Tag: historical fiction

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Blog Tour: The Cursed Writer – Holly Hepburn

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Harriet White is no stranger to odd correspondence. Ensconced in the basement of the Baker Street building society, her job is to reply to the mail they receive on behalf of Sherlock Holmes.
But while letters to the fictional sleuth may be plentiful, telegrams are rare, and so when she receives one describing the grave situation of celebrated author Philip St John, her interest is piqued. The writer describes St John as being consumed by terror, seeing ghostly apparitions on the fens, and only at ease in the company of his loyal wolfhound.

Before long, Harry finds herself in Cambridgeshire under the guise of being Holmes’ assistant. The residents of Thurmwell Manor believe their master is cursed. Harry is sure there must be a logical explanation, but inside the echoey halls of the grand gothic house, her confidence in science and reason begin to crumble…

Can Harry solve the mystery before the fens claim their next victim?

Join Harriet White in 1930’s London for another glorious Sherlock Holmes-inspired mystery, for fans of Nita Prose and Janice Hallett.

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Holly Hepburn writes escapist, swoonsome fiction that sweeps her readers into idyllic locations, from her native Cornwall to the windswept beauty of Orkney. She has turned her hand to cosy crime inspired by Sherlock Holmes himself. Holly lives in leafy Hertfordshire with her adorable partner in crime, Luna the Labrador.

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My thoughts: This series is so much fun, and this story, inspired by The Hound of the Baskervilles, is another excellent edition. I think Harry makes a fantastic sleuth, and Oliver a great Watson. The pair of them head off to the Cambridgeshire Fens under the guise of assisting a very old Sherlock (if he was a detective in the Victorian period, still going in the 1930s, he’d be quite an old man) who has retired to Sussex to keep bees (per Conan Doyle).

I know that people do still write to Holmes, the museum in Baker Street has them on display in his office, but I don’t know that anyone there carries out investigations, I imagine they pass anything of real concern onto the police. But Harry is willing to help where perhaps the police and in this case, doctors, cannot.

The author Philip St John lives in a manor house out in the Fens with a few staff and his nephew, who is the one who writes to Holmes. His uncle appears to be haunted by some strange apparition and is terribly ill. His huge dog is his only comfort. Harry knows there’s a logical explanation and is willing to brave unknown dangers to get to the bottom of it. And go to the library to do some research too.

She might not have Holmes’ legendary powers of deduction but she’s smart and resourceful and nothing, not even her creep of a former boss, can get in her way. 

Lots of fun, a clever conundrum and a very real solution to a strange problem. Really enjoyable and I can’t wait for more!

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Book Review: The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond – Louise Davidson

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Now in paperback, just in time for Halloween, I’m re-posting my review of this book from last year.

Original and engrossing, The Fortunes of Olivia Richmondis a gothic period drama set in late 19th century Norfolk thatcentres around the “Mistcoate Witch” – the teenage mistress of Mistcoate House who is rumoured to speak with the dead. When young governess Miss Julia Pearlie takes a job as companion to the aristocratic Olivia Richmond, with strict instructions to put an end to such “teenage nonsense,” Miss Pearlie is soon inducted into the chilling world of tarot, fortune telling and the “other side.” As the winter chill wraps around the dark woods surrounding Mistcoate, and the behaviour or Olivia becomes more and more terrifying, Julia must uncover the truth and save herself – before it’s too late.

 The perfect read for a dark autumn night, with chapter headings and illustrations that correspond to specific Tarot Cards, from “The Hanged Man” to “The Stuck Tower,” this atmospheric gothic page turner deftly explores Victorian attitudes to the supernatural alongside the lot of women living and working in Victorian England. 

 For fans of Stacey Halls and Michelle Paver.

Born in 1988, Louise Davidson grew up in Belfast during the troubles with a Catholic mother and a Protestant father. The Catholic side of her family lived on Mountcollyer Street – the street featured in Kenneth Branagh’s Oscar winning film Belfast, that was badly affected by violent protests.

 Louise’s earliest memory is of her parents deciding whether they should drive past a car that was on fire in the streets of Belfast. It was only when she left Belfast to study Creative Writing at University in the UK that Louise realised it was not normal to live in a permanent state of fear and anxiety. She says the sense of dread she has had from a young age drew her to Gothic fiction and is something she has tried to channel into The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond.

