Pre-order

The Pie & Mash Detective Agency

Name: The Pie & Mash Detective Agency
Brand: Penguin Random House NZ
SKU: 9781804954348
Price: 28.0 NZD
Availability: InStock

By J.D. Brinkworth

Series: The Pie & Mash Mysteries

0.0 (0 reviews)

Brief Description

Who is Nellie Thorne and why does she keep disappearing? Amateur sleuths Jane Pye and Simon Mash are on the case in this cosy crime mystery novel. The Pie & Mash Detective Agency is perfect for fans of Janice Hallett and Robert Thorogood! "Fans of Richard... Read More

Format: Paperback / softback

$28⁰⁰

Pre-order

Releases 1^st December 2026 (Approx. Date) Pre-order "The Pie & Mash Detective Agency" now to secure your copy from our first shipment

Found a better price? Request a price match

The Pie & Mash Detective Agency

$28⁰⁰

NON-FICTION 16 Oct 2026

An Evening with Ryan Holiday: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Life

I was lucky enough to see Ryan Holiday speak in Auckland on Tuesday night. I've...

AUTHOR SIGNING 16 Oct 2026

Emma Galloway visits Book Hero

We we delighted to have chef and author, Emma Galloway, visit Hero HQ to promote...

ADAPTATION 15 Oct 2026

The Play to Screen Report - 15/10/2026

Sacha has rounded up all the latest news from the world of toys, games, movies...

HOME AND GARDEN 15 Oct 2026

Marnie shares her tips for Spring!

Marnie is our garden expert and Lizzy kills every plant she brings home. We're getting...

AMELIA'S CORNER 15 Oct 2026

My Favourite Thing About Bookish Puzzles

There's something special about seeing your favourite fictional worlds brought to life through beautiful artwork....

Description

Who is Nellie Thorne and why does she keep disappearing? Amateur sleuths Jane Pye and Simon Mash are on the case in this cosy crime mystery novel.

The Pie & Mash Detective Agency is perfect for fans of Janice Hallett and Robert Thorogood!

"Fans of Richard Osman will love it!" – Jonathan Ross

"Like the dish in the title, I devoured it in one sitting" – Sue Perkins

Local schoolteacher Dev Hooper arrives home from work to find his girlfriend, Nellie Thorne, has vanished. But she's not the first Nellie Thorne to disappear. In fact, she's the fifth in fifty years.

Enter Jane Pye and Simon Mash: a millennial couple who signed up for a private detective night class on a whim. When they're assigned Dev's case for their coursework, they quickly realise they've bitten off more than they can chew.

Armed with just six weeks of notes, matching trench coats, and questionable detective skills, they set out to solve a case that has baffled Kent's police for decades.

What links the missing Nellies? And why does everyone keep talking about ghosts!?

Is it an open and shut case? Not on your Nellie...

"A blissfully cozy mystery packed with funny moments and delightful little pleasures on each page" – Kelly Mullen, author of This is Not a Game

"A really funny read, with two very endearing detectives" – Faith Martin, bestselling author of the DI Hillary Greene series and the Ryder and Loveday mystery novels

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781804954348

Publisher: Cornerstone

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 27 August 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin (Cornerstone)

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 24.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 256g

Pages: 368

Collections

Comedic Crime Coming Soon in Fiction Cosy Crime Crime & Thriller Fiction General Fiction J.D. Brinkworth Penguin Books Pre-order Books Pre-Order Crime & Thriller Pre-orders Pre-orders by Release Date Series: The Pie & Mash Mysteries

About the Author

J. D. Brinkworth is the alias of married writing duo Jo Dinkin and Catherine Brinkworth - creators of The Pie & Mash Mysteries. Catherine writes for BBC favourites including The News Quiz and Have I Got News For You. Jo writes an upsetting number of emails every day. Their short stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and received recognition from the Margery Allingham Society and the Crime Writers' Association. They live in South West London and recently qualified as private detectives from a suspiciously cheap online course.

More from Crime & Thriller

View all

New Release

King’s Ransom

Five innocent hostages. Five private investigators. A fiendish ransom game. Has Detective Sam Speedman met his match? A fast and deadly Matthew Reilly thriller. A DARING ABDUCTION The richest man in the world has been kidnapped. Along with four of his children. THE DEADLY CHALLENGE The kidnapper's demand: the five best private detectives in America must come to the missing...

By Matthew Reilly

Paperback

$29⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$34⁹⁹~~

In Stock
Ships tomorrow
New Release

The French Illusion

Bestselling author John Grisham delivers a new gripping, suspenseful page-turner about aParis honeymoon gone horribly wrong - and the nightmare that follows. After Paul and Chelsea Tanner's fairytale wedding, their future is full of promise. But their honeymoon to Paris takes a dark, shocking turn when they are kidnapped while on a day trip to the French countryside. Who would...

