A Midwinter Murder by Verity Bright

Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery #20

352 pages

Publisher: Bookouture

Release Date: December 4, 2024

 

Blurb

Homemade baubles, reindeer-shaped cookies and snowy walks across the rolling moors… but Lady Swift’s festive plans are ruined when a body turns up!

Winter 1924. When Lady Eleanor Swift unexpectedly finds herself a guest of the reclusive Duke of Auldwyke, she’s determined to enjoy Christmas with all the trimmings at his sprawling manor house. And that includes kisses under the mistletoe and cozying up by the fire with her fiancé, dashing detective Hugh Seldon.

Instead, the season of goodwill turns frosty as she finds the Duke’s studious secretary, Mr Porritt, dead in the storeroom. Clasped in his chilly hand is a golden pendant in the shape of a rose. The Duke denies ever having seen the necklace before. But Eleanor can see the lies in his eyes… Did it belong to his mysteriously absent wife?

Hugh and Eleanor must ditch relaxing with hot cocoa in favour of interviewing the Duke’s holiday guests. Every suspect has a secret they’d kill to keep: the socialite with the false name, the Sir with a questionable inheritance and the husband hiding a crack in his marriage.

As the blizzard outside rages, Auldwyke Hall becomes cut off. Trapped by the snow, Eleanor and Hugh must skate around the increasingly secretive Duke to unwrap the identity of the killer. But does the answer to the secretary’s murder lie with a ghost of Christmas past? And when an attempt is made on the Duke’s life too, they realise the killer is closer than they think…

 

Review

May I present a delightful new instalment in the Lady Eleanor Swift series.

Despite her attempts to refuse the invitation, Lady Eleanor finds herself, accompanied by her full staff, dog, and cat, travelling to Auldwyke Hall to celebrate Christmas with a Duke she has never met and several other guests she’s never seen before either. Eleanor’s fiancé, Chief Inspector Hugh Seldon, will be joining them a day later. But what Eleanor had hoped would be a romantic and festive seasonal celebration turns dark within minutes after her arrival at the Hall when she discovers the body of the Duke’s secretary who has obviously been strangled.

What follows is an investigation conducted by Eleanor and Hugh with the help of a local constable during which it soon becomes clear that most of the guests have something to hide. At the same time, Eleanor and Hugh try to find time for romantic encounters as well and Eleanor’s staff try to create the perfect Christmas atmosphere in the gamekeeper’s cottage. As tends to be the case in the Lady Eleanor Swift mysteries, it’s all a bit mad-cap but very entertaining and a captivating read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book even if there were few clues on the page to help the reader identify the culprit. The story was a wonderful contrast between the mysterious and gloomy atmosphere in Auldwycke Hall and the wonderful Christmas mood created in the gamekeeper’s cottage by Eleanor’s loyal staff. And, as to be expected from a Christmas mystery, the ending is as merry and happy as can be.

Liar’s Island by T. Orr Munro

CSI Ally Dymond #3

400 pages

Publisher: HQ

Release Date: November 21, 2024

 

Blurb

When the body of Kieran Deveney is found on Liars Island, it sends shockwaves through the tiny, close-knit population. The rugged coastline has a history of smuggling and shipwreck, but there has never been a murder – until now.

With the hunt for the killer underway, two locals confess to the crime. Each claims they acted alone, and neither can be convicted while the other stands by their story. Which of them is telling the truth?

CSI Ally Dymond arrives to uncover the evidence that could crack the case. What she finds is a community awash with secrets. As a storm closes in, and with the identity of the murderer still in doubt, no one can leave the island. But it’s not the treacherous weather that Ally fears, it’s the people she’s trapped with…

 

Review

Kieran Deveney is the co-owner of a sports centre on Liar’s Island. His father is on the board of trustees for the island and more or less determines what happens there. When Kieran’s body is discovered on the island the question is who killed him. The island only has a tiny population and when two of them individually confess to having murdered Kieran singlehandedly, the police are facing a stand-off as far as their investigation is concerned.

CSI Ally Dymond and a junior colleague are sent to Liar’s Island to uncover evidence that will prove or disprove either of the confessions. Before they can return to the mainland with what little potential evidence they have found, a storm descends on the island, and they find themselves stranded in close proximity to a murderer.

The story is told in the first person from Ally Dymond’s perspective. However, interspersed throughout the story are CSI reports for each of the island’s inhabitants as well as passages printed in cursive that describe relevant details about those inhabitants’ pasts. I’m not sure how I felt about those cursive parts. On the one hand, they allowed the reader to join the dots and be part of the solving of the puzzle. On the other hand, those sections weren’t the result of the on-the-page investigation so it created the weird situation where the reader knows more than Ally Dymond did. One thing they made perfectly clear though, is that everybody on the island had a motive for killing Kieran.

