{"id":4517,"date":"2022-08-16T09:09:49","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T16:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=4517"},"modified":"2022-08-16T09:09:49","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T16:09:49","slug":"rosalind-stopps-a-beginners-guide-to-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/rosalind-stopps-a-beginners-guide-to-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"Rosalind Stopps: A Beginner’s Guide to Murder"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This book was \u2013 surprisingly \u2013 both charming and touching, along with being a suspenseful caper novel. Three older women \u2013 Grace, Daphne and Meg \u2013 are sitting in a London coffee shop together when a young, frightened girl lurches in.\u00a0 She heads for the restroom, and not long after a suspicious man comes in, claiming she\u2019s his daughter.\u00a0 They tell him they\u2019ve seen nothing and watch him leave, then they immediately scoot out the back, taking the young woman with them.<\/p>\n

As the title indicates, these women are beginners in the art of murder, but their target is immediately obvious.\u00a0 What isn\u2019t obvious are the personalities and characteristics of the women, and the author goes back in time to flesh out each character\u2019s backstory, so the reader can see what shaped each one.\u00a0 While the three hadn\u2019t really known each other well before the coffee shop incident, they are united in their desire to save the young girl, Nina.\u00a0 The real heartbreaker of the book is Nina\u2019s story.<\/p>\n

The reader is taken back in time where we see Nina being raised in a \u201ccare home\u201d \u2013 in the US I think this would be a foster home \u2013 and the difficulties as well as the connections she has with some of the others in the home with her.\u00a0 Unfortunately, she meets another young woman when she\u2019s on the way to the library one day.\u00a0\u00a0 Reading the book, you want to reach through the pages and tell Nina to stay far, far away from this other young woman, but the story is already inevitable.<\/p>\n

When Nina is again snatched by the man in the coffee shop, after experiencing a moment of safety with the women, the three redouble their efforts to save her.\u00a0 It becomes unsurprisingly clear that Nina is basically a prisoner of this man. He pimps her out relentlessly, moving houses frequently.\u00a0 It\u2019s unclear just how the women will save her but they find an ally, Des, a friend of Daphne\u2019s.\u00a0 He\u2019s actually been in prison so they are hoping he can offer advice or maybe kill this man for them.<\/p>\n

It becomes clear Des was neither a good or committed criminal, but he does offer some insight: the man who has Nina is basically after money, and he knows some people who might be able to help with the murder bit of the plan. What follows is basically a suspenseful caper plot, as the three women work uncomfortably with Des\u2019s acquaintances to offer a ransom and reclaim Nina.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s really unexpected about this book is how touching it is.\u00a0 Grace, Daphne and Meg all have their own heartbreaking backstories, and as one of the women says to Nina at one point, \u201cThere\u2019s a bit of trouble in every life.\u201d\u00a0 The fact that they understand trouble makes them want to help.\u00a0 While their efforts sometimes seem almost silly, they are so dead serious in purpose that each step they take gets them closer to Nina.<\/p>\n

The story is wonderful and so are these wonderful women.\u00a0 I am honored to have spent some time with them, and (not really a spoiler) delighted by their ultimate success.\u00a0 The author fills in the cracks and crevices of her story with wonderful details of London and different characters that, even if only encountered for a chapter, are so memorable they stick with you. \u00a0The specific details of her story and the sweetness of the characters makes her book special.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This book was \u2013 surprisingly \u2013 both charming and touching, along with being a suspenseful caper novel. Three older women \u2013 Grace, Daphne and Meg \u2013 are sitting in a London coffee shop together when a young, frightened girl lurches in.\u00a0 She heads for the restroom, and not long after a suspicious man comes in, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6,454,880,879,878,670,881],"class_list":["post-4517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-british","tag-harper-collins","tag-human-trafficking","tag-older-women-detectives","tag-rosalind-stopps","tag-suspense","tag-the-beginners-guide-to-murder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4517"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4543,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4517\/revisions\/4543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}