 Louise was introduced to the idea of tarot, mediums and fortune telling from a young age as her Aunt Pat is an intuitive, with the ability to receive messages from the dead and to predict dreams. Louise grew up watching her aunt predict dreams and pass messages from the dead to bereaved families and this helped her to create the character of Olivia Richmond.

 After a career working in theatre production with theatres including Tinder Box and Ransome Theatre in Northern Ireland and Intemission,RSC and the Lyric Hammersmith in London. Louise now teaches English and drama to A-Level students and lives in West London with her husband and  stepson. The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond is her first novel.

My thoughts: Set in a suitably Gothic and somewhat sinister house, buried in the woods, this is a perfect Halloween read. Unreliable narrators, characters with buckets of secrets, ghosts, a violent figure hiding in the forest, suspicious locals, and a young woman who says she can see spirits, and reads the tarot to some of the townspeople, causing friction.

Julia must make her own way in the world, having inherited nothing useful from her mother, and with a brother who doesn’t want to help. So she was working as a governess, but after a terrible incident at her last post she’s floundering.

Hired as a companion to doctor’s daughter Olivia Richmond, at Mistcoate in Norfolk, she’s fully aware this is her last chance to get a good reference and earn some money. Her employer wants her to prepare his troubled daughter for the Season in London, where he hopes to find her a husband.

But things are not right at Mistcoate, Olivia is known locally as a witch, claiming to see the dead and be able to divine the future. She’s been looked after by the housekeeper since her mother died when she was very young. But the housekeeper, Mrs Hayes, isn’t all she seems, and is bitterly jealous of Julia’s relationship with Olivia.

As events unfold and take a dark turn, Julia becomes afraid of the household, apart from old Captain Reynolds and the maid of all work Marian. She also becomes close to the local vicar Ed and his sister Alice. These friendships keep her sane as things get stranger and more volatile. Her employer, Dr Reynolds, insists on holding “examinations” of his daughter, assisted only by the housekeeper, and threatens Julia with the sack.

The book amps up the tension and you really feel for Julia, although she also has secrets and the ghosts seem to cling to her, symbols of her guilt, perhaps.

The ending is ambiguous, will Olivia be alright in her new life in London and will Julia and Ed make a go of it? Have they truly escaped the ghosts and demons of their pasts?

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Blog Tour: A Lady’s Lesson in Scandal – Darcy McGuire

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Wallflower at risk of ruin…

Secret femme-fatale in training Millicent Whittenburg needs to escape her unpleasant betrothal.

Taking matters into her own hands, she plans her eventual ruin! Then she can disappear from society to carry out the Queen’s deadly missions. Step 1: seduce the one man who despises marriage more
than her!

However, she hugely underestimates her target. Major General Beaufort Drake. Fearsome private investigator, he’s notoriously cold and visibly battle scarred. But Millie’s scandalously public kiss
awakens a deeply suppressed desire in Drake. Instead of allowing them both to succumb to shame he does the unthinkable, and offers for her hand in a convenient marriage.

Nothing prepares them for the fireworks when a fearless damsel collides with a dangerous Major General! And as their secret missions align they face their hardest test on the glittering battlefield – a
week long wedding house party where there is nowhere to escape…only new and wicked lessons to be learnt!

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Darcy McGuire is a high school counsellor who grew up in the wilds of New Zealand but happily settled in the Pacific Northwest. In between dodging territorial geese, gathering duck eggs, taking the
dog for long walks, Darcy loves writing about fierce female protagonists who may dodge daggers and bullets but never seem to escape Cupid’s Arrow.

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My thoughts: I really like this series, we’re only on book two but it’s just a lot of fun. Queen Victoria’s lady agents have to basically avoid being trapped in a marriage to some miserable sod, as they’ll have to give up their role and play domestic angel instead.

Millie’s ghastly stepmother wants to marry her off to a fossil so Millie decides to go for disgrace and being packed off away from society in order to carry on her vital work as a spy. Only she’s picked the one man who won’t back down.

Major General Beaufort Drake is an agent for the Prime Minister – and they’re investigating the same case from different angles. Can they fall in love, stop bickering and stop the trade in young women?

So much fun, a bit saucy, quite romantic (they face off against the horrible stepmother, his wet blanket of a brother and miserable sister-in-law together) and just very enjoyable. Highly recommend.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: The Witch’s Daughter – Imogen Edwards-Jones

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A city burning. A revolution raging. A woman on the run.

Nadezhda has never wanted to be a witch. But the occult is in her blood. Her mother, Militza, conjured Rasputin and introduced him into the Romanov court, releasing the devil himself. 

