Thursday, August 12, 2021

Death at the Gates

Title: Death at the Gates
Author: Katie Gayle
Published: August 2nd 2021 by Bookouture
Format: Kindle, Paperback 248 Pages
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Epiphany Bloom Mysteries Book 3

First Sentence: Pip woke to the smell of burnt polyester.

From the Publisher: Hurlingham House school is a high-achiever’s heaven, full of happy, hard-working pupils. There’s just the small matter of the dead body on the field… Sounds like a case for Epiphany Bloom!

When Epiphany Bloom’s best friend’s sister Claire is accused of trading exam papers for money, Epiphany agrees to see Ms Peters, the headteacher of Claire’s fiercely competitive school, to provide moral support. Claire has always been a model student and is loudly protesting her innocence: surely it’s all just a misunderstanding.

But when Ms Peters hears about Epiphany’s previous sleuthing exploits, she enlists her help to track down the true culprit!

Taking a job as a PE teacher, Epiphany soon realises she has plenty of suspects for the exam scam mastermind. The broke young teacher with a shady past? The father willing to buy his daughter anything – including grades? The school governor desperate to keep Hurlingham House at the top of the ranks?

Then Epiphany finds one of them dead at the school fair, and it becomes clear someone is taking the cut-throat culture of the school too literally – and when mysterious accidents start happening around her too, it seems the killer knows she’s onto them. (Goodreads)

My Opinion: Sorry Pip and the writing team of Katie Gayle, but this is where we part ways. The first book was an enjoyable introduction to Epiphany Bloom, book two was a major letdown, and book three was a chore to get through.

Pip is too illogical, immature, and redundant for me. By the middle of the book, which is where the dead body finally shows up, and the reader had already put all the other parts of the book together, Pip’s antics finally grated on my last nerve.

I’m still trying to figure out if this series is a romance with murder on the side, a wrong place at the right time murder investigation with a bit of romance, or a wanna-be woman detective with two men lazing about hoping for something more. Either way, I am done.

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