The Final Crumpet

Royal Tunbridge Wells Mystery #2

by Ron Benrey, Janet Benrey

Etienne Makepeace, England's celebrated "Tea Sage," vanished without a trace in 1966, leaving the whole of Great Britain wondering what became of the famed radio personality. Forty years later his hastily buried remains are discovered beneath two sickly Assam tea bushes in the Royal Tunbridge Wells Tea Museum's tea garden-along with the pistol that killed him. Nigel Owens, curator, and Flick Adams, tea chemist, are thus embroiled in the second mystery to threaten the integrity of the museum. Are they in over their heads this time?

Genres: Mystery, Christian Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Fiction, British Literature

348 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2005

About the author

Ron Benrey, the author of "Know Your Rights, a Survival Guide for Non Lawyers" (for Sterling), and "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Christian Fiction" (for Penguin), is also a prolific novelist who has coauthored nine romantic suspense novels with his wife Janet: The Pippa Hunnechurch Mysteries, The Royal Tunbridge Wells Mysteries for Barbour, and the Glory, North Carolina, Mysteries. All three series are available at Amazon and as Kindle eBooks.

Ron "wrote his way" through college as a freelancer. After graduating, he became Electronics Editor at Popular Science Magazine. He went on to become a corporate communicator and speechwriter for several of America's largest companies. Ron is also an experienced oral presentation coach who has trained hundreds of managers and engineers to give winning proposal presentations - including several multi-billion-dollar programs.

Ron taught advanced writing courses at the University of Pittsburgh (member of the adjunct faculty). He currently teaches courses and workshops at major writers' conferences on topics ranging from plotting and publishability, to copyright law and computer technology for writers.

Ron holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a master's degree in management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a juris doctor from the Duquesne University School of Law. He was a member of the Bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Ron and Janet live in North Carolina.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's rare for me to dislike a book, but The Final Crumpet managed to win my disdain. It took me a long time to read it because I kept on putting it off, and couldn't read more than a couple of pages at a time.

The story is set in a tea museum in Tunbridge Wells and follows two of the museum's top personnel: Nigel Own, the director, and Flick Adams, an American museum curator and tea expert. When they discover a forty year old body buried under the Assam plants in the garden the two team up to try to discover the murderer, avoid unnecessary press, and make sure the scandal doesn't affect the museum's ability to secure a large loan... all why trying to patch up their romantic relationship.

The story could have been ok, but it was terribly written. The characters were annoying, unlikeable and unrealistic. The story kept on deviating to explain really obvious things about tea or to make strange comparisons between the US and the UK (and managed to paint a really odd picture of my native UK in the process), and the rather abrupt insertion of a religious theme at the end was just odd.

This novel could be an ok read for someone wanting something silly to read on the beach.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this fun, fast-paced book with a great theme! Sorry, there are no more books in this tea series set in Tunbridge Wells, England. The museum director and the Tea curator discover an old body in their garden, who was known as a tea expert 40 years ago. As they attempt to discover more about him, they are both nearly killed. It seems that in life, Etienne Makepeace had several secrets that need to stay buried.

[Libraryassistant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay this is on the low side of 3 stars for me. The mystery itself comes together in a fun, suspension-of-disbelief-required, cozy way. There’s a religious injection which comes out of nowhere and is not well handled in my opinion— I found it both hard to believe and disrespectful even though I am a Christian and fully believe in the Bible and God’s ability to change lives.

[Rachel Lenell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pros - love the overall message, descriptions of England and details about tea
Cons - not especially riveting as a mystery novel

Overall recommend to any tea lovers or anglophiles looking for a cute read

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable!

[Bonnie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Christian mystery done heavy handedly. They had a great set up with a fantastic tea museum, but didn't really do much with it. Cold War spies have never been so dull.

[Chrysanthemum · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first, I really liked this book. It was fast paced, but then it started to delve into countless side plots and became very slow for over half of the book. Then suddenly, the entire mystery was wrapped up in the final 14 pages. I enjoyed the way it ended, but overall I thought it was quite slow. A nice story, but definitely a slow-paced comfort book.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the story and the mystery kept me guessing. I thought this was a Christian publisher; but nothing was even mentioned until late in the story, and then not very much follow through. I know Flick and Nigel went to church on Sundays, but otherwise there was very little mention of their new Faith.

