Book Review
Title: The Last Supper by Rosemary Shrager (Prudence Bulstrode Book 1)
Genre: Contemporary, Cosy, Mystery
Rating: 5 Stars
The opening to The Last Supper was immensely interesting and really brought the cosy vibes as we are introduced due Prudence Bulstrode, a famous TV chef who has left fame behind for a quiet life in the country. On the day of the annual fair her granddaughter, Suki crashes her camper van into the prize vegetables after one too many. Pru and Suki discuss her situation when she gets a phone call informing her of the death of her friend and on screen rival, Deirdre Shaw. Deirdre was hired to put on a banquet at Farleigh Manor and with her sudden death they have asked Pru to replace her and she accepts taking Suki as her assistant for the event.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Suki and Pru arrive at Farleigh Manor and begin to settle in for the long weekend ahead of them but something already seems off about the whole place. Suki learnt from her friend that there was another death in the manor over a century before that remains unsolved and this coupled with Peru’s sense that something is wrong with Deirdre being found in the rhubarb patch given it was the wrong time of year for the fruit is giving me ominous vibes. The first night they are there Pru is awoken several times by her granddaughter’s snoring but this allows her to hear someone in distress in the manor and she immediately heads to investigate.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Pru learns that every one of the guests have come down with suspected food poisoning but Pru knows it wasn’t her food that was responsible. Taking the bull by the horns she speaks to the police officer involved and learns that while Deirdre did have a heart attack she was alive when she fell into the rhubarb patch and suffocated breathing the dirt in. When an ambulance is called for one of the guests, Pru is beginning to suspect that there is something darker going on but goes along with the order to replace everything in the kitchens. However, she soon realises that rhubarb wasn’t in any of the dishes Deirdre planned to serve and being the old fashioned chef she was there would have been no reason for her to be getting rhubarb. This cements in Peru’s mind that there was foul play involved and someone is trying to derail the entire weekend and they are currently succeeding.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, Pru and Suki head out to do exactly what they have been asked and replace everything in the kitchen but when they return they learn there’s been a break in. Upon investigating while waiting for the police to arrive both Pru and Suki can sense something is off about the entire thing. When the police officer finally arrives, Pru begins to lay out her theory that the reason for the destruction was to cover up their intruders true intention since the back door wasn’t locked. She thinks that whoever broken in wanted something specific and took everything else to cover that up. The iPad which was filled with cookbooks and videos is missing and Deirdre also used it and that might be the link. Suki gives voice to Peru’s theory and everyone else thinks she is more than a little mad but I think she’s onto something but the motive is eluding me for wanting to kill Deirdre and make everyone else ill.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, slowly things are coming to light and poison is the key to it all in more than one way. It seems that Rupert Prendergast had a fling or ongoing fling with Deirdre until his wife but an end to it but she also made an enemy out of her ex-husband and former manager and Richard Prendergast as he hired Deirdre for a work event that didn’t go as planned and lead to him losing his job. Bringing Deirdre back was Richard’s idea and might have been a way to get back at his father who doesn’t treat him very well but he isn’t the only one with secrets. However, this train of thoughts is stopping harshly when Biscuit, the beloved English setter is poisoned and dies despite Suki and Flick trying desperately to save her. Everything that has happened is turning Suki’s stomach but this is supposed to be their last night in the manor and I have a feeling everything is going to come to light now with less than a 100 pages left.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, things are slowly coming together. Suki and Pru begin looking into what kind of poison could have been used in Deirdre’s death and find several on the property but the only one that couldn’t have been identified by a trained chef is hemlock. They also soon realise that they have been looking at the situation all wrong since Deirdre was never the intended target of the poisoning. After finding the name tags of the pheasants partially burned in the forest, Pru realises who the true victim was. It seems that Deirdre died by accident when she took a pheasant that wasn’t meant for her and ate it and then everyone got sick when Pru used the remains of that pheasant on the first night. These two events are what prompted the killer to return to the kitchen and cover up the evidence they left behind. Now with mere hours until dinner is served I hope the killer is revealed in a true Agatha Christie style as that would perfectly fit the tone of the novel.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, seeing everything come together and the real identity of the murderer revealed was amazing. It was delightful how Shrager wove two murder mysteries into one and how they came together in the end surprised me. I won’t spoil the ending because the entire book is built around those final reveals but I didn’t see it coming at all and had someone else pinned for the murder in my mind. The reasoning behind the murder was realistic and logically sound which is something you don’t see too often these days and the characters were utterly delightful to follow and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into book two as soon as I can get my hands on a copy.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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