If you like clean and funny cozy mysteries, then you will love Patricia Fisher!She over 50, feisty, and oh so good at solving mysteries.Patricia Fisher is not your average woman. To start with she lives in a seventy-three-room manor house and travels with a Jamaican butler who is part ninja and fakes his Downton Abbey accent. Then add to those facts that she just opened a private investigations … a private investigations business and throw in the worrying bit where people keep trying to kill her.
When a climber suspiciously falls to his death and a local artist has her dog stolen, Patricia finds herself investigating two cases that seem to have no motive and no clues. Even with the help of her friends these mysteries will be hard to unravel.
But as she starts to poke her nose in where it is most definitely not wanted, a name from the past comes back to haunt her, a mysterious underworld figure issues a confusing threat, and she begins to wonder if she has any idea what she is doing. Will her intuition get her through again? Or has she bitten off more than she can chew?
If only she had listened to Sam.
Get ready for a new series of thrills!
What Sam Knew is the first in a follow-on series from Patricia’s successful Cruise Mystery series
Books in that series:
The Missing Sapphire of Zangrabar
The Kidnapped Bride
The Director’s Cut
The Couple in Cabin 2124
Dr Death
Murder on the Dancefloor
Mission for the Maharaja
A Sleuth and her Dachshund in Athens
The Maltese Parrot
No Place Like Home
more
What Sam Knew (Patricia Fisher Mystery Adventures Book 1), my sixth read/listen from author Steve Higgs and the first in the spin-off series of his highly successful Patricia Fisher Mysteries Series. I’m going to have to go backward & catch up as I’m reading books out of order because it’s what I have. Well-written & enjoyable. Maryanne M. Wells’ narration when in comparison to previous narrators Stevie Zimmerman, Katherine Anderson, Heather Tracy & Deryn Oliver and actually detracts from a well-written book’s listening enjoyment. I look forward to reading more in this series, as well as the original series & more from this author. I was given an Audible copy of this book & am voluntarily reviewing it. (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 – July 24, 2018).
Another fun read with great characters!
This is the second series for Patricia Fisher. In the first series, she was on board a cruise ship and had all kinds of adventure. But now she’s home and starting her own business. If you haven’t read the first series, that’s okay. Steve Higgs gives you enough information to read this first book as a stand-alone. However, if you’d like to know how Patricia Fisher got to this stage, don’t hesitate to read the first series.
I loved this book. It has adventure, pathos, humour, and puppies. And who can resist puppies? There’s no erotica, no foul language in this largely funny novel. If you’re looking for a new series, you can’t go wrong with Patricia Fisher.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Patricia Fisher cruise series, the storylines and characters were great and this new Village Mysteries series looks to be continuing in the same vein.
Having set up her own detective agency Patricia continues to get involved in just as many hair-raising scrapes as she did on the ship, and of course she has she has her friends from the ship to help her.
I also really like that the mysteries are lightened by a healthy dose of humour, I particularly like the descriptions of the locals reactions to her new situation, living in a mansion with a butler and a fleet of expensive cars.
The main mystery itself, whether or not a climber died accidentally, is very satisfying, and the secondary mystery, a missing dog, provides some more intrigue.
Overall a very enjoyable read and I am very much looking forward to seeing how this series progresses. I received an advance copy of this book, but have voluntarily written this honest review.
Back home in West Malling, Patricia’s new detective agency is already busy: a woman is convinced her husband’s accident was a murder, and an artist’s beloved dog has been kidnapped, with a $10,000 demand for his return. She’s on the case with Jermaine always at her side, whether he’s snatching angry vergers in mid-air, spying on suspects, or serving as her personal John Steed.
Despite the police’s conclusions, Sarah Foy is convinced her husband Edward was murdered, because he was such a careful and safety-conscious rock climber. Her daughter Susie, on the other hand, is infuriated her mother won’t accept the verdict and profanely impedes Patricia at every opportunity: her favorite insult is “cadaverous cow,” preceded by a two-word expletive beginning with F.
Meanwhile, in East Malling, artist Emma Maynard is heartbroken over the kidnapping of her beloved Yorkshire terrier, Horace. She suspects her missing boyfriend, Damien, not only abducted Horace, but pilfered several hundred dollars of her festival cash.
Out on a morning walk with Anna, Patricia runs into Sam Chalk, the intellectually impaired son of a longtime friend. He’s quite interested in Anna, but when Patricia invites him to visit the pups, who have been named after the Beatles, he assures her he visits one every day, a point he often repeats to no avail.
As the investigations continue, Patricia, Jermaine, and Barbie discover unsettling facts about Ed’s death, most notably a small item hidden in his backpack. As the two cases converge, Patricia is not only convinced the police were right, as she finally heeds Sam’s frequent remark, but that the killer was someone Ed trusted, literally, with his life.
Steve Higgs has kicked off Patricia’s new journey with all the humor, surprises, and love readers have come to expect of his mysteries. What Sam Knew is an excellent beginning to her promising new series.
As usual, once my ARC arrived, I couldn’t put it down. Not as action packed as previous Patricia escapades but I felt that this was now a more “grown up” Patricia. She’s settling in to village life, expanding her investigation business and getting to know the local characters again. Two cases to solve, a growing friendship with D.S. Atwell and a mysterious letter to tax Patricia’s brain. No spoilers here. I highly recommend you read it and enjoy the usual antics from Barbie and Jermaine whilst trying to work out who is responsible for a dognapping and the murder of a local climber. There are some hilarious one liners and an ending I didn’t see coming which leads into the next book. Can’t wait for that to come out! Another excellent book Mr. Higgs.