The Beach Hut Murders is the second Charity Shop Detective Agency mystery by Peter Boland. Released 3rd Aug 2023 by Joffe Books, it's 394 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free. The first book in the series, The Charity Shop Detective Agency, is also currently available on KU.
This is an entirely whimsical, campy, often slapstick lark featuring three disparate volunteers in the same charity shop (Dogs Need Nice Homes) who find themselves approached to solve an arson murder at a local beach hut cabin. There are darker forces at work, and soon it seems like the serial arsonist might never be caught, since they're not captured on any security camera anywhere in the area.
So much of the book is over the top silly that readers should bring a *hefty* suspension of disbelief to the read and expect some moderate amounts of eye-rolling at the seemingly random insertion of weird details from axe throwing tech experts to middle aged females falling over electric-scooters and accidentally exposing their naughty bits in most undignified fashion (several times in the course of the book).
The plot, resolution, and denouement are self contained in this volume and it works well enough as a standalone. It bears repeating that readers should bring a stout, nay invincible, suspension of disbelief, and expect a solution and epilogue that beggar belief.
Four stars. Potentially just slightly on the wrong side of silly, but undeniably fun. Readers should be in the mood for an extremely silly mystery to enjoy this one.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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