Now he is dead, but Militza still dreams of him – stalking her sleep and haunting her waking hours. As Petrograd burns and the Russian Empire crumbles, Nadezhda escapes through the capital, concealing a book of generational magic. But as danger grows closer, she may be forced to embrace her heritage to save what she loves most…

Based on a true story, The Witch’s Daughter is an epic tale of women rising from the ashes of an empire, perfect for fans of Elodie Harper’s The Wolf Den and Madeline Miller’s Circe.

Imogen Edwards-Jones studied Russian at Bristol University. Her first book, The Taming of Eagles, was about the first 100 days of the collapse of communism. A writer and journalist, she has travelled extensively within the old Soviet Union, studying in Kyiv. She is the author of twenty books including the best-selling Babylon series. Married with two children, Imogen lives in London. She is also a member of the London College of Psychic Studies and an honorary Cossack. Her latest novel, The Witch’s Daughter, is the sequel to The Witches of St Petersburg.

My thoughts: I was really excited to read this book, I am a huge Russian history nerd and have been to St Petersburg some years ago, and even been to the palace that features in the opening of this book, where Rasputin was killed. It’s very creepy, our tour guide was a descendant of the Prince who organised the murder. And behind a door on the way out is a terrifying waxwork figure of the monk himself. I think she kept it there to traumatise visitors. It worked!

This is the sequel to The Witches of St Petersburg, but you can read it as a standalone if you haven’t read the first book (but I also recommend it). Opening with the dramatic death of the monk many blamed for the Romanovs’ downfall (he was poisoned, shot and drowned) is very dramatic, winter on the river Nev, beautiful and deadly.

It’s 1916, the First World War is consuming millions of young men from across Europe, including Russia, unrest is gathering as the serfs finally have enough of their aristocratic masters, the boyars and princes of the Russian Empire, there have been poor harvests, people are starving but the Imperial Family continue to throw parties and enjoy life.

As the wartime years gather pace, so do the Bolsheviks, including Vladimir Lenin, and the tide turns against the Romanov dynasty. It can be hard to feel sorry for them but when you read about the deaths, torture and imprisonment, including children, you do, all their wealth and privilege did not stop them being horrifically murdered (the deaths of the Tsar and Tsarina’s siblings, burnt alive in a mine shaft are particularly gruesome and cruel).

I have been to Peter and Paul Fortress where the Romanovs were interred after their bodies were recovered from Ekaterinberg, they lie under huge marble blocks in an austere and silent chapel, far more fitting than the holes they were thrown into by the furious soldiers.

The family members that survived, rescued from house arrest in Crimea, by the British navy, are the ones this story focuses on, the Dowager Empress never truly believing her son the Tsar, and his family had been murdered. Terrified and traumatised the extended remaining royals stayed in their summer homes, guarded by soldiers, surrounded by their enemies, the chef is something of a hero, valiantly scrounging up meals from potatoes and a few bits and pieces in the kitchen, providing a feast from almost nothing.

Militza and Stana are survivors, but the life their children are living is tough and frightening, Nadezhda loses her first love to war, and almost loses her second to the revolution. Struggling to survive in Yalta, she finally embraces the gifts of her mother’s line, the witchcraft she has long denied.

There is tragedy and heartbreak aplenty as the Russian Revolution takes grip, it’s something when the German army are seen as heroes, arriving to relieve the house arrest of the family and negotiate their eventual release.

This was a fascinating read, seeing the Revolution from a very different angle, not that of the Bolsheviks or the Soviets but from the perspective of the extended Romanov family, those that survived the horrific deaths of so many.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: The Booklover’s Library – Madeline Martin

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A heartwarming story about a mother and daughter in wartime England and the power of the books that bring them together, by the bestselling author of The Last Bookshop in London.

In Nottingham, England, widow Emma Taylor finds herself in desperate need of a job. She and her beloved daughter, Olivia, have always managed just fine on their own, but with the legal restrictions prohibiting widows with children from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots’ Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her with a job.

When the threat of war in England becomes a reality, Olivia must be evacuated to the countryside. In the wake of being separated from her daughter, Emma seeks solace in the unlikely friendships she forms with her neighbours and coworkers, and a renewed sense of purpose through the recommendations she provides to the library’s quirky regulars. But the job doesn’t come without its difficulties. Books are mysteriously misshelved and disappearing, and the work at the lending library forces her to confront the memories of her late father and the bookstore they once owned together before a terrible accident.

