Published in 2024
10 hours and 57 minutes
Leonie Swann is the author of six books, including her debut novel, Three Bags Full, which won the prestigious Glauser Prize for crime fiction in the debut category, as well as the PETA Award. She grew up near Munich and earned degrees in philosophy, communications, and psychology from Munich University and the Munich School of Philosophy.
Amy Bojang is a translator of German-language literature. She has an MA in Modern and Contemporary German Studies from the University of Nottingham. In 2017, she was selected by the journal New Books in German for their Emerging Translators Programme. She lives in England.
What is this book about?
The year is rapidly drawing to an end, Hettie the tortoise is hibernating and Agnes, Charlie, Marshall, and the other elderly residents of Sunset Hall are going stir-crazy at home. They’ve had enough of the broken boiler, drafty bedrooms, and Christmas jingles on the radio. And to top it off, another series of murders is rocking the hamlet of Duck End. It seems like every villager and his dog is trying to make up for all of the thwarted murders of the past thirty years.
Most unpleasant! The residents of Sunset Hall don’t want anything to do with the criminal activities. So when Edwina manages to sneak onto Marshall’s computer and promptly wins a stay in an exclusive coastal hotel in Cornwall, the Sunset Hall crew doesn’t waste any time in deciding to join her. After all, Edwina can’t be left unsupervised.
But they’ve barely unpacked their bags when Agnes sees something unsettling: two figures in hoods walk away from the hotel along the cliffs, but only one returns. Worried she’s witnessed a murder, Agnes tells the others. At first nobody really believes her—the crew has enough to do working their way through the incredible menu, exploring the hotel’s wellness landscape, navigating old and new love affairs and adopting a boa constrictor. But when the hotel ends up isolated from the outside world after a storm, it becomes clear that a murderer really is on the loose—and they’re trapped, just like the other guests.
