Agnes Sharp and the Wedding to Die For by Leonie Swann (2026) 340 pages
Agnes Sharp, a retired policewoman, owns a house which she shares with other octogenarians. When one of them, Agnes's good friend Bernadette, decides to marry a former hitman, Agnes is upset that the household's composition will change when they move out. Later, when a note comes to Bernadette that indicates bad things will occur if the marriage happens, Agnes and the other household members keep it from Bernadette. They continue to plan the wedding. They spend an inordinate amount of time trying to add to the guest list to get to twenty, as required by the venue, including going online to find dates and paying some people to attend as well.
Meanwhile, when bad things DO start to happen, Agnes and her friends tamper with the evidence because they don't want Bernadette to worry. It feels like a Keystone Kops kind of scenario. One resident likes to pretend she's dead. She also has a snake and a turtle. (By the way, the reader is privvy to the animals' thoughts.) Another resident has a video channel. Agnes finds herself engaged to marry another resident, but is not sharing that information. These eighty-year-olds sometimes seem like children. The blurb on the book's cover indicates that readers of the Thursday Murder Club series (by Richard Osman) will find something to like: Not really. If I enjoyed slapstick, maybe. And the ending? Not at all what I foresaw. But maybe you'll like it?
