Trial-on-Mount-Koya
Murder Goes to Market

Daisy Bateman
  • 248 pp
  • ISBN 9781645060123
  • Paperback • $15.95
  • June 2020

If you had asked computer programmer Claudia Simcoe what she expected to come of her leaving San Francisco for the California coast to open a farm-to-table marketplace, “assembles a mismatched team to investigate a murder” would not have been her first guess.

Lori Roth is one of the tenants of the market, or she had been until Claudia learned that the hands making her “hand-dyed” textiles belong to overseas factory workers. Claudia terminates Lori’s lease, but her hopes that this will be the last she sees of her problem tenant are dashed when she arrives at the marketplace the next morning to find Lori dead, hit over the head with a jar of pickles and strangled with a cheese wire.

The police chief thinks Claudia looks like an easy pick to be the killer, and he closes the marketplace to put the pressure on her. So, Claudia has no choice but to solve the mystery herself. Relying on the tech skills from her previous life and some help from her quirky new friends, Claudia races to save her business and herself before the killer adds her to the region’s local, artisanal murders.



“A pleasing debut for a complicated sleuth in this up-to-date take on the cozy mystery.”

—KIRKUS REVIEWS


“Claudia’s lively and often highly amusing narration presents plausible potential suspects and motives galore—all this plus intelligent furry and feathered friends. Cozy fans will eagerly await Claudia’s next adventure.”

—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY


“There’s nothing like a good murder weapon, and Daisy Bateman delivers, with several, including a jar of pickles, a cheese wire, and a butcher knife. Bateman brings us Claudia Simcoe, a smart businesswoman and manager of an artisanal market who knows her way around software, her tenants’ two-year gouda, and the occasional goose. Claudia is a rich character who gets into the kind of trouble we love: tracking down a murderer who has not only killed, but pushed Claudia to the top of the suspect list. Bateman writes with confidence, providing descriptions that are a sensory delight, whether of frittatas or splendorous bay and ocean views, and a crew of characters who stand out as unique and unpredictable individuals. We hold our breath as Claudia investigates, sometimes sneaking around, other times frighteningly out in the open, but always holding our attention.”

—Camille Minichino, author of five mystery series


“This is my favorite debut novel ever. Bateman's wit, warmth, and charming depth of descriptive power don't just leap off the page, they welcome you into the company of such splendid characters you won't want to leave. Pick your coziest chair, bring snacks, and don't forget to hydrate. May she write fast: I can't wait to devour her next book.”

—Cornelia Read, author of the Edgar Award-nominated debut A Field of Darkness


“A lively, witty mystery set in a coastal northern California town that’s so real I can almost smell the ocean and hear the gulls. And as Daisy Bateman writes: “If you had asked Claudia what she expected to come of her opening an artisanal marketplace in a seaside town, “assembles a mismatched team to investigate a murder” would not have been her first guess.”

—Susan C. Shea, author of Love & Death in Burgundy


“In this charming debut, Daisy Bateman offers a deliciously fresh and funny take on cozy mysteries. Readers will want to spend more time with the irrepressible Claudia Simcoe, not to mention the quirky vendors and customers of her artisanal (but occasionally murderous) market hall located on the atmospheric Sonoma coast. I know *I’m* already hungry for more Murder Goes to Market!”

—Juliet Blackwell, New York Times bestselling author of the Witchcraft Mysteries and the Haunted Home Renovation series


"This foodie cozy is not too sweet, and not too sharp, but juuuust right. The setting - a farm-to-fork marketplace and cottage by the sea in California - pulls us in on page one and the day-dream is complete when we meet Claudia Simcoe, who's a BFF waiting to happen. Of course, murder gets in the way but the plot is tight, the twists convincing, and the resolution nicely sprung. And did I say it's laugh-out-loud funny? Neatly up-ending some cozy conventions, Murder Goes to Market is a confident series debut, with just a whiff of what's on sale in book two."

—Catriona McPherson, author of Mary Higgins Clark award finalist Strangers at the Gate


“Murder Goes to Market is perfect for any reader in the market for mystery. You'll find a puzzling whodunnit, an endearing amateur sleuth to root for and, in bucolic San Elmo, California, a setting you'll wish you could visit. And it's all handcrafted by the finest local artisans. (Well, or wonderfully written by Daisy Bateman, anyway.) Plop a copy into your shopping basket today!”

—Steve Hockensmith, Edgar finalist author of Holmes on the Range

Daisy Bateman is the author of the Marketplace Mysteries series, in which the owner of an artisan foods marketplace on the Sonoma Coast solves murders and stops for the occasional snack. Daisy is a mystery lover, cheese enthusiast, and world-renowned expert in Why You Should Buy That. In what passes for normal life, she works in biotech and lives in Alameda, California, with her husband and a labradoodle on a mission to chew the world into tiny pieces.

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