Murder at Gulls Nest is the first in a cozy historical mystery series by Jess Kidd. Released 8th April 2025 by Simon & Schuster on their Atria imprint, it's 336 pages and available in hardcover, audio, 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.
This is a very well written historical cozy with an intelligent, compassionate, perceptive, and nuanced protagonist, a late-middle-aged woman who was a nun for decades and leaves religious life behind to search for her protege who went missing after leaving the same order. It's a melancholy and sober read.
Nora Breen butts heads with the local constabulary in her search, and, "undercover", has taken rooms in a boarding house on the coast, the same boarding house from which her young friend went missing. The plot itself is well engineered and the mystery multilayered and well-paced.
There are some more graphic descriptions of violent death than are entirely usual for lighter cozy mystery. There are poisonings (including a sad elderly beloved dog), and other violent deaths. None of it is egregious, but it does give the whole story a more somber gravitas than a frivolous light cozy read would have.
It's not at all derivative, but the tone of the read is reminiscent of Carolyn Heilbrun (Amanda Cross), PD James, Patricia Wentworth, et. al.
Five stars. Delightful read. It will be nice to see how the series develops. It would be an excellent choice for public library acquisition, home library, buddy read, or mystery book club discussion.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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