
A Murder for Miss Hortense
A Mystery
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group · Print & ebook · June 10, 2025
“A beautiful novel, suffused with fondness and wit. . . .
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- Who it’s for
- A historical cozy with a sharper-than-expected edge, built for lingering in the puzzle.
- Genres
- Black Mystery, Cozy Mysteries, Women Detectives
- Published
- Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, June 10, 2025
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For younger readers: The Fat Lady's Ghost
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“A beautiful novel, suffused with fondness and wit. . . . A real triumph!” —Alexander McCall Smith Retired nurse, avid gardener, and renowned cake maker Miss Hortense has lived in Bigglesweigh, a quiet suburb of Birmingham, England, since she emigrated from Jamaica in 1960. She takes great pride in her home, starching her lace curtains bright white, and she can tell if she’s being shortchanged on turmeric before she’s taken her first bite of a beef patty.
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A career in nursing has also left her afraid of nobody, whether an interfering priest or a local drug dealer, and she’s an expert in deciphering other people’s secrets with just a glance. Miss Hortense once used her skills to benefit the Pardner network—a local group of Black investors that she helped found. Until, that is, she was unceremoniously ousted from its ranks, severing her ties to the majority of her friends and community. That was thirty years ago. Now, as a new millennium dawns, an unidentified man has been found dead in the home of one of the Pardner members, a Bible quote written on a note beside his body. Suddenly, Miss Hortense finds her long-buried past rushing back, bringing memories of the worst moment of her life—and secrets behind an unsolved crime that has haunted her for decades. It is finally time for Miss Hortense to solve a mystery that will see her and the com-munity she loves pushed to their limits. The first novel from a bold, brilliant new voice, A Murder for Miss Hortense introduces a fear-less sleuth whom readers will never forget.
Cozy, Sharpened
A historical cozy with a sharper-than-expected edge, built for lingering in the puzzle.
Come here for
- cozy-mystery shape with an edge
- book-club-friendly sleuthing
Expect
- amateur-sleuth sleuthing
- sustained narrative read
Where it sits
| Black Mystery | 53% |
|---|---|
| Women Detectives | 48% |
| Cozy Mysteries | 30% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Women Detectives
- Cozy Mysteries
- Black Mystery
- Authors
- Mel Pennant
- Publisher
- Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
- Published
- June 10, 2025
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- Women Detectives