Foul Play at the Seaview Hotel by Glenda Young

In the charming Yorkshire seaside town of Scarborough, a killer game is being played . . .

Helen Dexter is enjoying the new four-star status of the Seaview Hotel. But she begins to wonder if this accolade is cursed when a series of disasters strike.

It starts when a crazy golf team arrive to play in a Scarborough tournament. Their odd behaviour heightens when the rival team captain turns up. Yet, there's worse to come for Helen when one of the guests is murdered playing crazy golf.

Then the Seaview's prize-winning cook Jean quits, leaving Helen devastated. And so, as Helen's fiftieth birthday approaches, the last thing she's in the mood for is a celebration. However, mysterious invitations arrive to a party that Helen doesn't want.

Can Helen unmask the crazy golf killer, save the reputation of the Seaview, win Jean back and solve the mystery of the party invitations? With her rescue greyhound Suki by her side, Helen Dexter is on the case.

About the author

Glenda Young credits her local library in the village of Ryhope, where she grew up, for giving her a love of books. She still lives close by in Sunderland and often gets her ideas for her stories on long bike rides along the coast. A life-long fan of Coronation Street, she runs two hugely popular fan websites. For updates on what Glenda is working on, visit her website glendayoungbooks.com and to find out more find her on Facebook/GlendaYoungAuthor and Twitter @flaming_nora.

Review

‘Foul Play at the Seaview Hotel’ is the third book in this series and I loved it! Once again it was a brilliant cosy crime mystery that was filled full of humour to counteract the darkness of the crime. I find this series just gets better and better. I have raved about it from book one and Helen and the gang have firm places on my auto-reads! Although, this part of a series this can certainly be read as a standalone as each book is very separate in their stories and anything you do need to know is fully provided by the author.

Helen Dexter is enjoying the status of her four-star hotel and is looking forward to welcoming a team of professional mini golfers. But she soon begins to wonder if her four-star status is a curse on her and the hotel! The mini-golfers turn out to be a strange bunch and their behaviour only gets stranger when their rival team turn out to be staying next door. There isn't room for the rival team captain and he ends up staying with Helen. Disaster strikes when one of the mini-golfers dies on the course at the start of the competition. Then the Seaview’s prize-winning cook quits. Plus, Helen’s 50th birthday is around the corner and despite not being in the mood to celebrate people are receiving invitations to a mystery party. What is Helen going to do…

I really love this series but I might be biased as I grew up in Scarborough and they make me so nostalgic for my home of many years. Glenda manages to paint such an evocative picture of Scarborough and its people that I instantly feel happy when I pick up one of the books in this series. I can see all the landmarks, places and the heart of it all - it's people and Glenda manages to capture this essence and put it down on the page.

Helen is going through something in this outing as people keep telling her ‘She has lost her sparkle’ and the whole way through I thought that Helen was suffering from menopause but this wasn't really addressed. But Helen was still determined to figure out who the killer was anyhow! She does love a good mystery. I loved Sally’s mum Brenda and her one word answers of ‘aye’!

So this is weird but until this week I hadn't heard of professional mini golf but I also saw it on an episode of Bones and then I picked up this book and bam another mention! It's so weird but it also encouraged me to book a round of mini golf next weekend. It was a great theme for this book and I laughed out loud so many times whilst reading it. I flew through this book in one day as I found it to be a great whodunit and a page-turner! Roll on book four as I am already missing Helen and the gang.

Let me know if you pick this one up!