Enjoyed this, book 2 in the Kat and Mouse series so much. I certainly didn't feel let down after reading book 1. The characters are terrific and love their interaction with each other. A great cozy mystery ( )

I enjoyed Murder Undeniable, the first book in the Kat and Mouse trilogy (now, apparently, a quartet), but Murder Unexpected is my favourite so far. Kat Rowe, deacon of Eyam parish church returns with Mouse Walters and her feisty grandma, Doris. Their private investigating agency is up and running and it's going well, Kat's gangster husband is still on the loose and Kat is about to give birth.

So that's where we meet up with the characters again. Kat and Leon's situation plays a part in the story but this time we follow the energetic and determined women when they are consulted by a woman wanting to find her husband's birth mother. Of course, as is the norm here, nothing is straightforward and there's a lot more to it than at first meets the eye.

These books are more cosy crime than thriller, but there is a fair amount of violent crime nestled in there too (somebody usually gets their head blown off!) so you could say there's something for everyone.

I enjoy the warmth of the relationship between the three women. They have the kind of friendship that anyone would want and they also work well together as an investigation team. In this book I particularly enjoyed reading about the case they take on which spreads out and introduces quite a few other characters. Eyam seems to be the literary equivalent of Midsomer, with there being a crazy amount of crimes going on in a sleepy Derbyshire village, but I love it as a setting, particularly as it's fairly local to me. I like the village feel of everyone being familiar with everyone else - there's nowhere to hide!

All in all, an enjoyable read and an easy one too. I'm looking forward to finding out what the next instalment of the Kat and Mouse story has to offer. Without giving anything away, I'm hopeful for Kat's future after the way that Murder Unexpected ended. ( )