It’s August and the villages of Middlemoss are gathering for their first Christmas Pudding Club meeting. Among them is Lizzy who is considering leaving her verbally abusive husband, Tom. When he takes her car and disappears for days, part of her hopes he just won’t come back. He’s often done this before but this time he turns up dead.

It might not seem the cheeriest premise for a festive read by Lizzy isn’t all that bothered by the death of her husband. She is slightly concerned that the police think she finished him off but the secrets of his life slowly come out into the open. As always with Trisha Ashley, there’s a busy cast of characters portraying village life. They are busy planning the annual mystery play and I loved the humour the locals added to the bible stories. There’s lots of lovely seasonal food ideas too.

This is a reworked version of Sweet Nothings so if you’ve read that there may not be all that much new material.