[Ferne (Enthusiastic Reader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Final Crumpet" is Book 2 in The Royal Tunbridge Wells Mystery Series by Ron and Janet Benrey. As I wasn't initially aware that the novel was part of a series, I enjoyed it as a stand-alone. The story is written in a delightful and charming narrative starring main characters: Nigel Owen, Managing Director, and Dr. Felicity (Flick) Adams, Chief Curator of the Royal Tunbridge Wells Tea Museum. The museum itself is artfully described as

"an imposing, four-story, Georgian-style building dedicated to the many different aspects of tea."

There is also a unique set of characters that add to Nigel and Flick's daily lives as well as the quaint atmosphere of the museum: Lapsang & Souchong (2 British Shorthair cats), Cha-Cha (a Shiba Inu dog) and Earl, an African Grey Parrot. The decision to replace 2 Assam tea plants in the tea garden at the end of the museum's 2-week shutdown discovers there has been murder and mayhem and threatens the museum's future.

With Nigel's wonderful British colloquial phrases and Flick's additions of speech, as she is originally a native of York, Pennsylvania, the story becomes an irresistible discovery not to be missed.

[Dorothy · Rating 2 out of 5]

not my cup of tea. I like the classic cozy mystery style. A puzzle, all the clues are hidden there in the text of the novel for you to try to solve it. This wasn't that.

The authors do slightly hint that the amateur sleuths are christians and that God...could also be a brilliant problem solver....might have been a lot further along had they turned this problem over to God, too." p.268 But I would have liked to then see them add more development there and have the sleuths share when they did that and how things changed for the better when they remembered to turn over the situation to God. It would make for an interesting mystery to see how Holy Spirit plays a role on the TEAM.

Liked how Flick and Nigel grow in realizing that as new creation in Christ they now can live differently. For Flick to let go of doubt and for Nigel to go forward in faithfulness.

It was quaint, true to the cozy style in setting. And a nice break. Hope the series improves as it goes along, but I don`t think I`d dip in again.

The book was a christmas present years ago that I started reading and lost interest. Glad to have read it, finally! Will pass it on, I`m not keeping it.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have enjoyed this series. It is not very fast moving and goes into details about tea or English tradition that don't really have anything to do with the story, but you get a feel for England the characters. It is clean and the characters have values and morsls. It is so nice to see an author with values.

[Jessie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite being a Christian publisher, the book was not preachy, except for the few paragraphs that supposedly turned the hero around. Even though there was a murder and Cold War era spies, this was a nice non-violent cozy.

[Raquel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The mystery storyline and characters were entertaining but there were a few sections that included some religious concepts that didn't fit well with the overall trajectory of the book. Though infrequent and brief, those sections negatively impacted my experience of this book.

[Marsha · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a throwaway, read-me-at-night book that doesn't require much of a stretch of brain power. I almost can't believe I put it on my Kindle, but I did. The characters are as bland as the English rain and the 'mystery' is a stretch. Can't recommend.

[Lorna · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second in the series just didn't really hold my interest. Perhaps I didn't care about the mystery enough to be overly interested in how it was solved. Or, I was just busy with the holiday season and a little distracted. It wasn't a bad book, just not a great one.

[Jennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the first. Did not move along in reading, as did the first book. Interesting plot. The last third was really the best part of the book. This book dwells more on the the relationship between Nigel and Flick.

[Sarah "Kat" · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was something that turned me off - the relationship between the two protagonists, the museum directors, that I couldn't quite buy into and then I saw that there was a start of a Christian slant to the book which turned me off.

[Samm Seals · Rating 3 out of 5]

A gentle mystery. read it on a road trip, finished easily.
lot's of suspects and the solution is not expected.
I did think of the culprit but, dismissed it and read on.

[Maureen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been dragging my feet on this one, as much as I love books set in Britian. It may get pitched.

[Rachel Lauto · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perfect sequel to "Dead as a Scone", "The Final Crumpet" was a cozy, complete, amusing mystery that kept you guessing well into the last few pages. :)

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow at first. Characters well developed.

[Chris Humphrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately the "Christian"lessons detracted from the story and disappointed me. They were unrealistic and trite. The story itself became somewhat disjointed and unrealistic towards the end.