By John Grisham

Paperback

$31⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$37⁹⁹~~

In Stock
Ships tomorrow
New Release

King’s Ransom

Five innocent hostages. Five private investigators. A fiendish ransom game. Has Detective Sam Speedman met his match? A fast and deadly Matthew Reilly thriller. A DARING ABDUCTION The richest man in the world has been kidnapped. Along with four of his children. THE DEADLY CHALLENGE The kidnapper's demand: the five best private detectives in America must come to the missing...

By Matthew Reilly

Hardback

$44⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$49⁹⁹~~

(1)

In Stock
Ships tomorrow
New Release

The Heights

In The Heights by #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sir Ian Rankin, murder comes to London's most exclusive high-rise - and every resident is a suspect... MURDER COMES TO LONDON'S MOST LUXURIOUS HIGH-RISE: AND EVERY RESIDENT IS A SUSPECT. The Heights: a gleaming, high-end high-rise looming over Hyde Park. Newly built from steel and smoked glass, it is a billionaire's playground offering sumptuous suites...

By Ian Rankin

Paperback

$31⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$37⁹⁹~~

In Stock
Ships tomorrow
New Release

Death Row

With all hope of an appeal fading away, the fate of a condemned murderess takes a shocking turn in a breathtaking short story from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Housemaid! A thrilling novella from #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden! Death is coming for her… unless she finds the truth first. Talia Kemper is on death row for murdering...

By Freida McFadden

Paperback

$22⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$24⁰⁰~~

In Stock
Ships tomorrow
Signed Copy
New Release

Dying Days

Award-winning writer delivers a pulse-pounding espionage thriller. Missing soldiers, MI6 secrets and European partisans collide in a deadly game where the lines between lies and reality are fast disintegrating. In the dying days of the Second World War, a new conflict is about to ignite. May, 1945: After fighting to liberate Europe from the Nazis, Tito's Yugoslav Army and Allied...

By Anthony Byrt

Paperback

$31⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$36⁹⁹~~

(1)

In Stock
Ships tomorrow
New Release

Fury In Death: An Eve Dallas thriller (In Death 63)

In the new crime thriller from the bestselling author, Lt. Eve Dallas journeys into the darkness where murder is born… NYSPD homicide detective Eve Dallas has seen a lot in her time but even she is shocked by the savagery of a beating which leaves a wealthy biotech executive dead in his home office. The victim’s corpse is so mangled...

By J. D. Robb

Paperback

$31⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$37⁹⁹~~

(1)

In Stock
Ships tomorrow
New Release

Tom Clancy Pressure Depth

Jack Ryan Jr leads a team of divers in a race to beat the Chinese Navy to a weapon of terrible destructive power in the latest entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series. Jack Ryan Jr. is on Guam to work on a project for Hendley Associates. It's a perfectly ordinary insurance matter, but trouble finds the Ryans...

By Jack Stewart

Paperback

$31⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$37⁹⁹~~

In Stock
Ships tomorrow
New Release

The Country Road Murders

From the Sunday Times bestselling author comes a pulse-pounding thriller about justice, vengeance and the roads that lead us home. No one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent - which is what Jim has, in spades — LEE CHILD Cross Rivers is the kind of small town where everyone knows your name – and your secrets. Silas Tucker...

By James Patterson

Paperback

$30⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$38⁰⁰~~

In Stock
Ships tomorrow
New Release

Every Lake

Scary stories are fun... until your life becomes one. When Alice was fifteen, her father killed Mia Heywood in their lakefront cottage before vanishing into the trees. At least that's what the locals think happened. Over a decade later, Alice has lost her job as a journalist, she's going through an expensive divorce and she desperately needs to sell the...

By Adam Perry

Paperback

$32⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$37⁹⁹~~

(2)

In Stock
Ships tomorrow
New Release

Nautilus

The follow-up to the bestselling novel The Turing Protocol. Nautilus is a machine with the astonishing power to send messages eight weeks back in time. Its users must follow a set of protocols established by its inventor, Alan Turing, including that it can only be used by a descendant of his family, and only to avert global disasters. But what...

By Nick Croydon

Paperback

$29⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$36⁹⁹~~

In Stock
Ships tomorrow
New Release

Cold River

The sensational new novel from the author of the bestselling thriller, The Creeper, winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction 2025. Deep in the mountains, secrets grow deadly... Detective Constable Sally White knows how easily hikers can go missing in Victoria's high country. But there's something about the disappearance of Louis Taylor, a young man lost up...

By Margaret Hickey

Paperback

$30⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$38⁰⁰~~

(1)

In Stock
Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.