A Murder for Miss Hortense by Mel Pennant

A Murder for Miss Hortense

A Mystery

Mel Pennant

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group · Print & ebook · June 10, 2025

“A beautiful novel, suffused with fondness and wit. . . .

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Who it’s for
A historical cozy with a sharper-than-expected edge, built for lingering in the puzzle.
Genres
Black Mystery, Cozy Mysteries, Women Detectives
Published
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, June 10, 2025

About this book

“A beautiful novel, suffused with fondness and wit. . . . A real triumph!” —Alexander McCall Smith Retired nurse, avid gardener, and renowned cake maker Miss Hortense has lived in Bigglesweigh, a quiet suburb of Birmingham, England, since she emigrated from Jamaica in 1960. She takes great pride in her home, starching her lace curtains bright white, and she can tell if she’s being shortchanged on turmeric before she’s taken her first bite of a beef patty.

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A career in nursing has also left her afraid of nobody, whether an interfering priest or a local drug dealer, and she’s an expert in deciphering other people’s secrets with just a glance. Miss Hortense once used her skills to benefit the Pardner network—a local group of Black investors that she helped found. Until, that is, she was unceremoniously ousted from its ranks, severing her ties to the majority of her friends and community. That was thirty years ago. Now, as a new millennium dawns, an unidentified man has been found dead in the home of one of the Pardner members, a Bible quote written on a note beside his body. Suddenly, Miss Hortense finds her long-buried past rushing back, bringing memories of the worst moment of her life—and secrets behind an unsolved crime that has haunted her for decades. It is finally time for Miss Hortense to solve a mystery that will see her and the com-munity she loves pushed to their limits. The first novel from a bold, brilliant new voice, A Murder for Miss Hortense introduces a fear-less sleuth whom readers will never forget.

Cozy, Sharpened

A historical cozy with a sharper-than-expected edge, built for lingering in the puzzle.

Come here for

  • cozy-mystery shape with an edge
  • book-club-friendly sleuthing

Expect

  • amateur-sleuth sleuthing
  • sustained narrative read

Where it sits

Black Mystery53%
Women Detectives48%
Cozy Mysteries30%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Women Detectives
  • Cozy Mysteries
  • Black Mystery
Authors
Mel Pennant
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published
June 10, 2025
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
Women Detectives