Gavels, Tinsel and Murder: A British Cozy Mystery with a Female Amateur Sleuth (A Dotty Sayers Antique Mystery) by Victoria Tait | Book Review and Mince Pies Recipe

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Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Gavels, Tinsel and Murder: A British Cozy Mystery with a Female Amateur Sleuth (A Dotty Sayers Antique Mystery) by Victoria Tait. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!

Gavels, Tinsel and Murder: A British Cozy Mystery with a Female Amateur Sleuth (A Dotty Sayers Antique Mystery)

by Victoria Tait

Gavels, Tinsel and Murder: A British Cozy Mystery with a Female Amateur Sleuth (A Dotty Sayers Antique Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
4th in Series
Kanga Press (November 4, 2022)
Number of Pages c. 240

A charity ball. A dead guest. Can an amateur sleuth solve the case or will it ruin Christmas for ever?

Aspiring antiques expert, Dotty Sayers, is excited about organising a ball in a Cotswold country house. When a lecture on modern art leads to a kiss under the mistletoe she thinks all her Christmases have come at once. But her festive cheer turns sour when a partygoer is found dead on the dance floor.

The police ask Dotty to help wrap up the case of a stolen painting, but as the search continues she becomes entangled in the murder investigation. When this amateur detective realises the culprit could be a close friend, will she face the Yuletide music?

Can Dotty put aside her personal feelings and herald a murderer?

Gavels, Tinsel and Murder is the fourth book in the charming Dotty Sayers Antique Mystery series. If you like to eat, drink and be merry with a group of entertaining characters, then you’ll be entertained by Victoria Tait’s festive tale.

Christmas comes but once a year so buy Gavels, Tinsel and Murder today!

My review of Gavels, Tinsel and Murder

Dotty is back in the delightful cozy mystery book, Gavels, Tinsel and Murder. This cozy mystery book is the fourth book in the Dotty Sayers Antique Mystery series. You can read this without having read the prior three, but you’ll get so much more enjoyment by reading the whole series. As soon as I finished the first book, Fake Death, I immediately went to Amazon to pre-order the following two books which were available. That’s something I almost never do, so that tells you how much I love this series.

Gavels, Tinsel and Murder is a British cozy mystery, and if you’ve been reading my reviews for a while, you know I love British cozies. In fact, I’m quite jealous of people who live in small villages in the UK…even if they are fictional people! This series takes place in the Cotswolds (another reason to be jealous of Dotty!) where Dotty and her friend Kaya are organizing a ball in a new friend’s home. The ball includes a silent auction and a small live auction for the most valuable items.

Gavels, Tinsel and Murder‘s plot makes for a wonderful backdrop to the murder mystery. I can’t say much about the plot as it might spoil the prior three books for you, and I want you to enjoy them! When the body of an unliked person is found at the ball, there are several plausible suspects. Though the police normally warn Dotty away from investigations, she’s actually asked to keep an eye and ear out for clues to solving the murder as well as a theft which took place at that same location.

The eclectic mix of characters makes this enjoyable series even better. They are one of the reasons I recommend reading the prior books. I think you understand their behaviors and quirks more than you otherwise would. Dotty has grown remarkably throughout the books. Other characters have life altering changes. You’ll be sure to find a character you can relate to or one that you could imagine as your friend. The author’s engaging writing makes for a page-turning book that you won’t want to put down.

I highly recommend Gavels, Tinsel and Murder for its fascinating characters, enjoyable setting, and exciting mystery.

Mince Pies

In Gavels, Tinsel and Murder, Dotty sets up a small café on the first floor of Akemans Antiques Centre, providing free hot drinks, Christmas fruit cake and mince pies to customers.

Mince pies are festive pastries, usually served in individual portions which are easy to handle and eat at events and parties. They are part of British Christmas fare but were once also beloved in American cuisine. The first colonists in the seventeenth century brought the recipe with them, and it was even in American Cookery by Amelia Simmons, the first American cookbook printed in 1796.

Shortcrust pastry surrounds a filling of mincemeat, so called because it did contain minced meat back in the Middle Ages: usually mutton, but beef, rabbit, pork or game was used. Chopped fruit was added and then a preserving liquid, usually alcohol.

In the days before freezers, pickling in alcohol was an alternative to salting, curing or smoking. I make my own mincemeat (read on for my recipe) and if I don’t use it all one year, I keep it somewhere cool for the following Christmas.