As the Blitz intensifies in Nottingham and Emma fights to reunite with her daughter, she must learn to depend on her community and the power of literature more than ever to find hope in the darkest of times

Madeline Martin is a New York Times and International Bestselling author of historical fiction and historical romance novels filled with twists and turns, adventure, steamy romance, empowered heroines and the men who are strong enough to love them.

My thoughts: I’m not really a fan of books set during WWII for various reasons, but I really enjoyed this one, particularly the look at the lives of ordinary women and the Boots’ Booklovers’ Library.

Set in Nottingham, where Boots is still headquartered, Emma joins the staff of Boots’ Booklovers’ Library, founded by Mrs Boots after her husband’s family business became more than just a local chemist. Subscribers paid a yearly fee and could take out a book at a time. It no longer exists but it fascinates me as a student of literary history. 

Emma finds friendship and solace in her role advising subscribers on their next reading choice, and even a little romance with a handsome fireman! It also helps her when her daughter is evacuated to the countryside as Nottingham comes under fire from German bombers.

The relationship between Emma and her beloved daughter, Olivia, is at the heart of the book, a widow, herself raised by her widowed father, Emma tries to be the best parent she can, but learns to accept help and support from her kind and generous hearted neighbours so she can work and care for Olivia.

There was some humour and joy amidst the bombs and fear, mostly in the form of Emma’s colleagues and their customers, who all have their own quirks. All of them united by a love of reading, finding an escape from the horror surrounding them.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: The Ravenswood Witch – Jenni Keer

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‘There are a lot of shadows at Ravenswood, so you will need to be strong…’

The year is 1885 and a young woman is on the run, knowing if she’s caught, she’ll be hanged for murder. Moments from a safe haven, she collides with a gruff stranger, falling and breaking her ankle.

To her surprise, the man – Marcus Greybourne – convinces the local constable that she is his reclusive wife of ten years, Luna. He carries her back to the neglected and crumbling Ravenswood
Hall, promising if she agrees to maintain this charade, he will keep her safe until her injuries have healed.

But the house is haunted by shadows and secrets. What’s more, the real Luna Greybourne is missing, without trace. Scratches and marks made by her around the house suggest witchcraft; and indeed
Luna is known locally as the Ravenswood Witch; her reputation in tatters, like the wallpapers of the padlocked rooms she’d destroyed.

As strange happenings in the house continue, outside the screech of a raven echoes across oppressive woods that seem alive with dark magic. And the woman who is now pretending to be Luna can’t help but fear she’s escaped the noose for a far more terrible fate…

A completely compelling and unforgettable historical bookclub read – fans of Jane Eyre, Weyward and The Binding will be utterly spellbound.

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Jenni Keer is the well-reviewed author of historical romances, often with a mystery at their heart.
Most recently published by Headline and shortlisted for the 2023 RNA Historical Romantic Novel of the Year.

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My thoughts: I’m not sure pretending to be a complete stranger’s wife and then not just fleeing, but actually going on with the pretence is the best plan in the world, especially when you start to learn that his missing wife is seen as a witch and feared by the locals.

Set at a time when mental illness was even less well understood than it is now, Luna Greybourne is clearly a very unwell and unhappy woman. Her husband, Marcus, has tried to help her to no avail and things have gotten so bad most of the servants have fled and the local community regards him with distrust.

Posing as his wife might help this young woman hide from her current troubles but it could just as well backfire and see her arrested for something else. They may not be hanging witches anymore (England did not burn them at the stake, that was for heretics) but even in the 19th Century, there was superstition and plenty of asylums filled with “mad women”.

The house has seen some terrible things, the rooms need repairs and redecoration, the furniture is battered and the whole place is heavy with neglect. Marcus requests that “Luna” oversee the restoration of his home while she recuperates. The rather peculiar servants, a married couple who appear to hate each other, will assist.

I loved Luna’s little feathered friend, ravens are highly intelligent, as he demonstrates and remember their friends, use tools and can even learn to talk. But his presence adds to the rumours that she’s a witch and responsible for various things that happen. All of which means more scrutiny, not less. Especially when Marcus’ aunt comes for a visit.

Women had very few rights and there wasn’t much justice at this time  – you could be locked away or even executed without much evidence, and I can sort of understand wanting to be someone else till the furore dies down, but “Luna” puts herself into more danger by having to trust others not to tell, and she can’t seem to follow a simple instruction – stay out of the woods and away from the healer man.

