Murder at Gulls Nest
This is the best written historical murder mystery I have read this year. The first in the Nora Breen Investigates series, it is set in the 1950s in Gore-on-Sea, an English seaside town, during off-season. Miss Nora Breen, formally Sister Agnes, decides to leave her convent after a vocation of thirty years. Back out in the world, she could have chosen to go anywhere and do anything. For her own reasons, she arrives at Gulls Nest, a genteel, if down-at-heel guest house full of misfits. There are poisonous undercurrents between the residents, and it is not long before a body is found. Nora’s inquisitiveness and her no-nonsense manner, picked up during a convent infirmary nursing career, is pivotal to her winkling out the truth and bringing the guilty to justice.
Nora Breen is a very likable and audacious mix of Miss Marple crossed with Sister Boniface from the BBC TV series, with extra sass. Her backstory makes her more three-dimensional than some fictional sleuths. Nora’s detecting foil in the battle-scarred Inspector Rideout is inspired, and I foresee a long partnership full of banter. From the author’s description of Gore-on-Sea, you do get a real sense of a seaside resort which is on the cusp of descending into seediness.
The story is narrated in the present tense, which took me a couple of chapters to get used to, but definitely adds pace. The plot is twisty but at the right level to carry the reader along. I had my suspicions fairly early on whodunit, but the reveal is very satisfying, and I went away feeling smug with my own deductions. This is a highly enjoyable book, perfect for a cosy Sunday afternoon, or a holiday read.
