Murder at the Country Club by Helena Dixon ~ a Review

by Donna Huber

Kitty Underhay and Matt Bryant are one of my favorite cozy mystery couples. I love them more with each book. Murder at the Country Club is the ninth book in Helena Dixon's Miss Underhay series. I started reading this series with book 4 so you can start this series without having read the previous books. 

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

June 2022; Bookouture; 978-1803143057
audio, ebook, print (248 pages); cozy mystery

A former client of Captian Matthew Bryant has invited him and his fiancee Kitty Underhay to the popular country club for an archery exhibition and perhaps a spot of business. Before they can discuss business, Sir William is found dead (by Kitty, of course) in the Grotto. There are plenty of suspects and no one is telling the truth. Aided by Inspector Greville, Kitty and Matt try to determine who wanted him dead the most. And the case takes a complicated twist when Lady Lettice's guest Ivan Bolsova, who put on a dance exhibition at the club with his sister, is found floating in the pool. He's not trying to cool off from the oppressive heat, someone has bashed him over the head.

It's the height of summer - the busiest time for the Dolphin Hotel. Kitty struggles with pulling her fair share of the work of running the hotel and her desire to investigate the murders with Matt. She knows this struggle is only going to get worse once she is married and what happens when her grandmother cannot help out? 

It's the 1930s and while women had been taking on more employment for the past decade, I love that Matt has no problem with Kitty running a hotel or the fact that she isn't merely running it as the manager. It is her family's hotel and she will inherit it when her grandmother passes as her mother is already deceased. In a lot of the historical fiction that I read the man would still be expecting the woman to give up her work when she marries. But Matt does not. Though he does wonder how it will all work out once they are married. There is a scene where Kitty and Matt are discussing a possible solution and Kitty wants Matt's opinion. I love his response - how does she feel about it. He might be too modern of a man or maybe he's just a fictional man so he can get the response right!

The mystery is interesting. There's a lot of finger-pointing and while you can probably guess pretty early who did it there are some red herrings that will have you second-guessing yourself.

For me though, the mystery is kind of secondary to the characters. I loved getting to see Kitty and Matt just be together. I read this in the midst of a heat wave (one day the heat index was 116°F) so I was as disappointed as them when their trip to the sea was cut short. I was, mentally, enjoying the shady beach spot with them. 

If you are looking for a good cozy mystery with a fun sleuthing couple, then I recommend you pick up this book.

Buy Murder at the Country Club at Amazon

(Kindle Unlimited subscribers can read the ebook for FREE)

Donna Huber is an avid reader and natural encourager. She is the founder of Girl Who Reads and the author of how-to marketing book Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour.

Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us. Get even more book news in your inbox, sign up for our newsletter today! Girl Who Reads is an Amazon advertising affiliate; a small commission is earned when purchases are made at Amazon using any Amazon links on this site. Thank you for supporting Girl Who Reads.