The Birthday Mystery

Jenny Starling, Book 1

By: Faith Martin

Narrated by: Charlotte Worthing

Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Discover a new series of whodunits by million-selling author Faith Martin. You'll be gripped from the first second to the last. These classic-style mysteries will have you scratching your head to work out who the murderer is, and look out for some real twists and turns.

Meet Jenny Starling: travelling cook and reluctant amateur detective.

Jenny Starling is catering the 21st birthday party of upper-class twins Alicia and Justin.

She arrives at their parents' country house and is immediately met by the police. A young man has drowned in the pond. Was it an accident or murder?

But the birthday party goes ahead. Then, just after midnight, everyone gathers for a champagne toast...and one of the guests falls down dead. The police are baffled, and there is a whole party full of suspects.

When it comes to someone adding the extra ingredient of poison to her own precious recipes, Jenny isn't going to take it lying down. She has a reputation to protect.

Jenny Starling won't stop until the murderer is found.

Perfect for fans of classic whodunits by authors like Agatha Christie, LJ Ross, TE Kinsey and J. R. Ellis.

Please note this book was first published as Birthdays Can Be Murder under Faith Martin’s pen name, Joyce Cato.

©2019 Faith Martin (P)2019 Audible, Ltd

The Birthday Mystery

I'm so glad I tried this book! I couldn't stop listening to it. The book is well written and had a great narration job. I was interested in the book the whole time. I'm excited to listen to the wrest of the books in the series.

Good read!

closed-circle-mystery, cosy-mystery, family-drama, family-dynamics, family-business, small-town, amateur-sleuth, England, law-enforcement, murder, murder-investigation, first-in-series, siblings, twins, poisons, travelling-cook *****

I was able to pick this one up on sale. It was a find for me because I have read many of the others in series but never got around to reading the first Jenny Starling. Jenny is over six feet tall that is reiterated quite often in this one but becomes less repeated in later books despite many male characters apparently threatened as much by her height as well as her brilliant deductive reasoning (and her excellent skill in the kitchen. Jenny is able to detach herself from those who hire her as a caterer or temporary cook yet able to observe all and listen to household gossip and help law enforcement without making a big deal of it. I'm glad that I read this one as it shows the impressive improvement with each successive book.
Charlotte Worthing gives a smooth and well differentiated performance as narrator.

Easy

Classic English murder mystery. Lots of suspects, evidence and theories. Wasn't fooled, figured out the murderer from an old Perry Mason episode. Putting the pieces together from there figured out motive, a bit more tricky but obvious. Love Faith Martin books, well written and always a challenge.

The Birthday Mystery

This is the first mystery book I have read and thoroughly enjoyed the cooking and the way the murder was solved, with lots of guessing as the story unfolded. The narration was very good.

Interesting mystery

I started this book today and I couldn't stop listening. I really liked the story and the characters. I listened to the Audible book and it was very interesting.

Overall I give this book 4 stars because it was a

good listen but I give the story 3 stars because the killer was obvious pretty early on.

Too Many Points of View

This book was not bad, but I didn't think it was that good either.... the main issue I had with it was that it switched POV from one sentence to the next. Not one scene to the next, or one chapter to the next. You were literally in Person A's head for their thought/sentence, and then in Person B's head for their thoughts/sentence, and sometimes Person C would chime in, too. Too many POV's that didn't contribute to the story. I just didn't care for that type of storytelling.
Story on the whole was ok, a bit slow at times. I did not see "whodunnit" early on as others say they did (and I read a lot of mysteries). On the whole the book was a bit "meh" for me.

Fat-shaming…ugh

The author just can’t stop referring to the main character’s generous physique. It gets old really fast. I had high hopes because the author seems empathetic in her other series. Not here. And the writing itself is often trite and sophomoric, as if this was written on autopilot. Overall, shallow in more ways than one.

Enjoyable

This is not on the same calibre as Hillary Greene as I was able to guess the murderer early on but what I truly enjoyed is the character she created in Jenny., unusual and clever. All in all a good read

What’s cookin’ in the kitchen can’t touch the stew of this murder mystery

I tried to follow all the ingredients that Martin throws together for this mystery! WOW! Love the sleuth and what we learn of Darling Starling…can’t wait for more to come! Great twists, complexities, audio and narration!