In Another One Bites the Crust by H.Y. Hanna, Gemma Rose, owner of Little Stables Tearoom and girlfriend to Devlin O’Connor, Detective Inspector of the Oxford CID, attends the annual ball celebrating the end of the school year at Boscobel College. Usually this small college’s ball has a small attendance, but this year tickets are selling like wildfire because Josh McDermott, the school’s famous television chef alumnus, will be attending and holding a live demonstration of his cooking. Glenda, one of the Old Biddies who poke their nose into everything and help out in the tearoom, begs Gemma to get Josh’s autograph, since she knew him when they attended Oxford together. But when Gemma first tries his hotel, where she and her friends go for drinks at the Morse Bar before the ball, Gemma overhears an argument between Josh and Leann Fitch, his ex- girlfriend, who is furious at the loss of their relationship. Now is not a good time to try to get that autograph.
At the ball, Gemma leaves her best friend, Cassie, in the quieu to get in to the cooking demonstration and goes to the college porter to leave the stuffed animals their dates won for them. Wanting to try a second time to get Josh’s autograph for Glenda, Gemma takes a shortcut to get to the dining hall, where the demonstration is to take place. She sees Josh’s manager, Jerry Wallace, who earlier dared to accuse Gemma of stealing Josh’s custard recipe, and a fellow woman on Josh’s production team leave the dining hall before sneaking into the room herself in search of the famous chef. However, Gemma will never get her autograph, as Josh lies dead in the corner.
Thus, poor Devlin doesn’t get to enjoy his night off, as he gets dragged into investigating the death, which soon becomes apparent as a murder. Someone rewired Josh’s electric whisk to electrocute him as soon as he turned it on. Gemma and the Old Biddies naturally determine to poke their noses into the case, but other than one incident at the cooking workshop taken over by Josh’s competitor, Antonio Casa, Gemma manages to keep the senior ladies from illegal snooping this time. But still she works hard to locate the truth.
I had a highly enjoyable time listening to Another One Bites the Crust, which is part of a series I have thoroughly come to enjoy. I love being whisked away from my bed to the old town of Oxford and given a mysterious plot filled with twists and turns in addition. The mystery plot kept me guessing throughout. Further, I loved getting to make another visit to Oxford and see all the sights of the colleges and local landmarks.
I had a fun time as Gemma keeps having run-ins with her senior customer, Mrs. Purdy, who keeps trying to sneak away with Gemma’s cat, Muesli. Muesli reminds Mrs. Purdy of her cat who recently died, so the older lady really wants Muesli to replace her own cat and even tries to get out of the tearoom with a squirming purse more than once.
I also thoroughly enjoyed being introduced to Devlin’s mother, a party girl even at 45. She calls Gemma both drunk and high in the middle of one night, and Gemma has to sneak her into Devlin’s home after picking her up. The next day, Devlin and Ms. O’Connor attend a tea at Gemma’s mother’s house, in which a marijuana cigarette falls out of Ms. O’Connor’s purse. Gemma hides it in the cushions, but soon her mother finds it and wonders what it is, so Gemma claims it is a new form of sachet. This leads to a humorous scene with all the upper crust women passing the cigarette around to each other, sniffing it, and asking where they can purchase their own sachets.
The audio edition of this book is performed by Pearl Hewitt, an effective narrator who truly makes this series come alive. With a young- sounding voice, Hewitt fully embodies the character of the almost-30 Gemma, who narrates the book in the first person. However, she sounds perfect in the roles of the Old Biddies, giving them voices that sound realistic for the nosy senior citizen ladies. She even mews for Muesli in a realistic manner. Hewitt also effectively voices both Gemma’s and Devlin’s mothers, giving Mrs. Rose an upper crust, snobbish accent and Ms. O’Connor a party girl voice. This becomes especially impressive when Gemma gets a call from Devlin’s mother while she is partying and both drunk and high. I find this audio performance highly enjoyable and a lot of fun.
I highly enjoyed Another One Bites the Crust, which kept my attention throughout and didn’t let me turn the book off. It had a really interesting solution and great details to the mystery. The characters are a lot of fun to spend time with, as each one seems truly alive. I definitely recommend this book and give it five stars.
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