Pot of Poison: A Novel

Bestselling author Jess Kidd returns to the beloved Nora Breen Investigates series with A Pot of Poison, in which a deadly poisoning at a beloved seaside café forces Nora and Detective Rideout to reunite to catch a brazen killer before they strike again.

The Pavilion Café may be a dubious, down-at-the-heels establishment, but it’s a Gore-on-Sea favorite—and something of an institution. Run by the formidable Mrs. Betty Powser, it’s where the gentry slum it with charladies and crooks, starlets and bohemians. Mrs. Powser, ever discreet, counts the great and the not-so-good among her clientele, including Harry Ladd, owner of the Laddland Amusement Park (and most of the town, by all accounts) and his philandering son Percy.

Popular with year-round residents and tourists alike, the Pavilion Café serves greasy breakfasts, over-brewed tea, a generous helping of offbeat atmosphere—and, it appears, poison.

When vacationing politician Bertie Cholmondeley dies in agonizing convulsions at one of Mrs. Powser’s tables, former nun and monastery nurse Nora Breen is close at hand. Soon afterward, a second man, Tony Darling, a young mechanic who witnessed Mr. Cholmondeley’s death, dies in the same dreadful manner at the Blue Anchor pub—another of Harry Ladd’s favorite haunts.

The town assumes the killer is after Ladd and keeps getting the wrong man. Nora hopes to investigate with Gore-on-Sea’s finest, Detective Inspector Rideout.

As the case unfolds, though, Nora must acknowledge a growing rift between herself and Rideout. Her old sparring partner seems determined to play the part of the steadfast, sober detective inspector under the watchful eye of a superior who doesn’t approve of him fraternizing with a former nun turned amateur sleuth. Meanwhile, business at the pub and café has never been better. Neither locals nor tourists will be deterred by something as damned inconvenient as a murderer on the loose.

The case takes Nora from the rarefied world of Gore-on-Sea’s most privileged visitors to the gritty depths of the town’s criminal underworld, with a detour through the glamour of Laddland’s Coral Ballroom. And there may even be a touch of romance for Nora—both on and off the dance floor...