Murder by Candlelight by Faith Martin

The Val & Arbie Mysteries #1

336 pages

Publisher: HQ

Publishing date: January 4, 2024

Release Date Paperback: September 26, 2024

Netgalley

 

Blurb

As the sun rises over the Cotswolds village of Maybury-in-the-Marsh, at the Old Forge a cry of anguish goes up. Lady of the house Amy Phelps has been found dead – but with all the windows and doors to her room locked, how – and by who – was she killed?

Arbuthnot ‘Arbie’ Swift finds himself in the unlikely position of investigating. The author of The Gentleman’s Guide to Good Ghost Hunting – an excuse for Arbie to indulge his love of travel funded by the owners of country houses who hear the supernatural in every creak and echo – might be more used to dealing with the long dead, but as he’s currently staying at the Old Forge to investigate a suspected spectre, Amy’s murder falls to him too.

With old friend Val, he begins to dig into the old lady’s death, and soon uncovers a sorry tale of altered wills, secret love affairs and tragic losses. But when a second victim is killed, Arbie has to find the killer fast – and to do so will mean cracking the most ingeniously plotted murder…

Review

What an utterly delightful and clever mystery we have here. Allow me to set the scene.

The year is 1924 and we find ourselves in Maybury-in-the-Marsh in the middle of the Cotswolds. Mr. Arbuthnot (Arbi) Lancelot Swift is a young man of independent means who has been raised by his eccentric uncle and has recently acquired a minor form of celebrity after writing and publishing a book titled A Gentleman’s Guide to Ghost-Hunting. As far as Arbi is concerned, the book and its subject are mostly a joke, but he isn’t overly surprised when he’s approached by Miss Amy Phelps, a local spinster who asks him to inspect the Old Forge, her manor house. She has been plagued by mysterious noises and occurrences lately and wants to get to the bottom of what is going on.

Arbi, is less than enthusiastic about the prospect since he had other, far more relaxing plans for his days and nights.

‘Whilst it behoved one to help out one’s neighbours when called upon, of course, it was not something a chap actively encouraged.’

He is about to worm his way out of this invitation but finds his escape route blocked by Valentina Olivia Charlotte Coulton-James, the vicar’s daughter who is also a lifelong acquaintance of Arbi’s. Unsurprisingly, her curiosity is piqued as soon as she hears the words ‘ghostly goings on’ and next thing Arbi knows, she’s accepted an invitation to tea at the Old Forge for both of them.

At the Old Forge, Arbi and Valentina meet the other inhabitants of the big house. There is Jane Brockhurst, Miss Phelps’ housekeeper of about 30 years, Mrs. Cora Delaney, Miss Phelps friend, Reggie Bickersworth, another houseguest, Phyllis Thomas, Miss Phelp’s niece and Murray Phelps, her nephew.

While Arbi and Valentina’s initial night-time investigation reveals nothing, a later over-night vigil at the Old Forge ends with Miss Phelps found murdered in her bed. The question of who might have killed her is overshadowed by the mystery as to how it was done since her bedroom was locked…from the inside. Unable to resist temptation, Arbi and Valentina decide to investigate what happened while trying not to get in the way of, or send away by Inspector Bernard Gorringe.

I would love to get into the ins and outs of Arbi and Valentina’s journey to the solution. It’s filled with clues, red herrings, wonderful dialogue, and delicious sniping between our two amateur investigators. But no matter how much fun it would be to share those wonders with you, it would also thoroughly spoil the story, so I’ll reign myself in and stop my summary here.

What I can say is that Murder by Candelight is delightful book. From the very start of this story, I recognised how closely it matches mysteries written during the Golden Age of Mystery by authors such as Agatha Christie. The manor house setting combined with the locked room closed circle set-up took me right back to that era of amazing whodunnits. I smiled widely when Arbie says something similar while referring to ‘that Belgian chap with spats. You know, the one in the books. With his grey cells’. Having said that, Albie and Valentina reminded me of Tommy and Tuppence more than Hercule Poirot.

I do hope that Arbi and Valentina will follow in Tommy and Tuppence’s footsteps and involve themselves in further mysteries. They are wonderful together. I loved the way they snipe at each other, how much they exasperate each other, and how it is obvious to all except the persons in question that their feelings go much deeper than they are willing to acknowledge.

Apart from being an amazing and well-plotted mystery, Murder by Candlelight is also very well written, filled with fascinating characters and sparkling dialogue, and a very smooth and hard-to-put-down story. I liked that the point of view changed between players in this story, allowing me to get a better idea of who the participants were and of their motivations, although I can’t say it also helped me figure out the solution before it was presented.

Long review short: Murder by Candlelight is a delightful traditional locked room mystery. The (main) characters are fascinating, the police inspector not as foolish as we sometimes see, and the clues and red herrings kept me on my toes. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Golden-Age-of-Mystery-style books.