Liar’s Island is an atmospheric story with the placenames creating the atmosphere. For example, Kieran Deveney is found in a bay known as Devil’s Cauldron on Liar’s Island. This is also a rather slow-moving story and a relatively large section of it deals with Ally Dymond’s private life. This book is very well written and easy to read but it also felt a bit flat. Despite the atmosphere, the location, the murders, and the storm there wasn’t any real tension or urgency in the story.

This is the third book in the Ally Dymond series by this author. I didn’t read the previous two books, and I don’t think it is necessary to have done so in order to enjoy this title. Having said that, if you think this series sounds like something you might enjoy, I advise you to start with book one (Breakneck Point). I may be wrong, but I think Liar’s Island contains at least one spoiler for the previous stories.

Overall I enjoyed Liar’s Island and I’d call it a well-plotted and easy-to-read mystery that for me personally could have done with a little more tension and a little less personal backstory.

October Reads

October was a solid reading month. I didn't have any star reads and my lowest score was 3 stars. See below for my thoughts on the books I read. The first two come with links to longer reviews on this blog because I was lucky enough to get ARCs through Netgalley.

What was your October like? Did you read any books you'd like to recommend? Please share in the comment section because I'm always on the lookout for new gems.

MISS BEETON’S MURDER AGENCY (Miss Beeton #1) by Josie Lloyd (4-*)

A fast-paced, thrilling mystery, and captivating crime-caper with a few too many wtf moments for me to rate if five stars. If you like your cosy mystery with a large dose of mayhem, a host of larger-than-life characters, a cute little doggo, as well as plenty of action, and you don’t mind suspending disbelief once or twice, you’re going to love Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency.

Longer review: https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2024/10/miss-beetons-murder-agency-by-josie.html

 

EVERONE THIS CHRISTMAS HAS A SECRET (Ernest Cunningham #3) by Benjamin Stevenson (4.5*)

I found this book all but impossible to put down. Ernest’s chatty narration pulled me along and had my swiping through the pages as fast as I could. The cast of characters was fascinating and the possible motifs for murder kept me guessing until Ernest reveals all in the rather spectacular denouement. Did I pick up on all the clues? No! Did I figure out whodunit? Also, no! But did I thoroughly enjoy myself while reading this book? Absolutely!

If you’re looking for a captivating, well-plotted and faultlessly executed mystery this Christmas, you are probably looking for Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret.

Longer review: https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2024/10/everyone-this-christmas-has-secret-by.html

 

ONE OF US IS DEAD (Roy Grace #21) by Peter James (3*)

Rufus Rorke was supposed to have died two years ago but is recognised, alive and well by a man he used to be friends with. At the same time the police, led by Detective Superintendent Roy Grace are investigating a number of suspicious deaths. It isn’t long before the police's attention is focussed on Rufus. But how do you catch a man who has successfully lived undercover for years?

This is a well-written story with a fascinating plot. I was disappointed that it wasn’t a real mystery or thriller, though. This is not a whodunnit but a ‘how-do-we-catch-him’ sorta story and I kept on waiting for a twist in the tale that never happened.

 

MY BROTHER’S HUSBAND (My Brother’s Husband #1) by Gengoroh Tagame (4*)

I’m copying the original blurb here since I can’t put it better myself:

Yaichi is a work-at-home suburban dad in contemporary Tokyo; formerly married to Natsuki, father to their young daughter, Kana. Their lives suddenly change with the arrival at their doorstep of a hulking, affable Canadian named Mike Flanagan, who declares himself the widower of Yaichi's estranged gay twin, Ryoji. Mike is on a quest to explore Ryoji's past, and the family reluctantly but dutifully takes him in. What follows is an unprecedented and heartbreaking look at the state of a largely still-closeted Japanese gay culture: how it's been affected by the West, and how the next generation can change the preconceptions about it and prejudices against it.

I’m not sure how much I like reading Mangas but even turning the pages from back to front didn’t diminish how much I enjoyed this touching story.

 

AUTUMN CHILLS by Agatha Christie (4.5*)

A collection of 12 short stories featuring Hercule Poirot (4 stories), Miss Marple (2 stories), Harley Quin (2 stories), Parker Pyne (1 story), Tommy & Tuppence (1 story). Two of the stories were stand-alone and one of them (While the Light Lasts) wasn’t actually a mystery. While I enjoyed some stories more than others, all of them were a delight to read.

 

YOU ARE HERE by David Nicholls (4+)

Michael and Marnie have both retreated from the world after their marriages failed. Now they both find themselves on a coast to coast walk and with every passing kilometre they find themselves coming out of their self-imposed shells and getting closer to each other. A well-written and intriguing read about second chances taking them.

 

DEATH OF A BOOKSELLER by Alice Slater (3.5*)

A story about obsession that makes for an obsessive read despite the fact that I’m not sure how much I actually liked the main characters or the story itself. The book makes the reader wonder about the popularity of true crime books, podcasts, and television shows. How healthy is that fascination and how does that public interest affect those who have to live with the consequences of murder? The book’s ending was a bit too ambiguous for my liking too. Just as the title is a little misleading.