The Winter Mystery

Jenny Starling, Book 2

By: Faith Martin

Narrated by: Charlotte Worthing

Discover a new series of whodunits by million-selling author Faith Martin. These charming mysteries will have you scratching your head to work out who the murderer is.

Meet Jenny Starling: travelling cook and reluctant amateur detective.

Please note: This book was first published as A Fatal Fall of Snow under Faith Martin’s pen name Joyce Cato.

Jenny Starling is spending Christmas in a snowed-in country house cooking all the traditional food she loves. But the family she’s working for are not full of the seasonal spirit. In fact, they seem to hate each other.

On Christmas Eve, someone is found dead on the kitchen table. And the head of the family is blaming Jenny!

But with an incompetent detective called in, and seemingly no motive for the murder, Jenny will have to give the police a hand.

She will stop at nothing to clear her name and find the real murderer.

This is the second of a series of gripping murder mysteries with a great cast of characters and baffling crimes which will keep you in suspense to the final minute.

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

©2019 Faith Martin (P)2019 Audible, Ltd

Critic reviews

“Classic murder mystery story with a twist at the end." (Oxford Times)

Scientifically inaccurate (spoilers!)

***Spoiler alert***

Okay, this book has the big ah-ha breakthrough moment of whodunnit and why based on a scientific inaccuracy surrounding genetics and heritability. It states two brown eyed people cannot have a blue eyed child—which is 100% false! This fact is used to uncover a love child of infidelity who is the rightful heir, bla bla...so the entire storyline makes no sense. I lost respect for the author after that.

This is the second book in the series I’ve listened to and am quitting. Mostly because I just don’t connect with the main character at all, plus the books are just a little joyless overall. I’m never excited to listen to them and finishing them is a bit of a chore.

The Winter Mystery

A nice cozy Christmas mystery. I'm loving this series so far. I'm excited to listen to the next book in the series.

She’s done it again!

I so very much enjoy the Jenny Starling series. There is no doubt I will listen to these stories repeatedly!

The Winter Mystery

I thoroughly enjoy the mustrry series, love the way the solving of this murder is done, while Jenny does her cooking, which can really make your mouth water! Will definitely be reading/listening to them all. The narration is excellent.

Clever story with great character development

I love playing sleuth as I listen. Martin develops interesting characters in service of a fascinating plot. I figured out half of the mystery about 3/4s of tge way through but I love that. I hate it when a writer throws six pieces of critical information in the last chapter. Here, I was listening with rapt attention to figure out the entire resolution. Loved it.

Riveting!

family-dynamics, amateur-sleuth, cosy-mystery, England, law-enforcement, murder, murder-investigation, rural*****

Freelance cook Jenny Starling has an intellect even more impressive than her cooking skills or her dramatic appearance and isn't hesitant to wield it along with her powers of observation and deduction. This time she is working at a farm for the two weeks of Christmastide, but the head of the family is self important and very rude and abusive to family and everyone else as well. But he's not the one who gets murdered during a horrendous snowfall! It's his kind and frail brother! The police are stumped and even Jenny takes a long time to figure it out. Good sleuthing!
I was lucky to get the audio performed wonderfully by Charlotte Worthing.

Winter mystery

A lot of references to eye color have it away quite early for me!!! If you know 2 brown-eyed people cannot have a blue eyed child, it was easy! Good story!

Food and mystery

An interesting story even if the solution is based on a ‘clue’ that’s a bit iffy.

Obvious mystery

I was eager to listen to this book because it started out so well, with the setting, the season, and the premise. However, the unwinding of the murder mystery was disappointing because the outcome was so obvious. Not Agatha Christie by any stretch. A nice diversion, but ultimately, not a truly satisfying whodunit.

So much pain and hatred

Can't call this a cozy mystery. I suspect the plot is good but the it is overpowered and dominated by the mental and emotional injury that one of the main characters perpetrates on everyone around him. I waded in further thinking maybe Martin was only setting plot dynamics but the bullying and spirit-killing just continue. I couldn't take any more. I'll give the author this -- it is an ACCURATE psychological DSM depiction of "the tyrant" so this book could be educational for some, maybe help a reader recognize if such a person is controlling or limiting their life.