Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Secrets at St Bride’s | 2019 | Debbie Young | N/A |
| 2 | Dastardly Deeds at St Bride’s | 2022 | Debbie Young | Buy |
| 3 | Sinister Stranger at St Bride’s | 2022 | Debbie Young | Buy |
| 4 | Wicked Whispers at St Bride’s | 2022 | Debbie Young | Buy |
| 5 | Artful Antics at St Bride’s | 2023 | Debbie Young | Buy |
The Gemma Lamb Cozy Mystery series is set at St Bride’s, a fictional girls’ boarding school in the Cotswolds, and follows Gemma Lamb, the school’s bursar, as she navigates the politics of school life while occasionally investigating suspicious events. The first book, Secrets at St Bride’s (2019), establishes the setting and cast of recurring characters including staff, pupils, and the broader school community.
The series has a dual identity: it is simultaneously a cozy mystery and a school story, drawing on both traditions. The St Bride’s setting allows Young to play with the familiar conventions of English boarding school fiction while adding the crime plot that defines the cozy mystery genre. The humor is gentle and the mysteries are not dark or violent.
Four more books followed between 2022 and 2023, with the series gaining confidence and consistency as it continued. Artful Antics at St Bride’s (2023) is the most recent entry. Note that the series has some overlap with the Staffroom at St Bride’s listing, which covers two early books from the same school setting under a different series designation.