Mrs Mackerel and the Poisoned Pasty Puzzle : Murder is on the menu in this new Cornish cosy crime series

Author: Melvin, Craig

Crime & mystery

Published on 19 November 2026 by ALLISON & BUSBY in the United Kingdom as part of 'The Penzance Mysteries' series.

Hardback | 304 pages
221 x 146 x 31 | 416g

1958. Cookbook writer and nononsense television personality Mary Mackerel must leave London in a hurry after a prime-time TV gaffe sends public affection curdling. Reluctantly, she takes her publisher's advice to retire to the English countryside and write a cookbook that will restore her reputation. And so, she finds herself at the edge of the world: Penzance, Cornwall. The move also affords her an enticing opportunity when she buys a run-down tea shoppe with hopes of turning it into a bakery and restaurant: The Mermaid. But when her attempt to charm the locals with free Cornish pasties ends with one of them dead from poisoning, Mary is swiftly branded a murderer and the press smells blood. To clear her name and save her fledgling business, Mary must turn chef-detective,a role she thought she had left behind in the war.