Donna Nightingale is at something of a crossroads in her career as a detective/perennial murder suspect, in part due to DS Joe Enys disappearing to work for the Home Secretary in London. But things will change when she attends a book launch at the Tate St Ives. The art on display is hardly to her tastes, apart from an impressive moving sculpture intended to emulate a trap designed by Wile E Coyote himself. Unfortunately, it probably wasn’t designed by Mr Coyote, as it succeeds in crushing the author to death.

More deaths soon follow, but with witches, writers and artists at every turn, Donna is soon up to her neck in things once again. Luckily the Home Office is concerned, because Joe Enys is sent back to Cornwall to take charge of the investigation – and to establish once and for all what is going on between him and Donna.

Book three in this series, and it is a series that needs to be read in order if only to follow the to-ing and fro-ing of the Donna – Joe relationship, along with the Nightingale family. It’s going to sound dismissive if I refer to this as “more of the same” but that’s quite a good way of summarising things. If you liked The Wrecker’s Curse aka The Cornish Curse and Murder On A Cornish Isle, then you’ll like this one. If they weren’t your cup of tea, then this won’t change your mind – and to be honest, it’s quite odd that you’re still reading a series that you don’t like…

The mystery plot here is nicely complex, with as ever Donna not exactly solving things herself, her family helping out (including Uncle Jago who solves a good deal without even being in the country) and Joe being the general voice of reason while trying to pluck up the courage to have a serious conversation with Donna about their future – the when-will-they relationship (I can’t honestly call it a will-they-won’t-they because they obviously will eventually) takes another step forward here. I thought the author did a good job of hiding a standard central idea in the solution – I didn’t spot it, even though I’ve read a few different versions of it in the past.

What I thought was interesting here was a slight paring back of the Nightingale family, with just Donna’s sister and uncle on the scene this time. I’ll be honest, it would be nice to have a book with just Donna and Joe, but I guess that’s not the format of the series.

Anyway, as I said, if you enjoy the series, you’ll enjoy this one. It’s got a very interesting tone which works for me, so why not give it a go?

Murder On A Cornish Isle is out from Harper Collins/One More Chapter on April 19th 2024. Many thanks to the publisher for the review e-copy.