Booklog 74/2023: Jodi Taylor: Christmas Pie – St Mary’s 14.5

[jacey]

St Mary’s is at war – with the local Women’s Institute, the Raffia Mafia. This year the Christmas jump isn’t illegal. It isn’t even at Christmas, but the honour of St Mary’s kitchen is at stake so Max, Peterson, Markham and Sykes, have one job, to travel to Restoration London and buy a selection of authentic Christmas Pies so that Mrs Mack can reverse engineer them and beat the WI at the next Christmas Fair. Unfortunately, it’s not as straightforward as it might be – well, of course, this is St Mary’s after all and the tea-soaked disaster magnets have been let loose again. This time, instead of Max, Markham is the narrator. He has cogent insights into the Bashford v Sykes relationship, especially as Angus (Bashford’s chicken) makes is a lopsided threesome, and Sykes has another serious admirer. I bought the audiobook immediately – ready for a new year listen. Highly recommended. New readers should start at the beginning to get full value out of this excellent series.