I am already desperate for a sequel and let out an audible groan when I realised that this book will be releasing on 4th May, so I will have to wait a little while to get more investigative shenanigans from this quirkily endearing little Mystery Inc-style found family. Planning to buy Grave Expectations for your group? Buy books from Hive or from Bookshop.org and support The Reading Agency and local bookshops at no extra cost to you.

When the pair arrive at The Cloisters it's clear this family is hiding more than just the good china, as Claire realizes someone has recently met an untimely end at the house. Teaming up with the least unbearable members of the Wellington-Forge family - depressive ex-cop Basher and teenage reactionary Alex - Claire and Sophie determine to figure out not just whodunnit, but who they killed, why and when. After spending several years in London and Brighton, Alice now lives in Cork, Ireland, Alice Bell grew up in South West England, in the sort of middle-of-nowhere where teenagers spend their weekends drinking Smirnoff Ice in a field that also has at least one horse in it.

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Clever,unpredictableand agenuinely humorousmodern day country house murder mystery which left me guessing.” Together they must race against incompetence to find the murderer – before the murderer finds them…in this funny, modern, media-literate mystery for the My Favourite Murder generation. Selection panel review

Claire has been booked by the Wellington-Forge family to act as a medium at their nana's birthday celebrations. However things do not go anywhere near to plan and Claire finds herself being pressganged into discovering what happened at last year's celebrations and why there is an unquiet spirit in the library. Who exactly is the spirit? Why are they hanging around the house and, far more importantly, which one of the Wellington-Forge's committed the murder? Thankfully Claire has Sophie to help otherwise, as Sophie quite rightly puts it, nothing would get detected because Claire is rubbish at it.Grave Expectations is the debut crime novel from author Alice Bell, following washed-up Claire and her best friend Sophie, who must solve a cold case at a stately home in the British countryside, home to the secretive Wellington-Forge clan. So far, so pat – except for the bit where Claire is a disgraced medium and Sophie is dead, having died mysteriously at seventeen and now tethered to Claire as both a spectre and a keen assistant to Claire’s amateur sleuthing. That old story indeed. A great read, with great characters, lots of humour, some misty-eyed moments and lots of swearing. Utterly delightful - like the BBC show Ghosts mixed with Cluedo." - Simon Toyne Corvus has landed Grave Expectations, a murder mystery "full of heart and humour" by debut author Alice Bell.