Spring Reading, Retired Detectives and a Dog Called Rex

by
Christine Tipper’s Weekly Blog – 20 April 2026

THE BLOG OF

Christine Tipper

Cosy Crime, Good Books & the Occasional Norfolk Terrier

20 APRIL 2026

Spring Reading, Retired Detectives and a Dog Called Rex

Hello and welcome back! If you’re reading this with a cup of tea in hand and the spring sunshine doing its best through the window, then you’re in exactly the right place. April has been a wonderful month for cosy crime — the new releases are coming thick and fast, and I’ve barely been able to keep up with my reading pile. Not that I’m complaining, mind you.

This week I want to introduce you to an author who has been quietly building one of the most successful cosy crime series around, talk about a brand new release that’s perfect for seaside-mystery lovers, and share a few thoughts on what makes the bond between a fictional sleuth and their dog so irresistible. (I may be slightly biased on that last point.)

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AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

Steve Higgs — The Man Behind Albert Smith and Rex

If you haven’t come across Steve Higgs yet, you’re in for a real treat — and quite possibly a binge-read that will swallow your entire weekend. Steve is the author behind Albert Smith’s Culinary Capers, one of the most popular cosy crime series of recent years, and he has one of the most interesting backstories of any crime writer working today.

Steve Higgs

Albert Smith’s Culinary Capers & Albert Smith’s Mystery Thrillers

Steve joined the British Army at seventeen, rose to become a commissioned officer, picked up a degree and a master’s along the way, and only started publishing fiction after leaving the military in his forties. His first novel, Paranormal Nonsense, launched what would become an astonishingly prolific career — he now has well over 170 books to his name across multiple series.

But it’s the Culinary Capers series that really captured readers’ hearts. Albert Smith is a retired detective who, after losing his wife, decides to travel Britain learning to cook the regional dishes each area is famous for. His companion is Rex, a former police dog who was kicked off the force for being too headstrong. Together they tour the country, discover new recipes — and, inevitably, stumble into murder. Each book even includes the history of the featured dish and a recipe you can make at home.

What I particularly love is that Rex narrates parts of the story directly to the reader. His running commentary — battling alley cats, refusing baths, enlisting the help of seals — is genuinely funny and surprisingly touching. Steve has said that Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books were a major influence, and you can feel that same blend of action, humour and heart running through everything he writes.

After years of enormous success as a self-published author — we’re talking millions of copies sold — Steve has recently signed with Vinci Books, which means his Albert and Rex novels are now appearing on the shelves at Waterstones and other high street bookshops for the first time. If you’ve been meaning to try this series, the timing couldn’t be better. Start with Pork Pie Pandemonium and prepare to be thoroughly charmed.

As a writer who also puts a dog right at the centre of her stories, I have enormous respect for how Steve handles Rex. He’s not just a cute accessory — the bond between Albert and Rex is the emotional engine of the whole series. It’s that loyalty, that unshakeable companionship, that makes these books so comforting to read. Anyone who has ever loved a dog will understand.

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BOOK OF THE WEEK

The Antique Store Detective and the Riverside Murders

by Clare Chase — A Bella Winter Mystery, Book 4

Clare Chase is one of those authors who makes you feel as though you’ve stepped right into the story. Her Bella Winter series — about an antique store owner in the fictional village of Hope Eaton who has a knack for stumbling into mysteries — is cosy crime at its most charming, and this fourth instalment is her best yet.

Bella is asked to sell a beautiful marble statue of a mother and child — a family heirloom belonging to Margie Fleming. But the day before the sale, Margie is found drowned in the river, exactly as her sister Bethan died a year earlier. Everyone assumes it’s a tragic accident. Bella isn’t so sure. When they move the statue, there’s a bloodstain beneath it. Someone has been hiding a terrible crime, and Bella is determined to find out who — and why.

What I love about Clare’s writing is how vividly she draws her settings and characters. Hope Eaton feels like a real place you could visit — with its antique shops, riverside walks and village gossip — and Bella is the kind of sleuth you’d genuinely want as a friend: warm, curious and quietly determined. The plot is full of clever twists and red herrings, and reviewers have been calling it her most intricately plotted mystery to date. If you enjoy a cosy whodunit with an atmospheric English village setting, this is absolutely one to pick up. Available now on Kindle, in paperback and on Audible.

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THOUGHTS FROM THE WRITING DESK

Why Every Good Sleuth Needs a Dog

Writing about Steve Higgs this week got me thinking about something I feel quite strongly about: the role of dogs in cosy crime fiction. It’s no accident that so many of us put a dog at the heart of our stories. When I created Sprite — Paige Harper’s loyal, opinionated little Norfolk Terrier in The Paige Harper Mysteries — I knew from the very beginning that she would be more than just a pet in the background. She had to matter.

Dogs do something very particular in a mystery story. They ground the sleuth. When your amateur detective is poking around in dark corners and asking questions that make people uncomfortable, the dog is there reminding us — and the character — of ordinary life. Of walks and mealtimes and the simple comfort of a warm body curled up at your feet. They’re the anchor that keeps the story cosy, even when the plot is anything but.

But they also do something cleverer than that. A dog notices things. Sprite has a way of reacting to people that tells Paige — and the reader — more than any amount of dialogue could. A low growl at a seemingly friendly neighbour. An enthusiastic tail wag for the person everyone else suspects. Dogs are honest in a way that human characters can’t always be, and in a genre built on deception, that honesty is gold.

Steve Higgs clearly understands this. Rex isn’t just along for the ride — he’s Albert’s partner, his protector, and often the one who cracks the case wide open (usually by doing something magnificently disobedient). And the fact that Steve lets Rex speak directly to the reader takes that bond to another level entirely.

So here’s to the dogs of cosy crime. The terriers and the spaniels and the former police dogs with attitude problems. Long may they sniff out clues, steal sausages, and refuse to come when called.

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ALSO ON MY RADAR

Three More April Releases Worth a Look

How to Cheat Your Own Death by Kristen Perrin — Annie Adams heads to London to visit her mother, only to find a young artist dead in circumstances that eerily mirror a case from the 1960s described in her Great Aunt Frances’s journals. When threatening notes start arriving, it becomes clear that history is repeating itself in the most dangerous way.

The Primrose Murder Society by Stacy Hackney — Set in a residential hotel in Virginia for the over-55s, where the cocktail hour starts at ten in the morning and the residents’ favourite pastime is gossip. When a young woman and her daughter move in, old secrets start surfacing. Warm, witty and full of characters who refuse to act their age.

A Death in the Dark by Ellie Alexander — The second in the Novel Detectives series, where a bookshop owner doubles as an amateur sleuth. This time there’s a death at the local high school, and a kindly coach with no memory of the night in question. Bookish, clever and properly cosy.

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Thank you so much for reading this week. If you’ve tried any of the books I’ve recommended, or if you have a favourite cosy crime dog you think I should know about, I’d love to hear from you. And if you’re new here and haven’t yet met Paige Harper and Sprite, you can find all five books in The Paige Harper Mysteries on my website.

Until next week — happy reading, everyone.

Let the adventures continue

Christine x

www.christinetipper.com

© 2026 Christine Tipper. All rights reserved.

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