Welcome to another Weekend Read. This week’s featured book is the mystery novel, The Fish and Chip Shop Detectives and a Mystery at Sea by prolific author Jenny Kane. Jenny writes in a variety of genres and has dropped by to tell us what inspired her to write a mystery series set in Cornwall. So grab a cuppa, get cosy and let’s get chatting to Jenny.
Blurb
Get ready to join the Fish and Chip Shop Detectives as they set sail on their latest investigation…
In the picturesque Cornish seaside village of Mousehole, Maggie and Ryan are busy running Robbins’ Fish and Chip Shop. They love nothing more than a cup of tea, a nice slice of cake… and solving a murder mystery.
But Maggie and Ryan weren’t expecting to find a dead body in the castle on St Michael’s Mount, a famous island known for its causeway that disappears under water at high tide.
Already searching for a local youth, Mitch, who’s been missing for three weeks, Maggie and Ryan fear the worst. Then when a fishing boat is stolen, the detectives begin to suspect that all three mysterious events are somehow connected…
Has Mitch found himself in at the deep end? And can the amateur sleuths solve their latest case before the truth is left out at sea?
Don’t miss book 3 in the Fish and Chip Shop Detective Agency Series, perfect for fans of Fiona Leitch and Peter Boland – available to pre-order now!
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Welcome to my blog, Jenny. Can you tell my readers what inspired you to write this book?
Thanks for inviting me to visit today, Karen. While chatting at a recent literary festival, I was asked why I’d set my new #cosycrime series, The Fish and Chip Shop Detectives, in Cornwall.
For me it wasn’t the pull of Cornwall’s stunning geography and geology, the bark-like squawk of the seagulls, the sea, the sand, the salty air, or the promise of a clotted cream, that drew me to place the adventures of Maggie Tyson and Ryan Stepney in Cornwall; it was nostalgia. A nostalgia which I’ve come to learn also applies to many of my readers; many of whom have been kind enough to tell me that my stories have transported them back to Cornish holidays.
My Dad was born in Penzance and brought up in a terrace house on Alma Place. His mother, my Nan, ran a lodging house there, taking evacuees in during the Second World War- one of whom never left and became a sort of Great Uncle. My Grandad was a butcher at the long forgotten International Supermarket on St Jews Street; I still can’t conceive how he could cut joints of meat so finely!
Every school summer holiday was spent taking the lifetime long, motorway free, drive from Wiltshire to Penzance. My brother and I would spend weeks building sandcastles on Marazion beach. We’d try and skim pebbles across the surface of the sea (a skill I never mastered), and we’d squint through a pair of my Grandad’s ancient binoculars from the house’s attic bedroom window, straight across the sea and into the windows of St Michael’s Mount. (A moment which inspired some of The Fish and Chip Shop Detectives and A Mystery at Sea – the latest novel in the series.)
I clearly recall the excitement of queuing up outside the fudge shop on St Jews Street in Penzance, desperately trying to make the impossible decision about which flavour of fudge to buy with my pocket money. I remember wondering why the pavements in the centre of Penzance are so high while sitting with my parents outside various coffee shops along the front; fast melting ice creams dripping all over our hands.
It was for all the above reasons that The Fish and Chip Shop Detectives have their home in Cornwall – in the small village of Mousehole, to be precise. A place that feels as familiar to me now, as it did when I was ten years old.
Book 3 in the series: The Fish and Chip Shop Detectives and A Mystery at Sea is published on 3rd September.
This brings back lovely memories for me, Jenny. I holidayed in Cornwall for many years when my four daughters were young, and lived there for eight years. I walked around Penzance many a Saturday and St Michael’s Mount was a firm favourite for a visit. I’m sure your book will be very popular.☺️
Meet Jenny
Bio
From the corner of a café in Devon, former archaeologist and historian, Jenny Kane, is currently having a wonderful time writing a brand new, cosy crime, series: The Fish and Chip Shop Detectives, for Hodder & Stoughton.
Book 1, The Fish and Chip Shop Detectives (April, 2026)
Book 2, The Fish and Chip Shop Detectives and the Campervan Murder, (June, 2026)
Book 3 The Fish and Chip Shop Detectives and the Mystery on the Mount, (Sept, 2026)
Jenny Kane has been writing professionally for the past 20 years. With over 40 novels published to date (including Misty Mornings at The Potting Shed, Midsummer Dreams at Mill Grange A Cornish Escape)
Jenny also writes historical crime as Jennifer Ash. The Folville Chronicle series as Jennifer Ash), she has also written 20 plus audio scripts and novellas for ITV’s popular 1980’s television show, Robin of Sherwood. (Released by AUK Ltd and Spiteful Puppet from 2017-2025.)
Jenny teaches creative writing via her tutoring business, Imagine.
All Jenny Kane’s news can be found at www.jennykane.co.uk and (2) Facebook
More books by Jenny
Karen King 