My enormous thanks to publicist Becky Hunter for sending me a copy of J.M. Hall’s A Clock Stopped Dead in return for an honest review. It’s my pleasure to share that review today.

It’s exactly a year since I reviewed J.M. Hall’s A Spoonful of Murder in a post you can find here.

Published by Avon on 11th April 2024, A Clock Stopped Dead is available for pre-order here.

A Clock Stopped Dead

Retired schoolteachers and amateur sleuths Liz, Pat and Thelma are giving up their coffee morning for a brand-new mystery.

Retired teachers Pat, Liz and Thelma are happiest whiling away their hours over coffee, cake and chat at the Thirsk Garden Centre café.

But when their good friend tells them about an unsettling experience she had in a sinister-feeling charity shop, they simply can’t resist investigating…

Because the entire shop has vanished into thin air.

Before long, our trio of unlikely sleuths find themselves embroiled in a race against the clock to get to the bottom of this mystery – but who has a secret to hide and how far will they go to keep it concealed?

Only time will tell…

My Review of A Clock Stopped Dead

Marguerite has had an unnerving experience.  

A Clock Stopped Dead is tongue in cheek, hugely entertaining and a cracking romp of a mystery story. 

The structure is incredibly well plotted. As J.M. Hall presents mini cliff-hangers throughout each chapter as well as totally engaging epigraphs at the start of each one, A Clock Stopped Dead is the kind of book to keep a reader turning the page almost against their will. I love the way that, just as you think you’ve got a handle on what is going on, something else is dropped into the plot through the nosiness or conversations of Liz, Thelma and Pat, so that the repercussions ripple outwards, drawing you in more and more. Reading A Clock Stopped Dead is a bit like watching waves on a beach – impossible to predict just how they might break each time but mesmerising. 

There’s a gentle humour throughout, that is enhanced by the private thoughts and personal situations of Pat, Liz and Thelma and particularly through the words they choose not to say. Their family tribulations and relationships, their ageing anxieties and so on make them warm and relatable characters. The dynamics between the three ladies shift and reform too in a very realistic manner akin to real friendships so that J.M. Hall brings them to vivid life. In fact, once A Clock Stopped Dead is finished and the various mysteries resolved, I found the final few pages quite emotional. 

Given that A Clock Stopped Dead is a cosy murder mystery that is absorbing and entertaining, what gives it extra relatability and enjoyment for the reader is the exploration of human nature presented. There’s the impact of grief, self-delusion and deception. The challenges of new relationships and established marriages, of love and friendship blend in too so that this truly feels a story concerning real people about whom the reader feels strongly. This is wonderful storytelling.

I so enjoyed A Clock Stopped Dead. I find myself wondering what the ladies are up to now and longing to read more about them.

About J.M. Hall

J.M. Hall is an author, playwright and Deputy Head of a primary school. His plays have been produced in theatres across the UK as well as for radio, the most recent of which being Trust, a BBC Radio 4series about the Academy school system, starring Julie Hesmondhaulgh. He lives in Shipley.

You’ll find J.M. Hall on Instagram.