Traditions, Folklore & Superstitions

There are several superstitions around making mincemeat:-

Mincemeat should only be made on stir-up Sunday, along with Christmas puddings, which is the last Sunday before advent. This is probably to allow the flavours time to combine, and we all have enough to do in December.
Only stir the mincemeat in a clockwise direction, as anti-clockwise will lead to bad look and poor health in the coming year. Personally, I have to stir the mixture in all directions, particularly after adding the brandy.
To spread the festive joy, all members of the family should take a turn and while they stir, they should make a wish. I’m not sure my family have ever helped me make mincemeat. They would probably tell me to buy it from a shop instead!

Finally, if you want to ensure good health and happiness (and an expanding waistband) for the coming year, eat one mince pie each day during the twelve days of Christmas, from Christmas Day to Epiphany.

Link with Christmas

The humble mince pie would have been practical to eat in lean, dark winter months. Some say that the spices which are added, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon symbolise the gifts given to baby Jesus.

There are records showing that mince pies were once oval in shape, to represent Jesus’ crib, but pastry chefs became more adventurous and created shapes including stars, crescents, hearts and flowers. Personally, I like to create circular pies and top them with a star of pastry, sprinkled with icing sugar. And the pastry should be thin and crisp, and the filling plentiful.

Mince Pies Recipe from Victoria Tait

This is my preferred mince pie recipe:

Mincemeat Ingredients

800gms (28oz) Dried fruit: mixture of raisins, sultanas and some currants
225gms (8oz) Candied peel
350gms (12oz) Soft brown sugar
225gms (8oz) Shredded suet (or butter of cooking margarine)
50gms (2oz) Ground almonds (optional)
450gms (1lb) Apples – chopped but not peeled
2 Oranges – grates zest and juice
2 Lemons – grated zest and juice
2 level teaspoons Mixed ground spice
¼ teaspoon Ground or freshly grated nutmeg
1 level teaspoon Ground cinnamon
6 tablespoons (or more) of Brandy

Method

Mix all the ingredients together, apart from the brandy, cover and leave overnight in a cool place so the flavours can mingle.
Set the oven to 120C/gas mark
¼ and tip the ingredients into a metal baking tray or other flat-based oven-proof container.
Cover loosely with foil and cook for 2-3 hours.

I don’t like my mincemeat too black, and certainly not burnt. I remove the tray every so often and mince the ingredients around, otherwise those at the edge tend to burn. Don’t be alarmed that it is swimming in fat. When you have removed the mincemeat and it is cooling, keep stirring and the fat will combine and coat the other ingredients. When it is cold, stir in the brandy.

I use a hand blender to break up some of the larger pieces but if you prefer, cut the candied peel and apples smaller at the beginning. I store the mincemeat in jars in a cool place and use when necessary.

My pastry recipe is:

Ingredients

200 gms Flour
100 gms Butter – cold and cut into small pieces
Pinch Salt
Water c. 4 tbsp

Method

Mix flour, salt and butter together by rubbing with fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. You can do this in a food mixer.
Add 2 tbsp of water and mix in. Keep adding water as necessary and very slowly until the mixture comes together into a ball.
Wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 mins.

I use a 12 cup tart tin and roll the pastry as thin as I dare. Don’t over fill the pastry as the mixture bubbles up. Enclose each tart fully in a circular cap of pastry or I use a star shape as is it both attractive, and cuts down the pastry to filling ration. They cook quickly, in 12 to 15 minutes. They can be served hot or cold and dusted with icing sugar. A dollop of brandy butter is also delicious.

Enjoy, and Merry Christmas

About Victoria Tait

I was born and raised in Yorkshire, UK, and never expected to travel the world. But I fell for an Army Officer, and I’ve followed him from Northern Ireland, up to the Scottish Highlands, across to Africa and the Kenyan Savannah, back to the British Cotswolds, and we are now living in Sarajevo, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Southern Europe.

I never expected to be an author, but all this moving is not ideal for holding down a job. Instead, I’ve taken the experiences of the places I’ve lived to write vivid and evocative cozy mystery books with determined female sleuths.

I have two fast growing teenage boys, and together we’ve learnt to ski on the Bosnian mountains. I also enjoy horse riding, mountain biking and I’ve started running as a way to improve my physical fitness, mental well-being and shed some excess pounds.

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Purchase Link – Amazon