I received this book for free from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Welcome to Murder Week: A Novel by Karen Dukess Published by Gallery, Scout Press on June 10, 2025
Genres: Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Amateur Sleuth
Pages: 304
Format: ARC
Source: Edelweiss
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In this delightfully funny and heartfelt new novel from the author of the “bittersweet page-turner” (The New York Times) The Last Book Party, an American woman travels to the English countryside when she discovers tickets her late mother had purchased for a murder mystery simulation in a small British town.
When thirty-four-year-old Cath loses her mostly absentee mother, she is ambivalent. With days of quiet, unassuming routine in Buffalo, New York, Cath consciously avoids the impulsive, thrill-seeking lifestyle that her mother once led. But when she’s forced to go through her mother’s things one afternoon, Cath is perplexed to find tickets for an upcoming “murder week” in England’s Peak District: a whole town has come together to stage a fake murder mystery to attract tourism to their quaint hamlet. Baffled but helplessly intrigued by her mother’s secret purchase, Cath decides to go on the trip herself—and begins a journey she never could have anticipated.
Teaming up with her two cottage-mates, both ardent mystery lovers—Wyatt Green, forty, who works unhappily in his husband’s birding store, and Amity Clark, fifty, a divorced romance writer struggling with her novels—Cath sets about solving the “crime” and begins to unravel shocking truths about her mother along the way. Amidst a fling—or something more—with the handsome local maker of artisanal gin, Cath and her irresistibly charming fellow sleuths will find this week of fake murder may help them face up to a very real crossroads in their own lives.
Witty, wise, and deliciously escapist, Welcome to Murder Week is a fresh, inventive twist on the murder mystery and a touching portrayal of one daughter’s reckoning with her grief, her past—and her own budding sense of adventure.
Review
Karen Dukess’s Welcome to Murder Week isn’t your typical whodunit. Sure, there’s a murder mystery weekend in a picture-perfect English village, but the real story? It’s about a woman named Cath Little who finds two tickets in her dead mother’s belongings and thinks: “What the hell?”
The setup is delicious. Cath heads to England, where she finds herself caught up in an elaborately staged murder mystery put on by locals desperate to save their dying village. But while everyone else is playing pretend detective, she’s trying to crack a more personal case: why did her estranged mother buy these tickets, and what secrets did she take to her grave?
Dukess brings her journalist’s eye to the English countryside, painting it with small details that make it feel real, like the way morning mist clings to stone cottages, or how the local pub’s ancient floorboards creak in exactly the same spot every time. The village’s residents are a wonderfully odd bunch, the kind of characters you’d want to grab a pint with just to hear their stories.
What makes this book work isn’t the staged murders (though they’re fun). It’s how Dukess weaves grief and humor together like old friends. One minute you’re laughing at a ridiculous murder scene setup, the next you’re blindsided by a quiet moment that perfectly captures the way loss lingers. There’s romance too – the kind that feels real, not fairy-tale perfect.
Fair warning: if you’re expecting a fast-paced thriller, this isn’t it. This is more like finding an old family photo album and realizing there are stories behind every picture you never knew to ask about.
This is a book about how sometimes the biggest mysteries aren’t about who killed who – they’re about the secrets our parents keep, the words we never say, and the stories we tell ourselves about who we are.
3.5/5 stars
For fans of Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club, Emily Henry’s cozy dramas, and anyone who’s ever wondered what their mother never told them.
