Judith Potts and friends/fellow sleuths, the free-spirited Suzie and Becks, the vicar’s wife, should be celebrating the capture of the murderer of Oliver Beresford but despite unmasking the killer live on stage, the local press is far more interested in the death of Gary Wise, a local football star, shot dead in the woods behind his house.

This  would normally be just the thing for the so-called Marlow Murder Club, but Tanika, their police liaison, has been suspended for crossing the line with them too many times. And Judith has something far more serious on her mind. Decades ago, Judith’s husband died in Corfu and now his illegitimate daughter has appeared claiming to have proof that Judith was involved in his death…

The run-up to Christmas means many things to me, but one of the most important is keeping an eye on NetGalley to see when I can grab an e-copy of the next Marlow Murder Club novel and then trying not to review it too early. Note, I’m very bad at the last part, because it’s not out until the 15^th January.

If you’re new to the series, I should make something clear. There are other Murder Clubs out there, often populated by at least one pensioner. But this is not the Thursday Murder Club, the Asthmatic Trainspotting Murder Club, the Ambidextrous Paragliding Murder Club or whatever. I’ve read a few of these and while they can be quite enjoyable (the word “can” is doing a bit of heavy lifting there), for the most part they aren’t properly clued mysteries, more like a game of “wait for the murderer to try and kill me”. This, however… well, this is very different.

Before I get into it, a little story which is 100% true. Occasionally, I dream up plots for murder mysteries. I’m never going to write them because I’ve the attention span of a…

… sorry, something shiny distracted me. But I came up with an idea once that I’d been saving because I thought it was something that I’d never seen. And there is a distinct similarity with one of the ideas here. But this gives me another reason not to write because my idea was blunt. Very, very blunt. Comparing it to how Robert plots this book is like comparing a caveman’s club with a samurai’s katana. I thought my idea was clever, but this book, oh, it’s a clear sign of why I just review things.

This book dangles clues in front of the reader all over the place. When the villain is unmasked at the end (and to be fair, I did guess it but it was only a guess) the explanation of how they were unmasked contains so many clues that seem so obvious but were masterfully slipped past this armchair detective. And they are the best clues, the sort where you remember seeing them and not noticing their relevance.

There’s a great array of suspects from dubious journalists, slighted wives, dishonest assistants and even a local member of the aristocracy with more than one dark secret. There is so much going on, it’s hard to see how it can be tied up into a cohesive whole, but in case you are worried, it does so wonderfully.

Finally getting into Judith’s back story in some detail is a good addition to the book. We know she doesn’t talk about her former husband, but we get some more information on him now, and the reason why she doesn’t talk about him, even to her friends.

In case you missed the subtleties here, I loved this book. Loved it. I loved Murder On The Marlow Belle but this is even better. A first-rate mystery with strong lead characters and some genuine surprises. And so many clues that you’ll miss…

Damn, now I’ve got another year to wait until the next one…

The Mysterious Affair Of Judith Potts is out in hardback and ebook on January 15^th from HQ Books. Many thanks for the review e-copy.