The Mysterious Affair of Judith Potts (The Marlow Murder Club Book 5) by Robert Thorogood Narrator: Nicolette McKenzie
Format: audiobook, eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss, supplied by RB Media
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: cozy mystery, mystery
Series: Marlow Murder Club #5
Pages: 256
Length: 8 hours and 49 minutes
Published by Poisoned Pen Press, Recorded Books on January 15, 2026
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads
The new cozy crime novel from the bestselling author of The Marlow Murder Club, now a major TV series on PBS Masterpiece!
Two dead celebrities. One village full of secrets.
Someone is killing celebrities in Marlow. First, it's a famous soccer player. Then, a bestselling thriller writer. When two shocking deaths rock their quiet riverside town, Judith, Suzie, and Becks—the unstoppable Marlow Murder Club—must untangle a dangerous web of blackmail and scandal to catch a killer.
But with their trusted police ally DI Malik suddenly suspended, and Judith's own past threatening to resurface, the women are on their own. Suspects are multiplying like tabloid headlines, secrets are stacking up, and time is running out.
Can the Marlow Murder Club crack the case before the killer strikes again—or will this be the end of their crime-solving adventures?
My Review:
Judith Potts is off her game in this fifth entry in the Marlow Murder Club series. A young woman has barged into Judith’s life, utterly convinced that Judith murdered her father three decades ago, and determined to hound and harass the older woman until she confesses to her crime.
That Eleni Paphides’ father was, at the time, Judith’s abusive, unfaithful husband – adds more than one layer of complication to the accusation, as Judith seems equally determined to keep her thoughts and memories shrouded, even from herself, AND keep her sleuthing friends Suzie and Becks out of her business.
The situation is already complicated enough when a fresh murder occurs, just as the three women should be celebrating the triumphant solution to their previous case (Murder on the Marlow Belle).
Someone has shot and killed a popular local footballer (read as soccer player on this side of the pond) while internal politicking at the local police department has taken their friend , Detective Inspector Tamika Malik, off the case and quite possibly out of a job. This time around, the members of the Marlow Murder Club are on their own, with Tamika’s replacement determined to keep them off the case, even as the bodies start piling up among Marlow’s rich and famous.
Without Tamika helping them from the inside with access and especially information, the Murder Club is operating a bit out of their depth. Combined with Judith’s increasing distraction – and eventual outright disappearance – Suzie and Becks are on their own solving the murders.
That all of these complications have the same spider at the center of their web is a connection that even the reader doesn’t see coming until the very last minute. When Judith, with the help of her friends, finally lures him into a web of their own.
Escape Rating B: I read the first book in this series, liked it more than well enough to pick up the following books, but just didn’t catch the ‘round tuit’ until I was offered an audiobook for this latest entry and thought this looked like the perfect time for another visit.
And so it proved. The audio was terrific, and Nicolette McKenzie did a terrific job with all of the voices. She did a particularly good job of making the voices of Judith, Suzie and Becks distinct from one another, so there was no question who was speaking even when, technically, only one person was speaking. (Ahem. So to speak.)
The story is the kind of twisty mystery that one expects from these cozy but deadly series. On the one hand, Marlow’s murder rate is more than a bit high for such a small place. OTOH, familiarity breeds contempt and the residents of a small town like Marlow have more than enough time to build up plenty of contempt for each other. The fun in these murder club series is the way that the club members manage to already know more of everyone else’s business that should be comfortable – and that no one outright murders them for sticking their noses into the rest.
Although an attempt certainly gets made in this convoluted mystery. It’s more of a surprise that that hasn’t happened sooner. Or more often. Or both.
The mystery that Judith Potts has seemingly been running away from for three decades is actually a lot more interesting than the murders – because it forces all three women to face their doubts about each other and the moral quandaries that surround their dangerous hobby.
Judith might have murdered her husband and gotten away with it. Her teases and hints and willfully occluded memories certainly add to that possibility. It’s clear she’s not exactly innocent, although it’s a question to what degree she’s actually guilty. Whatever degree of guilt she has, Suzie and Becks need to decide what they believe, what they believe might be justified, and what their consciences require them to do about whatever they eventually discover about their friend.
The resolution of the actual murder case does manage to restore order to Marlow – or at least as much order as this murder capital ever manages to contain. But the revelations about Judith’s past – and her friends’ reactions in the present – are certainly going to be a factor in future books in the series – which I’m now looking forward to. Because this story can’t possibly be the end of Judith’s, Suzie’s and Becks’ adventures in crime solving.
When I read the first book in this series, the titular Marlow Murder Club, I thought at the time that Judith Potts reminded me every bit as much of Maud, the octogenarian serial killer in An Elderly Lady is up to No Good as she did retired MI6 operative Elizabeth Best from The Thursday Murder Club. Something that feels even more true after finishing this book than it did after reading the first!
But while I’m waiting for that sixth book, I’ll go back to see what I missed in those middle stories, Death Comes to Marlow, The Queen of Poisons and Murder on the Marlow Belle. It was clear in THIS story that I did miss some things. Not enough to keep me from enjoying this book, but enough to be a tease to make me go back and find out.
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