The Cornish Wedding Murder

3.5/5. This was a pretty serviceable murder mystery. Nothing obnoxiously annoying or intolerable, a decent mystery hook at the core of it, a fairly satisfying resolution although nothing completely mind-blowing, and also with a dash of romantic tension underneath it all probably most relevant to those above 30. It was fine, I'm not sure how memorable it is, but it was fine.

Our protagonist is Jodie “Nosey” Parker, a former police officer turned cook and caterer after moving back to her hometown of Penstowan, Cornwall. She bumps into a very old school friend, Tony Penhaligon, and is engaged to cater for his wedding happening in a week's time, though she doesn't quite warm up to his bride-to-be, Cheryl Laity. On the evening before the wedding, as Cheryl is just about to give a welcome speech to their guests, Tony's ex-wife Melissa rugby-tackles Cheryl and an altercation ensues which Jodie breaks up. By the next morning, Cheryl disappears and a body is found.

Jodie Parker is a pretty decent protagonist and I've definitely read many worse ones that annoy me a lot more. I could actually get behind Jodie most of the time, even if I sometimes felt like her attraction to certain men in the cast felt a little too contrived. She does seem to stick her nose unnecessarily into the investigation sometimes but I guess it's a good thing that her nickname really is “Nosey Parker” and it checks out.

Of the two primary male characters, I thought DCI Withers was the more attractive one but I couldn't buy into his chemistry with Jodie, because they had always seemed more hostile to each other until it suddenly just switched to flirtation for no rhyme or reason. I think there's more substance to the chemistry she had with Tony, given their shared history and all that she's done to help him out, but I don't really like Tony as much as a character for some reason. Sooo... I guess I can see why she's stuck in between both.

I don't think any character really stuck out to me really, except maybe Jodie Parker but that's just because the whole book is narrated from her POV. Some of the antagonists in the book were slimy but we also don't really spend that much time with them to properly get a sense of how gross they were.

Overall, everything just felt fine and not much else besides that. I could see myself probably picking up further books in the series when I need another palate cleanser or time killer for sure.