The Cornish Campsite Murder (The Nosey Parker Mysteries #7)
Finished: June 2024
Book Source: NetGalley
Book Publication Date: June 2024
Just along the coast from Penstowan, the local festival has filled the area. Former Met police officer Jodie ‘Nosey’ Parker has agreed to step in and help run the Pie Hard food truck, along with her rather reluctant fiancé, DCI Nathan Withers.
As they prepare for a weekend of camping and being elbow deep in shortcrust pastry, Jodie hadn’t bargained on witnessing a fight between members of the lead band.
But when the body of one of the band members is found not far from the campsite, Jodie finds it hard to believe it was an accident. Especially when the other members had so much to gain…
Trigger Warnings:
Murder, drugs
My Review
I originally requested this book because of the cover and the cozy mystery vibes. The story follows a retired police detective and her fiancé, a current detective, as they run a food truck at a popular music festival. A band member turns up dead after Jodie overhears an argument between bandmates.
Initially, I wasn’t super interested in the music festival scene, but the food truck setting grew on me. This book is also the 7th book in a cozy series. While I likely would have enjoyed it more if I had started with an earlier book to get some character development, this read just fine as a standalone.
Overall, it was a quick, cozy read with a nicely played out plot line!
Spoilers/Summary
SPOILERS BELOW. Stop here if you do not want to read spoilers.
The band’s producer is the murderer. He was collecting extra royalties and scamming them out of money. The lead singer’s girlfriend had found out via the producer’s ex wife decades ago. The producer snuck into the hotel after their concert and killed his girlfriend and made it look like she was drugged up and had an accident.
The lead singer realized he didn’t have as much money has he should and hired a PI to look into it in the murder. The PI found realized what likely had happened. The producer met up with the singer pretending to be another band mate and murdered him. He also was keeping the singer’s girlfriend captive – turns out she is 6 months pregnant! He had also roofied a woman to have her fall asleep at his place and be his alibi for the night.