Book Description 

In a quaint village in the Cotswolds, Georgiana Radcliffe has accidentally become an amateur detective after helping solve four murders in a single year. When the chairman of the village council turns up dead, everyone agrees with the official ruling of a heart attack, but Georgie can’t help but suspect that the council chairman is a fifth victim. Now, murder tourists are flocking from around the country, in hopes of becoming sleuths themselves.

Along with her reporter friend, she reaches out to a famous London detective for assistance in ascertaining why they have become a magnet for murder. But the fancy detective is simply too busy—or can’t be bothered—to help, and instead dispatches his secretary, Sebastian Fletcher-Ford—a posh womanizer who, truthfully, is just trying to get out of his hair, much to practical, no-nonsense Georgie’s dismay. But as they investigate in the charming Buncombe-upon-Woolly—with plentiful scones, sheep on the village green, and murder tourists at every turn—Georgie finds that her previous assessment of Sebastian may have been wrong, and rather than solving a murder, she may be solving for love instead.

My Review 

I am so impressed with Martha Waters’ range: she went from the Regency era to a contemporary and now to the 1930s– very impressive!

First of all, I want to talk about how much I love the title and how it has to be a play on classic mysteries like And Then There Were None and combines it with romance tropes of “the one” 

In any event, this book is a lot of fun, despite the rather grim premise of multiple murders in a small village over a relatively short period of time. Georgie has written to a Famous Detective to request his expertise, and she is quite nonplussed when the Famous Detective’s assistant shows up instead. Sebastian might be a hottie, but he has an inflated sense of self-worth. 

So naturally he spends most of the book putting Georgie into a state of vexation with his shenanigans and high-handed ways, not to mention that everyone else finds him charming. 

I don’t like to give away too much information, but I do think it’s important for readers to know what they are getting into, so I want to mention that there is a semi-explicit sex scene in the book. Now, it’s relatively low spice in the grand scheme of things, BUT it was completely unexpected given how the tone of the book up until that point was all “jolly hockey sticks” and very G-rated and cozy mystery. 

I would absolutely recommend And Then There Was The One. The mystery element is satisfying and had me fooled. Egg the dog steals the show at every opportunity and Georgie is a delightful protagonist. I can’t wait to read more from Waters in the future. 

I received a digital ARC of this book from Atria/NetGalley.