finished reading

This is the first installment of a promising new cozy series.  The main character is Judith Potts, a seventy-seven-year-old crossword puzzle writer who's fiercely independent, savvy, and eccentric.  She is joined by Becks Starling, a homemaker and minister's wife with all the stereotypes that entails, and Suzie Harris, a rough-around-the-edges dog walker.  The three Club members are assisting Detective Sergeant Tanika Malik in solving the string of murders in the sleepy town of Marlow.  I enjoyed the characters very much.  And the mystery was engaging from the very first chapter.

It's hard not to compare it with The Thursday Murder Club since they have similar storylines.  

From the publisher:

To solve an impossible murder, you need an impossible hero…

Judith Potts is seventy-seven years old and blissfully happy. She lives on her own in a faded mansion just outside Marlow, there’s no man in her life to tell her what to do or how much whisky to drink, and to keep herself busy she sets crosswords for The Times newspaper.

One evening, while out swimming in the Thames, Judith witnesses a brutal murder. The local police don’t believe her story, so she decides to investigate for herself, and is soon joined in her quest by Suzie, a salt-of-the-earth dog-walker, and Becks, the prim and proper wife of the local Vicar.

Together, they are the Marlow Murder Club.

When another body turns up, they realise they have a real-life serial killer on their hands. And the puzzle they set out to solve has become a trap from which they might never escape…