Another case to solve for the number-one bestselling Bookshop Detectives.

When we opened Sherlock Tomes people warned us that we’d made a terrible mistake . . . but the one thing they didn’t warn us about was the murders . . .

The Bookshop Detectives are on the case!

In this rollicking new adventure, Garth and Eloise (and Stevie) must sniff out a prolific poisoner ahead of a vital fundraising event, the Battle of the Book Clubs. But time is running out and people are dropping like flies – and the attempted murders seem to be circling closer to the people and places they care about . . .

Could Pinter, the infamous serial killer from Eloise’s past, somehow be involved? And when anyone could be a suspect, how can Gareth and Eloise keep their customers, their small town and their beloved bookshop safe?

Gareth and Louise Ward are the real-life owners of independent bookshop Wardini Books, with stores in Havelock North and Napier, New Zealand.

Louise is known among the staff as Fearless Leader and Gareth as a bit of a dick; he is, however, the author of the Tarquin the Honest and The Rise of the Remarkables book series, as well as being the bestselling and award-winning author of The Traitor and the Thief and The Clockill and the Thief.

Gareth and Louise met at police training college in the UK and are both ex-coppers. Louise has one murder arrest to her name, is an English Literature Graduate and as an ex-teacher inflicted Shakespeare on inner-city twelve-year-olds. She regularly reviews books on RNZ.

Both are obsessed with their rescue dog Stevie, avoid housework and gardening, and live in the cultural centre of the universe that is Hawke’s Bay, Aotearoa New Zealand.

The Bookshop Detectives is Gareth and Louise’s first book together.