The Purgatory Poisoning by Rebecca Rogers

 The Purgatory Poisoning. By Rebecca Rogers 

Winner of the Comedy Women in Print Unpublished Prize

The Purgatory Poisoning by Rebecca Rogers is published on the 2nd March  2023 by Harper Collins. My thanks to the author and publisher for sending me a copy and Random Book Tours for inviting me to take part on the Blog Tour.

Synopsis

How do you solve your own murder when you’re already dead?

 Purgatory (noun):

 1. Where the dead are sent to atone.

 2. A place of suffering or torment.

 3. A youth hostel where the occupants play Scrabble and the mattresses are paper thin. 

When Dave wakes up in his own personal purgatory (St Ives Youth Hostel circa 1992), he’s shocked to discover he’s dead. And worse – he was murdered. Heaven doesn’t know who did it so with the help of two rogue angels, Dave must uncover the truth. 

As divine forces from both sides start to play the game, can Dave get out of this alive?

Or at the very least, with his soul intact

My Review

This is one of those books where you can tell by the cover that you are really going to enjoy it; and it didn't disappoint.

There are so many laugh out loud moments due to Rebecca's humour, twists and narrative; which leaves you waiting for the next one, whilst, in my case, often reading the last gem again and having another laugh. Chapter 8 " Purgatory" in particular had me laughing out loud with nearly every sentence, with tears running down my face by the time I had reached the end of it.

As Dave, and his two angels, try to find out who murdered him by looking  at the different relationships from his "life" and trying to work their way around " The Blocks", Rebecca creates characters that you can envisage, hate, sympathise with , and often relate to with people in your past.

Earning "Brownie" points in order to get to Heaven, and lighting up "buzzers" on God's switch board creates more funny moments and there are some interesting heavenly and earthly surprises in the latter part of the book.

The thought of an angel using modern technology and watching crime programmes to gain an understanding of how a murder may have been committed shows the type of humour Rebecca uses throughout her plot and - is God male- or female ?????

This is a very easy read which is difficult to put down and leaves you feeling like you have watched a good comedy drama; in fact this would translate very well onto the small screen.

I, for one, cannot wait for Rebecca's next novel as she breathes a breath of fresh air and tongue in cheek humour into our lives.

Thank you Rebecca for a 5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 novel

The Author

The Purgatory Poisoning is Rebecca Roger’s debut novel and won the Comedy Women in Print Unpublished Prize 2021.

Rebecca grew up in Birmingham on a diet of Blackadder and Monty Python. For a long time she thought Michael Palin was her uncle ( he’s not). Now a civil servant by day and a writer by night , she’s a proud mum to two grown boys and lives in the glorious south west of England.

You can learn more about Rebecca on the following;

Twitter  @rebeccasrogers