As we were approaching Spooky Season, I thought A Beginner's Guide to Murder by Rosalind Stopps could be a fun way to get into the spirit. Three elderly women are having coffee in a shop when a teenage girl comes running in and begging for help. In that moment they are transformed from lonely old ladies to heroines in the making. Set in southeast London, Meg, Daphne, and Grace must find a way to save Nina from a terrible fate and stop a very bad man.
Told from each of their four perspectives, we get to know these women and the tragedies that have affected their lives. I liked the main characters, but some of the secondary characters were frustrating. It is assumed that old ladies won't know anything about murder, but the bumbling about seemed excessive. Stopps did a good job keeping the tension ramping up, but then the resolution was too quick and without much of a satisfying ending, almost as if she had run out of pages. A good ending could have made all the difference with this book, but as it stands I have to say it was only okay.
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