialogue and relationships within this book are wonderful and by the end I felt I was leaving friends. Retired schoolteachers Liz, Pat and Thelma never expected they would be caught up in a crime even once in their lives, let alone twice.