The Bottom Line: Cozy murder intrigue at its finest. Charlie Tyler has a winner in series-worthy PI Cally Simmonds.
Set in an English suburb, we first meet 32-year-old private investigator Cally Simmonds as she’s trying to locate a missing crate of vintage champagne. Having been hired to work undercover at a local hotel to ascertain whether the staff have been stealing, she soon finds far more than she bargained for – the corpse of soon-to-be-bride and wannabee Instagram superstar LuellaBoo.
While the actual cause of LuellaBoo’s death is deemed to be drowning, a combination of drugs and alcohol may have been contributing factors. Soon, word comes that the victim’s father, Bill, killed himself, leaving a note indicating Luella’s death was all his fault. Could both deaths be suicide? Alternately, could both be murder?
Meanwhile, author Charlie Tyler delivers chapters written from the point of view of Mikey, who for a time lived with his older sister, Lucy, drug-addicted mother, and others. Tyler tells Mikey’s story across multiple time periods. His chapters are dark ones, defined by fear, loathing, food scarcity, filthy living conditions and extreme disparity between neglect and caregiving. Mikey’s story also jumps back and forth across timelines to serve as a mechanism for revealing game-changing details outside Cally’s investigative purview. Such darkness is a bit of a risk within the cozy mystery genre, but credit Tyler for delivering such a stark, visceral contrast between Mikey’s outlook and Cally’s sunny, everywoman disposition.
When not solving theft rings and murders, Cally is busy planning her own wedding — and occasionally fielding other people’s recommendations. What begins as a juxtaposition between investigating the murder victim’s planned wedding and planning her own leads to a lot of ah-ha moments as well as introspection. Before long, Cally’s having not just cold feet, but “arctic feet.”
The fact that Cally’s most compelling features have nothing to do with her ability as a detective provides an interesting opportunity for Tyler as the series continues. Cally is warm, highly likable, approachable and good-natured. But compared to other fictional detectives, there’s no evidence that Cally is unusually sharp or observant, nor does she have any particular superpower or experiential edge that is obvious. In fact, she’s quite squeamish, even about sexual proclivities. But that’s part of the charm, and also the upside, for the series. We’re grateful to get in on the ground floor to witness Cally’s eventual character arc.
