{"id":6969,"date":"2026-03-17T06:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T13:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6969"},"modified":"2026-03-17T16:43:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T23:43:54","slug":"j-d-brinkworth-the-pie-and-mash-detective-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/j-d-brinkworth-the-pie-and-mash-detective-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"J.D. Brinkworth: The Pie and Mash Detective Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

Debut<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This charming, funny book, set in present day London, follows the adventures of Jane Pye and Simon Mash, a dating couple who decide to take a detective class at their local learning center.\u00a0 (To a US reader, this will translate as a community college course.) Jane is between jobs, aka unemployed, and while Simon is working, he\u2019s still willing to go along with Jane on her lark, which started with a book on detection that proved only too inspiring.<\/p>\n

As a final assignment, the teacher (and working private eye) Gavin, assigns each team in the class a case to be solved.\u00a0 He gives the only unsolved case to Jane and Simon, and, as it later becomes clear, it\u2019s one he himself has been frustrated by for decades. Jane and Simon plunge right in, going to interview the witness, Dev, whose girlfriend has vanished.\u00a0 The only problem is that the police don\u2019t believe she ever existed as Dev doesn\u2019t have a photo of her, she doesn\u2019t seem to be a voter, be on National Health, or have a passport or driver\u2019s license.<\/p>\n

Jane and Simon do the best they can though, but as they are new to the job, they have yet to become very proficient at detection. However, Jane finds the sleuthing life preferable to the grind of the series of job interviews she has with a gambling app company. The pair\u2019s interview with Dev and a later stakeout in the woods yields few results, as does a meeting with a local ghosthunter.\u00a0 In an extremely troubling pattern, it turns out that Dev\u2019s missing girlfriend has the same name (and appearance) as several other women who have disappeared throughout the decades.\u00a0 These mystery women would form an attachment, then vanish, never be seen again.<\/p>\n

The dead ends only make Jane ever more determined to crack the case, and, to the astonishment of Gavin, she and Simon edge ever closer to a solution.\u00a0 Working a parallel path, he never seriously expected the newbies to uncover the answer to the mystery.<\/p>\n

That solution, when it comes, is achieved through genuine detective work and keen deduction on Jane\u2019s part, with the story adding on delightful sidebar characters, like the retired policeman, the goth librarian, Simon\u2019s mum and her cougar pals, and even Dev himself, who seems to ultimately be getting over his presumed breakup with the missing woman.<\/p>\n

This is more of a detection\/adventure story than a classic murder mystery (there\u2019s no murder for one thing) as well as a humorous take on the private eye novel, millennial style.\u00a0 I came to be quite fond of Jane and Simon, fretting about their relationship, and rooting for them to beat Gavin to the solution. Thankfully, all ends well in Adventureland, with a nice set up for the next installment.\u00a0 I can only imagine\u00a0 Jane and Simon will get better at detecting with time \u2013 but not too much better.\u00a0 I find watching them try to figure things out like us regular folks is way more relatable! —\u00a0Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Debut This charming, funny book, set in present day London, follows the adventures of Jane Pye and Simon Mash, a dating couple who decide to take a detective class at their local learning center.\u00a0 (To a US reader, this will translate as a community college course.) Jane is between jobs, aka unemployed, and while Simon … 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":[189,1218,484,2448,566,1276,2447],"class_list":["post-6969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-berkley","tag-debut","tag-humor","tag-j-d-brinkworth","tag-private-eye","tag-robin-agnew","tag-the-pie-and-mash-detective-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6969","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=6969"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6972,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6969\/revisions\/6972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}