Book Review: Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper

Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village

by Maureen Johnson, with illustrations by Jay Cooper (817 Joh)

 

I am a huge fan of the “British Cozy” — those English mystery novels that take place in innocuous country villages or manor houses that are scattered about the English countryside. And, boy are there a lot of those! Enough so that author Maureen Johnson and illustrator Jay Cooper felt they had a good audience of Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village, which acknowledges and pokes fun at the dozens of storytelling tropes that are attached to this style of mystery fiction.

 

Johnson writes with a wry and sardonic sense of humor, and Cooper’s illustrations are charming and disturbing at the same time — intricate black & white drawings, with occasional highlight spots in blood red. After “A Note to the Gentle Reader”, which warns you to never venture to English Villages or Manors on threat of imminent death, the book is divided into two sections: “The Village” with sub-sections on Buildings & Spaces, The Residents of the Village, and Village Events, and “The Manor”, with sub-sections on Buildings & Spaces, Rooms & Architecture, Furnishing & Features, the Residents of the Manor, Frequent Guests, The Staff, and Manor Events.

 

This book is pure, silly fun, with an incredible dark and wickedly morbid sense of humor. It should greatly appeal to fans of the “Cozy” style of mystery novel, though even if you don’t read cozies, but still watch the series featured on PBS’s Mystery series, you’ll still find plenty to be amused by. Each of the two sections features a follow-up quiz, to see how much you’ve been paying attention to the dire warnings that the book offers. A quick and enjoyable read with a smart and literary sense of humor!

 

(Cooper’s artwork reminds me of the macabre works of Edward Gorey, including The World of Edward Gorey, Haunted House Looking Glass: Ghost Stories, The Gashlycrumb Tinies, and the various entries in the Amphigorey series. Any of those, particularly the Gashlycrumb Tinies, are good matches to Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village.)

 

( official Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village page on the official Maureen Johnson web site ) | ( official Jay Cooper web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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