Mrs Sidhu’s Dead and Scone | Suk Pannu
REVIEWED BY LINDA HILL
Mrs Sidhu’s Dead and Scone is a sheer delight and meeting Mrs Sidhu herself through the pages of the book is a total joy
We might never know her full name, but Mrs Sidhu is such an authentic, powerfully depicted character that the reader feels as if she’s lived next door for years. She’s wise, intelligent and not adverse to bending a few truths as she cooks herself into murders, mysteries and mayhem.
It feels so good to have a widow as the protagonist who isn’t someone who can be overlooked by society without consequence. I adored her manipulative deviousness and because it comes from such good intentions I could forgive her any kind of duplicity as she works to uncover the truth.
Mrs Sidhu is wonderfully counterbalanced by the long suffering, phlegmatic Inspector Burton who brings her into technicolour relief. The dynamics between the two are simply fabulous and Suk Pannu makes the reader desperate for more adventures.
Gripping and compelling
The charming rural Berkshire setting is the perfect foil to the twisted thought process of the murderer and the concept of a cult. Suk Pannu keeps the reader guessing throughout with delicious, enticing hooks at the end of chapters that completely remove the reader’s free will. It’s impossible not to want to read on. I found myself concocting scenarios and truths to explain events every bit as much as Mrs Sidhu does because the writing is so compelling.
I thought the iterative image of food and cooking permeating the writing was so well handled. It adds both literal and metaphorical flavour to the story and adds to the warm and witty style. Suk Pannu made me laugh aloud on several occasions. There are, of course, murders here, but there’s never anything gratuitous in the writing so that the reader feels simultaneously gripped by the story but relaxed in the reading, knowing that they are not going to be confronted by extreme grisliness. This book is a complete gem!
Whilst Mrs Sidhu’s Dead and Scone is funny and light-hearted, with a plot that positively steams ahead, it also has deeper themes of grief, mental health, responsibility, family and social acceptability that give wonderful layers, adding to the immense enjoyment in the book.
It’s a book that will make you chuckle in agreement with Mrs Sidhu’s view of the world. It will entertain you brilliantly from start to finish. But be warned – it’ll make you ravenously hungry too! I loved it.