This gets quite dark and turns into something of a supernatural thriller as events build to a head, we learn about both the original Luna and her replacement, the fate of our heroine’s supposed victim and delve into the politics at play in this small place. Clever, gripping and fascinating.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: The Plague Doctor Murders – Ellis Blackwood

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A killer dressed as a plague doctor is prowling London’s docks.

Able seaman Humphrey Wilkes is dead, shot between the eyes by the murderer known as the Plague Doctor. When Samuel Pepys’s naval colleague, Robert Drake, finds a black cross daubed on his door, it marks him out as the next victim.

Pepys dispatches his inquisitors, Abby Harcourt and Jacob Standish, to the docks. Can they unmask the killer and save Drake’s life before he strikes again?

Death is a way of life to hardened seafarers. The dockyard is theirs – a dangerous domain of secrets, lies and grudges dating back to the grim days of the plague. Anyone could be the Plague Doctor. But who lurks beneath that ghastly disguise?

When the Plague Doctor targets Jacob himself, the battle to save Drake becomes personal.

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Ellis Blackwood fell in love with the writings of Samuel Pepys, and the 17th-century England he inhabited, through the great man’s published diaries. The Samuel Pepys Mysteries are the result of that literary love affair.

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My thoughts: The Great Fire of London is cooling, the buildings are smouldering and Samuel Pepys has a problem he needs his two inquisitors to look into.

Down in Deptford, at the docks, a world away from Pepys’ home and life at court, a murderer dressed as a plague doctor has been at work. Abby and Jacob are sent to investigate. It’s something of a closed world at the dockyard and hard work to get anything out of the residents. Life at sea and on the docks is hard and death happens suddenly, but even here, a murderer is a strange event.

Clever and full of historical detail – one of my favourite historical facts is that Pepys buried his cheese in the garden to save it from the Fire, and the flavour of 17th Century London, both familiar and completely alien at the same time.

This series just gets better with every book and Abby is really coming to the fore as a crack investigator, despite regarding herself as just a house maid. She really needs to talk to Pepys about a proper promotion and pay rise! Jacob is still a bit wet, and needs to stop worrying about what people think of him – Samuel Pepys clearly thinks he’s a man who’s going places. 

It’s a good plot too, lots of suspects and twists and the duo find more than they expected in a dockside pub, clever little tattoos that lead them to gambling and other secrets.

Don’t forget to head to the author’s website for the free short story that started it all, when Samuel Pepys’ famous diaries go missing.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: Poison in Piccadilly – Kelly Oliver

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London 1918: Is Fiona Figg ready to exchange her sleuthing cap for a bridal veil?

Fiona is set to tie the knot with her dashing captain, Archie Somersby. But, while Fiona is busy planning her happily ever after, side-kick Kitty Lane and a group of judo-chopping suffragettes are kicking up trouble at the Piccadilly Jujitsu Club.

When Kitty is found unconscious in the locker room during a high-stakes competition, Fiona must forsake her bouquets and bridal gown to investigate. Her sleuthing leads to a posh lady’s luncheon where a mysterious death crashes Fiona’s wedding plans.

To make matters worse, the arch-nemesis of all things matrimonial Fredrick Fredricks is up to his old tricks, attempting to put the brakes on Fiona’s journey down the aisle. Will he succeed in tripping up
Fiona’s wedding vows? Or will she finally say “I don’t” to the charming devil?

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Kelly Oliver is the award-winning, bestselling author of three mysteries series: The Jessica James Mysteries, The Pet Detective Mysteries, and the historical cozies The Fiona Figg Mysteries, set in WW1. She is also the Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University and lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

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My thoughts: Fiona is finally about to marry her beloved Archie, or is she? Obviously charming German spy Frederick Fredericks says she shouldn’t, but she’s sure he’s just meddling with her. But after Kitty gets a bump to the head and loses her memory – telling Fiona she’s an MI5 agent and needs to find a woman called Jane, but not able to even remember her canine sidekick, Poppy. 

Fiona needs to find out who conked Kitty on the head, what it has to do with the war and the Irish independence struggle, and decide whether or not she’s actually going to marry Archie.

Without her usual know-it-all partner, but with Clifford acting as chauffeur, it’s off to Ireland on the hunt for a shillelagh with a distinctive shamrock decoration, and someone with it in for Kitty. Fiona gets arrested for murder along the way, and gets to wear some of her beloved disguises, as she unravels what happened to Kitty, and waits for the teenage spy to get her memory back. 

