The Wrong Ambrose Hearne Review: A Fair-Play Cozy Mystery Set in a Second-Hand Bookshop

Read time: 5 minutes

📱📖 Read on Kindle | 📃 293 pages | ⏱ Duration: 4 hours
Genre: Cozy Mystery | 🏷️ Publisher name: Self Published
Expected publication: October 16, 2026

Book Blurb:

Bridie Quell spent twenty years correcting other people’s sentences before inheriting Marrow & Vine, a second-hand bookshop in an English village, from her aunt Vesta. Along with the shop come thirty-one years of buying ledgers filled with Vesta’s blunt notes on everyone who walked through the door. When a dealer signed in as Ambrose Hearne is found dead in the stockroom on the night of the auction preview, the village blames an outsider. Bridie, who believes only what is written down, isn’t convinced. With her seventeen-year-old Saturday boy Callum gathering the gossip, she works through seven names, one ledger at a time.

Let’s talk about the book:

A second-hand bookshop and a ladder were enough to sell me on this one. Then there’s the body under the ladder, and the cozy mystery was off and running.

Bridie Quell spent twenty years correcting other people’s sentences. Then she inherits Marrow & Vine, her late aunt Vesta’s bookshop in a village she’d never heard of, along with thirty-one years of buying ledgers full of Vesta’s blunt notes on everyone who walked through the door. When a dealer who signed in as Ambrose Hearne is found dead in the stockroom on the night of the auction preview, the inspector calls it a fall. The pathologist disagrees, and the village has already picked its culprit. Bridie, who believes only what’s written down, isn’t convinced.

What I loved most is the setting. A bookshop, a village square, a fire in the hearth and a lamp over the ledgers make this cozy in the best way, and the small-town feel is the book’s biggest strength. Bridie’s method is just as much fun. She doesn’t knock on doors. She reads paper, writes down only the facts and crosses names off one by one, and her eye for detail makes a great contrast with a detective who barely writes anything down. Callum, her seventeen-year-old Saturday boy, brings back all the village gossip and tells her when she’s guessing, while Dawn keeps the till running and Bridie fed. Both add warmth and humour. It’s also a fair-play mystery, so you know from the start that the killer is among the suspects you meet, and I still couldn’t guess who it was. Maybe I got a little cocky.

What kept it from five stars is the pacing. The story is wonderful, but it moves a little too fast in places to build atmosphere. The shop and village are so charming that I wanted to linger in them, and a bit more scene-setting would have helped me picture where things were happening. The back-and-forth between timelines also made the story slightly harder to follow, though only slightly. I also wanted a little more background on Bridie: why she took over the shop, what her life was like before it, and why Vesta was so sure she wouldn’t want it.

These are small quibbles. Get past them and it’s hard not to enjoy the story. It was a quick, fun read for me, and I can’t wait to see where the Marrow & Vine mysteries go next. I’d recommend it to readers of fair-play, small-village cozy mysteries who love bookshops, ledgers and a heroine who trusts only what’s written down.

Would I recommend it?

If a dead body under a ladder in a second-hand bookshop sounds like your kind of mystery, add The Wrong Ambrose Hearne to your TBR and mark October 16, 2026 on your calendar. Alice Wendover gives you a proper fair-play puzzle and a heroine who trusts only what is written down, all set in a village that loves its gossip. The pacing runs a touch fast and the timelines take some tracking, but I enjoyed it anyway, and I want the next Marrow & Vine book.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Continue the Reading Vibe!

• Death at Wentwater Court by Verity Bright: Since the blurb says this one is for readers of Verity Bright, start where her Lady Eleanor Swift series begins, with a warm, witty English mystery and a sleuth who is happy to do things her own way.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie: If you like the idea of a whole village full of people with something to hide, Miss Marple’s first full-length outing is the classic version of that.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• Murder Is Binding by Lorna Barrett: Bookshops and bodies go together beautifully here, with the first Booktown Mystery set in a village built around its bookstores.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• Homicide in Hardcover by Kate Carlisle: Want another sleuth who is at home among old books? The first Bibliophile Mystery follows a book restorer who ends up in the middle of a murder.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman: For the same dry humour and a sleuthing group that works through clues together, this one is a great next pick.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

Your Turn to Play Detective

Bridie writes down only the facts, and Callum keeps telling her when she’s guessing. So I have to ask: when you read a fair-play mystery, do you keep notes, or do you just go with your gut and hope for the best? And did you ever get the killer before the detective did? I didn’t, and I’m still a little sore about it. Tell me in the comments.

Book links

Want to purchase this or any of your favorite books while supporting a local bookstore? Consider purchasing using the sites below. These sites work with independent local bookstore owners to fulfill your book orders. #SupportLocal
Goodreads | Pagebound | Hardcover | Booktrovert