Prudence Bulstrode, former celebrity chef is shocked to hear how her old TV rival, Deirdre Shaw was found face down in the rhubarb patch at the stately home in the Cotswolds where she was catering for a shooting weekend. Prudence is more than happy to take on the now- vacant job at Farleigh Manor, and, dragging her wayward granddaughter Suki along with her, she soon gets to work in the kitchen.

But Farleigh Manor has a history, being the site of a famous unsolved murder. But Prudence is more concerned with the present. When the entire guest list comes down with a dose of food poisoning, she becomes more and more convinced that Deirdre was murdered, and that the murderer hasn’t finished yet. The Last Supper is approaching…

Well, will you look at that? When I recently reviewed Rosemary Shrager’s Too Many Cooks, I said that I’d be taking a look at the first two titles in the series. Long time (and observant) readers will know that I often said that sort of thing and then, well, forgot about it. Well, what do you know, here I am actually following up on that promise. I needed something light while I got back up to speed, and this was the perfect ingredient for that.

One thing that I should mention – this is going to get labelled as “cosy” and fair enough, there’s no blood, gore or gratuitous sex flying around here. But let’s remember, “cosy” doesn’t mean “rubbish”. I’ve always reserved the phrase “cosy” for those US paperbacks about cake decorators who fall over dead bodies and then dramatically unmask the murderer (after romancing the local sheriff) by annoying someone into trying to kill them. This is not such a book – it’s a rather clever mystery.

Structurally, it’s complex in a simple way, and given what’s going on, I thought Shrager did a good job of keeping the plot moving forward and not dragging. The overall idea is, I think, one that I’ve not seen before and it is rather smart. There are clues and the murderer certainly eluded me until just before the end of the tale. There are clues, too!

And I do like the central characters of Prudence and Suki, going beyond the basic idea of the old lady who can’t work computers and the girl who can dynamic. There’s a real feeling of warmth between the characters and they are genuinely fun to read about.

All in all, this is definitely my favourite of the celebrity author boom, and I’m looking forward to reading more from the series.