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Something Blue: A Short Story by G.M. Malliet
Rhys Bowen on G.M. Malliet's DEATH OF A COZY WRITER: "The traditional British cozy is alive and well. Delicious. I was hooked from the first paragraph."
A wedding on the picturesque cliffs of Devon should have been a joyful occasion, although it was a location said to have inspired Agatha Christie’s Evil Under the Sun. But when the groom is found dead just hours before the ceremony, the celebration turns into a baffling mystery the groom’s best man feels duty bound to solve.
As he delves into the tangled past of the bride, the groom, and their circle of family and friends, he soon suspects the death was no accident.
With secrets unraveling and motives lurking beneath the surface, the answers in Something Blue prove to be as treacherous as the cliffs themselves.
A wedding on the picturesque cliffs of Devon should have been a joyful occasion, although it was a location said to have inspired Agatha Christie’s Evil Under the Sun. But when the groom is found dead just hours before the ceremony, the celebration turns into a baffling mystery the groom’s best man feels duty bound to solve.
As he delves into the tangled past of the bride, the groom, and their circle of family and friends, he soon suspects the death was no accident.
With secrets unraveling and motives lurking beneath the surface, the answers in Something Blue prove to be as treacherous as the cliffs themselves.
28 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 14, 2025
About the author
G.M. Malliet
47 books717 followersG.M. Malliet is the author of three mystery series; a dozen or more short stories published in The Strand, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine; and WEYCOMBE, a standalone suspense novel.
Her Agatha Award-winning Death of a Cozy Writer (2008), the first installment of the DCI St. Just mysteries, was named one of the ten best novels of the year by Kirkus Reviews. Subsequent Max Tudor novels were Agatha finalists.
Her Agatha Award-winning Death of a Cozy Writer (2008), the first installment of the DCI St. Just mysteries, was named one of the ten best novels of the year by Kirkus Reviews. Subsequent Max Tudor novels were Agatha finalists.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 26, 2026
Cute story.
I tend to enjoy short stories. So much packed into a few pages. No time for all the filler.
I enjoyed this quick read thriller about a murdered groom.
I tend to enjoy short stories. So much packed into a few pages. No time for all the filler.
I enjoyed this quick read thriller about a murdered groom.
September 17, 2026
I love a good G.M. Malliet story – and they’re all good in my estimation. This little vignette is a perfect example of this. It is a tight little murder mystery told by one of the characters, the groom’s best man, in first person POV. While I’m not a first-person POV fan, I do like Ms. Malliet’s writing style so much, I’d be happy to read whatever POV she chose to use.
Here, we have a wedding party at a destination wedding in Devon, a site that inspired Agatha Chtistie’s Evil Under the Sun as we are told. That tidbit of information serves as a harbinger to the mystery. It sets the atmosphere for those of us familiar with Dame Agatha’s work.
Before the wedding can take place, the groom is found dead, washed up on the early evening’s tide at the base of the cliffs. The best man, our narrator, feels the loss of a man he admits he did not know all that well – because no one did, really – and we follow the best man on his journey to figuring out what happened to the groom, Gordon Grover. The hotel and police are not enthused about calling it a murder; an accident, perhaps, and when a note is found for his fiancée, it’s soon ruled a suicide.
But our narrator does not think so. He sets about unraveling who the groom really was, and who would want to murder him. It is very well done with an ending I never expected. Actually, there’s a double twist at the end. One is the reason for the murder, and the other is like a little epilogue to the murder.
It is concisely written, difficult to put down once started, and easy to keep thinking about when done. It’s a quick read, less than an hour, and I re-read parts, savoring the style and word choices Ms. Malliet made. A thoroughly enjoyable read!
Here, we have a wedding party at a destination wedding in Devon, a site that inspired Agatha Chtistie’s Evil Under the Sun as we are told. That tidbit of information serves as a harbinger to the mystery. It sets the atmosphere for those of us familiar with Dame Agatha’s work.
Before the wedding can take place, the groom is found dead, washed up on the early evening’s tide at the base of the cliffs. The best man, our narrator, feels the loss of a man he admits he did not know all that well – because no one did, really – and we follow the best man on his journey to figuring out what happened to the groom, Gordon Grover. The hotel and police are not enthused about calling it a murder; an accident, perhaps, and when a note is found for his fiancée, it’s soon ruled a suicide.
But our narrator does not think so. He sets about unraveling who the groom really was, and who would want to murder him. It is very well done with an ending I never expected. Actually, there’s a double twist at the end. One is the reason for the murder, and the other is like a little epilogue to the murder.
It is concisely written, difficult to put down once started, and easy to keep thinking about when done. It’s a quick read, less than an hour, and I re-read parts, savoring the style and word choices Ms. Malliet made. A thoroughly enjoyable read!
April 23, 2025
Who killed the groom? Entertaining short story.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews