In some ways this cozy crime novel is a book of two halves. At first, there is a lot of debating among the protagonist, Simmy, and her two friends Melanie and Ben, regarding a bunch of flowers that Simmy, a florist, was paid to deliver an old lady for a mystery granddaughter the old lady knows nothing about. Soon, Simmy is called upon by the police to give someone an alibi for the time of death of another old lady who lives nearby and turns out to have been murdered.

Simmy is a worrier and is often distracted by her anxieties about snow or other everyday things, rather than the murder mystery, but despite her best efforts, is soon drawn into family secrets and lies. Just when I had got used to the gentle, lulling pace - whoosh! Something drastic happened which I won't spoil here. The second half of the book deals with its impact, and events build to a climax where the identity of the murderer is finally revealed. I did not work out who it was either. The book characterises the protagonist and her friends in a nicely understated way and is a good read for anyone who likes cozy crime. This is apparently the second in the series of Lakeland set mysteries by the author, and its nice to read something set in the Lakes, having visited there several times. ( )

I really enjoyed the first book in this series. Rebecca Tope always does a splendid job of bringing the Lake District of England to life, and she's given her main character a fine secondary cast. Simmy is a very likeable woman with an unhappy past, and her two assistants in the shop, Ben and Melanie, are fun young people who bring their own interests and quirks into these murder investigations. This second entry also gives us a closer look at Simmy's parents, Angie and Russell.

The Ambleside Alibi was bowling along at an "A" pace when-- completely out of the blue-- Simmy has one of those TSTL moments. You've heard of those, haven't you? Too Stupid To Live? When the heroine does something so incredibly dumb that you just can't believe it. Well, that happens here, and if I didn't make such an effort not to give away the plots in my reviews, I'd be more than happy to tell you all about it... but I can't. All I can say is that I was so disgusted, I could've thrown the book against the wall-- except that it was on my Kindle, and I wasn't about to pitch a fast ball with that.

There are grave consequences to TSTL moments. So grave that I seriously doubt that I'll read any more books in this series.

Simmy, how could you? ( )