A Knife in the Back

An Old Forge Café Mystery #3

by Alex Coombs

Chef Charlie Hunter is just trying for mindfulness and a work/life balance, if such a thing is ever possible in the context of a busy professional kitchen. She's found herself a great podcast that's going to help her get there. Until she finds that her online self-help guru has feet of clay – feet which are much closer to her restaurant than seems possible.

Even more disruptive is the attack on a well known writer in Charlie's quiet Chilterns village of Hampden Green, and the arrest of the village's own celebrity shock jock. Charlie finds herself dealing with more than she can cope with, and never sure where the next attack will come from. Then mere backstabbing turns to murder…

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

324 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 1, 2024

About the author

Alex Coombs studied Arabic at Oxford and Edinburgh Universities and went on to work in adult education and then retrained to be a chef,

Alex Coombs was born in Lambeth in south London. Silenced for Good is the first of a new series of novels featuring Hanlon as a PI. He lives in South Bucks but has family in Scotland and spends a considerable amount of time in Edinburgh and Argyll.
He is the author of four previous novels featuring Hanlon in the police ( the DCI Hanlon series). He also writes light-hearted crime fiction as HVCoombs for One More Chapter/Harper Collins.
Visit his website at www.alexcoombs.co.uk or Facebook@AlexCoombsCrime

Reviews

[Jannelies (living between hope and fear) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhere there's a good story in this book, with interesting characters and a good plot. And since it's a book set in a lovely little restaurant, some nice recipes maybe?

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find all this. To stay with the subject: there were far too many ingredients, the ingredients were not always complementing and even missing sometimes and the whole looked not very well mixed before put in the oven.

When I read a book that is the second part in the series, I expect a little information when there are references to the first part. I couldn't help but finding either too much or not enough information. I soon lost track in trying to discern important characters from characters that only played a supporting role, and I frankly couldn't care less from most of them.
I liked the main character though, and as was to expect from a 'chef turned author' I just loved the descriptions of the dishes. If only

So it was not for me but I think this title can be very attractive to other readers.

Thanks to Bedford Square Publishers and Netgalley for this review.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It was well written, the plot was paced what I would perceive as perfectly, and the characters were easy to get along with.

This book can’t get a 5 star rating from me though, as less than halfway into the book, I had a guess of who the culprit was, and I was bang on. For a crime book to get a 5 star rating from me, I need to not be able to guess the bad guy so soon.

[Paul Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a book I'd typically read, but I picked it up out of desperation at an airport as the most palatable English-language option available. Although I haven't read many mysteries, I would describe this one as entertaining enough. Slow start, but when the crime finally did happen it picked up. Still, I'm left wondering about all the extraneous characters and plot threads that went nowhere. Like, obviously there have to be red herrings, but too many characters appeared and disappeared from the plot for no reason. I feel deprived of a "Swiss watch" quality that I enjoy in particularly well-plotted mystery movies. Also, our chef-detective main character is sort of a terrible detective? An odd choice for all the twists to be revealed to her by the police, rather than the other way around. Mixed feelings, but at least it was an interesting change of genre for me.

[Nicola Bartholomew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Knife in the Back is a cosy mystery based in the Chilterns village of Hampden Green. It centres around Chef Charlie Hunter, who runs the Old Forge Café and ends up investigating a murder.

I think one of the strengths of this book is that though it is the 3rd in the Old Forge Café Mystery series, I don’t think you need to have read the others to enjoy it. Alex Coombs does an excellent job of providing context which means readers can easily jump right in without feeling lost.

The tension is built around a controversial online z-list celebrity who lives locally. With different events surrounding this celebrity, we meet a lineup of suspects, each with well developed background.

While I did manage to guess the culprit, the final reveal was satisfyingly tense.

I thoroughly enjoyed this as a light, atmospheric book. It feels just right for curling up on an evening, under a blanket, making it a perfect autumnal read. With its well-written characters and cosy village setting, I would recommend A Knife in the Back as an easy mystery.

[Diane · Rating 1 out of 5]

Changing this from two stars to one after reading my notes.

An absolutely infuriating read. I had an inkling this wasn’t gonna be great when the (male) author felt the need to describe the mc’s bff as fat in a derogatory way not once but twice in quick succession, but it just went downhill from there.

