Mrs Sidhu’s ‘Dead and Scone’: A delightful debut culinary cosy crime mystery for 2023 from the the creator of BBC Radio 4’s Mrs Sidhu Investigates!

Mrs Sidhu's Dead & Scone is the first novel by BBC scriptwriter, Suk Pannu. Regular listeners will recognise Mrs Sidhu from his series, Mrs Sidhu Investigates. After a faux pas during an important wedding, Sidhu's Fine Catering Services is suddenly unpopular, and Mrs Sidhu is reduced to using her exceptional catering skills on producing bulk aubergine bhajis for freezing and sale in Mr Varma's cash & carry shops.

Any wonder that the call from Sienna Sampson at the Benham House Retreat telling her that Dr Stephen Eardley (aka Dr Feelgood, Mrs Sidhu has one of his self-help books) has an emergency that requires her talents, she takes the pots off the burners and hops in her Nissan Micra to find out what's needed. Which turns out to be chef for the annual fete, as the woman who volunteered to do them, therapist Dr Wendy Calman, hasn't turned up.

Interest piqued by overheard conversations, Mrs Sidhu walks around to her cottage, only to find a rather grisly sight: Dr Calman, throat slit, a pot of jam on the stove, boiled dry, scones in the oven burnt to a crisp, and a trail of coins leading to the garden. DCI Leslie Barton, whom she has helped with a few previous cases (although he might state it differently) is fixated on the Retreat's gardener as the culprit but, from a few other clues, Mrs Sidhu discounts this. But proving his innocence might prove challenging…

Before the true perpetrator is revealed, there are ancient symbols and a curse associated with standing stones, a residential development, raffle tickets, a stalker, several secrets and lies, a surprise revelation from an Indian aunt, an enlightenment cult, and four more deaths. Mrs Sidhu is good at getting the wrong end of the stick.

In the later chapters, DCI Barton summarises: "What you need to understand about Mrs Sidhu is that there is not a bad bone in her body. She's an extraordinary woman, whose first and only instinct is to help people who are in trouble. But I think we can all see that she has a problem. A severe problem. She's nosy to the point of obsession, she's irritating, and she never listens to anyone. Not only that, her imagination is so wild that she allowed a person with a fragile a grip of reality to convince her of the existence of a cult here in Benham village."

While this is a somewhat enjoyable cosy mystery: it does have plenty of red herrings and a good twist, it might appeal more to readers already familiar with the protagonist, who may care to read more of this cast.

This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Harper Collins UK.