I cannot stress enough that I honestly had incredibly low expectations for this book. I spotted it in a book offer at the local garden centre and it’s not that I believe books that land in the garden centre are bad but more that they are completely hit and miss, like ones sometimes in The Works, so I kept expectations to a minimum.

And at the start “How Not To Murder Your Ex” by Katie Marsh did not fill me with hope. It felt like a little bit of a slow start. Not in the development of the story but rather in the way that the development pulled me in to the plot and to leave me feeling any sort of way about any of the characters.

But I persevered and I’m pleased I did. Wow. Gary was a bit of shithead eh? In fairness, all the men in this novel aren’t exactly nice guys apart from maybe Tan. There’s definitely hope for Tan… eventually. But it’s safe to say Gary made plenty of enemies and it’s little surprise that he’s the one laying dead on the ground outside his estranged wife’s caravan.

And Cleo didn’t do it. Or did she? She says she did. But her best friends are on a mission to save her? Her daughter and daughters father are laying low in a caravan like nothing happened? Gary’s clients, girlfriend(s) and staff have a lot of things to say. The police seem to be lacking leads. Will the killer get away with it or will new evidence come to light in the nick of time?

The mild plot twist near the end of the book made me smile. It wasn’t particularly what I expected, even though the things had been put right in front of us, and I like the way that we had those moments pieced together for us as well. And, in theme with the cosy detective novel, it wasn’t truly shocking but still had a fun moment of action thrown in too where all the “good” people came together.

At the very end of the book they end up forming the Bag Girls Detective Agency and this spins off into a number of books. I’m not sure I’ll be leaning towards picking up or reading the rest, unless they happen to be available in my areas library, as whilst I enjoyed the plot and the character development I haven’t been left thinking “aw I need more of this character” particuarly.

A good cosy book that at least got me wanting to read a few more things on my shelf again!