The Secret Sauce by M.J. Porter

The Secret Sauce

by M.J. Porter

 

First of all my thanks to the author for sending me a copy to review and to Rachel's Random Resources for inviting me onto the tour.

Birmingham, England, November 1944.

Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station is summoned to a suspicious death at the BB Sauce factory in Aston on a wet Monday morning in late November 1944.

Greeted by his enthusiastic sergeant, O’Rourke, Sam Mason finds himself plunged into a challenging investigation to discover how Harry Armstrong met his death in a vat containing BB Sauce – a scene that threatens to put him off BB Sauce on his bacon sandwiches for the rest of his life.

Together with Sergeant O’Rourke, Mason follows a trail of seemingly unrelated events until something becomes very clear. The death of Harry Armstrong was certainly murder, and might well be connected to the tragedy unfolding at nearby RAF Fauld. While the uncertainty of war continues, Mason and O’Rourke find themselves seeking answers from the War Office and the Admiralty, as they track down the person who murdered their victim in such an unlikely way.

Join Mason and O’Rourke for the third book in the quirky, historical mystery series, as they once more attempt to solve the impossible in 1940s Erdington.

My Thoughts

Even though this is the third book in the Mason and O’Rourke series it reads equally well as a standalone in its own right. However after enjoying this book so much I will be getting the first two to read and then probably will read this one again.

When it arrived to review I put it to one side as I just felt that it was going to be one of those books that I would skim read. Gosh how wrong I was , to the extent that I ended up burning the midnight oil as I couldn’t put it down. Mason and O’Rourke are brilliant characters that are depicted incredibly well and are a brilliant detective duo. Put this together with Porter’s addictive style of writing and the quirky nature of the story and you have the recipe for success.

I have to be honest when I first started the book I thought it was going to be a bit tame and would be one of those quick “flimsy” murder mysteries that could be skim read in a  couple of hours. However, this is not the case and you are are kept guessing right until the very end.

Will I be ever able to put sauce on my bacon butties ever again without thinking about BB Sauce, probably not. Will it stop me putting sauce on my bacon butties ? No - I will just have a knowing smile on my face .

About the Author

Author Bio – I’m an author of historical fiction and non-fiction (Early English (Saxon), Vikings and the British Isles as a whole before the Norman Conquest, as well as five twentieth-century mysteries), born in the old Mercian kingdom at some point since the end of 1066. Historical mysteries allow me to use such modern inventions as the telephone and the car, which is very exciting when I spend so much of my time worrying about feeding the horses my warriors usually ride.

I was raised in the shadow of a strange little building and told from a very young age it housed the bones of long-dead kings of Mercia, it’s little wonder my curiosity in the early English ran riot. I can only blame my parents!

I like to write. You’ve been warned!