The ‘woke’ left-wing professor who gets murdered turns out to be secretly evil, while the (far) right wing podcaster is not only secretly gay (really?) but also ends up looking like the most sane character. The main character just pissed me off. She’s a know it all in an unlikeable way and feels absolutely no guilt over cheating on her boyfriend with the potential murderer (when she already knows he’s a suspect). She’s portrayed as really smart but comes across very ignorant (see above). Show, don’t tell.

There’s also a bunch of inconsistencies in the book which could’ve easily been edited out. As an example, Charlies has the money to fuck off to London with her boyfriend and hire a chef for her restaurant but at the same time she can’t afford to pay a second chef minimum wage if she stays….. it made no sense to me.

Finally, on the topic of the eventual killer: I really did not understand how they weren’t a suspect from day one, I’m sorry. Based on the evidence found they would have been the first if not definitely the second suspect but somehow they’re not even on the police’s radar until the reveal? Also, somehow Charlie is constantly receiving classified police information about the investigation, which is just not realistic at all and made her look even more incompetent. I don’t mind suspending my disbelief a bit for a good story but this was just too much.

[Book-Social · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this one up from the hotel lobby on holiday. You know the drill – leave one behind, take one away. Not knowing anything about it the idea of it being set in a restaurant and involving food appealed to me. I didn’t realise at the time that it was actually book 3 in the ‘Old Forge Café cosy culinary mystery series’. It was apparent as I read on that there was clearly a backstory I had missed but not enough to spoil my read or take away from my understanding.

As I read on though I couldn’t help thinking that the book could have done with another edit. There were often repetitive sentences, contradictions and an odd error or two that really pulled me out of the story. I also found I didn’t warm to Charlie who just about everyone fancied and struggled to get a good grasp of each character (although that could have been down to the reading by the pool and all the distractions of holiday).

The food parts were written with knowledge and the small town was accurately captured in a very Midsomer Murder style. I read it in about 3 days and as far as hotel lobby book swaps go, it did the job!

[zoe Hitchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charlie Hunter runs the Old Forge Cafe in the Chilterns village of Hampden Green and her work and home life balance is hectic to say the least.
Trying to find time to relax Charlie finds a podcast in the hope that it will help her achieve this , but in turn she finds the podcaster and supposed self help guru is not all that she first seems .
Things soon turn nasty as a writer living in the village is attacked and things turn more sinister when a murder takes place and you’ve guessed it Charlie is in the middle of it .
Charlie whilst trying to track down the perpetrator is attacked and also is having a crisis of the romantic kind .
There’s plenty going on in this book which sometimes can get a bit confusing, but the writing style makes it easy to read.
Plenty of interesting characters in the story .
Kept my interest throughout.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bedford Square Publishers .

[Sue de Boeck · Rating 5 out of 5]

I tried really hard to make this book last more than two days, but the storyline and characters are so well written that I struggled to put it down!
Charlie Hunter is a great main character and the rest of the people in the book are well described and believable. The plot has some interesting twists and I didn’t guess who the villain was until very near to the actual denouement. Thank you for a great read Alex Coombs. Please write more about Charlie and her Old Forge Cafe and publish soon too please! I want to read more, but for now I’ll have to resign myself to rereading these just before the next one appears in paperback!!

[Maya Kumar-Merino · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just love this series, the characters are so funny and Charlie is so unapologetically herself. The characters from the other previous books tie in well and it was really well written story.
Can’t wait for the next one

[pauline ewen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I again really enjoyed this book, BUT I was quite perturbed with Charlies sexual behaviour with the murderer. I will obviously read the next book.

[Rachael Fair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book can't wait for the next one

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a lovely series of chef turned amateur detective. I did find the love story in this one very frustrating however! Need to wait for the next one now.

[Julie Footner-Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun easy read. Good storyline and likeable characters.

[Literary Queen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolutely awful. I finished it only because I’ve never DNFd a book in my life and I won’t start now. But it was a close call. Soooooooo boring!!!!!

[Shirley Maude · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant thriller, twists and turns all the way .

[Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

I guessed the killer from the start - very disappointing and the characters have gone even more woke…. I found it quite tedious to read - not as enjoyable as the first two books….