DEADLY WEDDINGS, CASTLES AND RETIREMENT HOMES: 2026 BRITISH CRIME BY FERGUS CRAIG, STUART MACBRIDE & C. L. MILLER

Nowhere seems safe in these recent British crime fiction titles, with murders occurring at weddings, castles and even retirement homes!

Fergus Craig’s new novel, I’m Not The Only Murderer In My Retirement Home (Sphere, 17 February 2026), is probably the pick of the three, although all are good.

Borrowing from other recent books around murder clubs and retirees, which the author light heartedly acknowledges at one point with a veiled reference to Robert Thorogood’s The Marlow Murder Club, I’m Not The Only Murderer In My Retirement Home is a highly amusing crime story that had me laughing out loud on several occasions.

The story opens with former serial killer Carol being released from prison and taking her place in a luxury retirement home. She quickly begins to find her feet with a small new group of friends, and hopes that if she can keep her past hidden she may be able to have some happiness before she dies. Unfortunately that sense of well-being is destroyed when one of the residents, a former police commissioner, is murdered and Carol’s secret is out. The retirement home is stacked with ex-policemen, and other investigators, and Carol has to work hard to clear her name and find the real killer before she is sent back to prison.

This is a very engaging story. The pacing is brisk and Carol’s point of view adds a fresh and sardonic edge to the tale. There are plenty of twists and turns to the plot, and the resolution is clever and original. However, it is the humour that stands out and it is hard not to smile, even when Carol is at her darkest, as in this reflection about burying bodies in Epping Forest:

“After dark, there’d always be someone else with their own body to ditch. Usually, the other killer would be a professional, a gangster, something like that – not a simple hobbyist like Carol. You’d help them to theirs, they’d help you with yours – a real sense of community. People were friendlier in the old days.”

A real treat! Put it on your ‘to read’ pile.

I’m Not The Only Murderer In My Retirement Home is released in Australia and the United Kingdom on 17 February 2026.

Also mixing dark humour with a good mystery plot is Stuart MacBride’s And The Corpse Wore Tartan, (Macmillan, 10 February 2026).

MacBride’s foul-mouthed Detective-Sergeant Roberta Steel is given her first solo starring role in And The Corpse Wore Tartan and the result is chaotic and fun. Roberta crashes the Highland wedding of the year, complete with wealthy Tory voters and arrogant Members of Parliament, and manages to get herself catastrophically drunk, much to the shame of her wife. When wakes she up, she finds the father of the bride murdered and artistically impaled on a stag’s head in the hotel lobby.

With the whole valley, including the wedding hotel, cut off by a massive thunderstorm and mobile phone reception down, it is up to Roberta to find out who among the many guests is the murderer. Which is not easy when you have the hangover from hell, and your only help is a world-weary police sergeant and a halfwit police constable.

Despite these setbacks Roberta battles on and bulldozes her way through the investigation with unexpected results. The humour is sharp and funny, and very politically pointed, and Roberta’s inappropriate observations come thick and fast. The characters are a largely unpleasant bunch, and MacBride takes much joy in skewering his wealthy and privileged stereotypes. The investigation is mainly played for laughs, but underneath the humour there is some serious detective work going on, with more than a nod to the Golden Age of mysteries and Agatha Christie herself.

If you enjoy MacBride’s constantly swearing and largely offensive detective, you will love And The Corpse Wore Tartan. If you are of a more sensitive nature, you may find it too much.

And The Corpse Wore Tartan is released in Australia on 10 February 2026 and in the United Kingdom on 12 February 2026.

C. L. (Cara) Miller continues the adventures of her amateur antique collecting detectives, Freya Lockwood and her Aunt Carole, in The Antique Hunter’s Murder At The Castle, (Macmillan, 10 February 2026).

This time around, Freya and Aunt Carole are searching for a missing colleague in picturesque Scotland. Hot on the heels of an art forger, a member of their antique hunters agency disappears while investigating an isolated castle deep in the Scottish countryside. Freya and Carole race to their colleague’s last known location at a castle in the wintry, snow-covered Scottish Borders. There they discover the body of the murdered owner and the theft of his priceless collection of silverware. The local police believe that Freya’s missing team member was involved with the robbery and murder, but she cannot be found. As a snowstorm descends on the castle, Freya and Carole try to work out what really happened before they are cut off from the outside world.

This is a pleasant and engaging read. The story flows reasonably well, apart from some slowness in the middle, and the characters are nicely sketched and interesting. The mystery is solid and the book moves to a good resolution. As with the previous two books, Cara’s antique collecting credentials add plenty of convincing and fascinating detail to the book, and there are some interesting insights into the strange world of antique collecting.

The Antique Hunter’s Murder At The Castle is released in Australia on 10 February 2026 and in the United Kingdom on 12 February 2026.