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: Murder in the Mayfair Hotel – Fliss Chester

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In a candlelit ballroom, London’s most fashionable amateur sleuth, Cressida Fawcett, is dancing the night away in her sparkling silk dress. It’s a night Cressida will never forget. Because outside the window, there’s a body under the falling snow…

Christmas Eve, 1925. The Honourable Cressida Fawcett is delighted to attend an exclusive ball at London’s glamorous Mayfair Hotel. When she steps out into the moonlit courtyard with her little pug Ruby wrapped in her furs, she is thrilled to see a dashing man propose to her best pal under the swirling snowflakes. But instead of squealing ‘yes’, Dotty lets out a terrified scream…

Because floating in the fountain, with her long blonde hair rippling in the ice-cold water, is the body of their dear friend Lady Victoria Beaumont.

It’s clear the wealthy young beauty was murdered, whacked over the head with a bottle of champagne. Would Victoria’s elderly husband Lord Beaumont kill his wife over rumours of her younger beau? Or did someone clobber Victoria to prevent her producing an heir for the Beaumont fortune?

A snowstorm prevents the authorities from arriving, and just as Cressida searches for clues, she finds herself locked inside a large wicker hamper. Why does the scent of the hamper’s smoky luxury tea remind her of the crime scene? And will a suspiciously rotund Ruby follow her snuffly nose and find Cressida in the nick of time?

Trapped in the hotel with a killer lurking among the guests, will Cressida lose someone dear to her heart? And when she finds a clue among the Christmas crackers, can Cressida solve her most mysterious case yet?

The perfect cozy whodunnit for a cold winter’s night. Fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey and Lee Strauss won’t be able to put this down!

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Fliss Chester lives in Surrey with her husband and writes historical cozy crime. When she is not killing people off in her 1940s whodunnits, she helps her husband, who is a wine merchant, run their business. Never far from a decent glass of something, Fliss also loves cooking (and writing up her favourite recipes on her blog), enjoying the beautiful Surrey and West Sussex countryside and having a good natter.

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My thoughts: Heading to a glamorous party at the Mayfair Hotel on Christmas Eve, the last thing Cressida and her pals are expecting is to find one of their friends dead in the hotel fountain just as Dotty and George are about to make a huge decision.

Once the detectives arrive and lock down the hotel, Cressida realises that they only have a few hours before the party ends and the guests start making a fuss about leaving.

Obviously the best detective on the team is pug Ruby, who makes time between finding clues, makes time to sample the hotel’s delicious spread. 

When another person is killed, and Cressida knocked unconscious and locked in a giant hamper, it’s clear that the murderer isn’t done yet. They’ve still got to evade the police, Cressida and her friends, and of course Ruby. 

With the humour and entertaining twists this series always displays, this is a smart, entertaining festive case for Cressida and Co. 

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: Murder at Midwinter Manor – Anita Davison

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Escaping the city doesn’t mean escaping the criminals…

1916, Midwinter Manor: Desperate for a Christmas weekend break from war-torn London, Hannah Merrill and her Aunt Violet take Bartleby the cat and themselves off to visit Hannah’s sister, in her beautiful country estate, deep in the English countryside.

The huge house is full of relatives, friends and merrymakers, and everyone’s excited to have a Christmas to remember.
But then, when a fellow-guest’s body is found in the library – apparently bludgeoned to death – and a precious ruby is stolen from another guest, it appears that it’s going to be memorable for all the
wrong reasons.

With the house snowed in, and the rural police force completely incapable of finding a single credible suspect, Hannah and Aunt Violet realise that once again it’s going to be down to them to get to the
bottom of it.
Because whoever’s behind the crimes must be at Midwinter Manor… And if they’re not found, who knows what their next ‘gift’ will be?

A totally unforgettable Golden Age, country house, cozy crime novel, perfect for fans of Helena Dixon, Verity Bright, and Agatha Christie.

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Anita Davison is the author of the successful Flora Maguire historical mystery series.

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My thoughts: I am not a huge fan of the extended family Christmas, and for good reason. There’s nothing worse than being stuck in close proximity to your relatives, including the ones you wouldn’t choose to be with, so when Hannah Merrill and her Aunt Violet head to Midwinter Manor, home to Hannah’s sister Iris, her husband and children for the festive season, even before anyone gets murdered, things are tense.

Iris’s deeply annoying sister-in-law is obsessed with the ruby her family gave her when she got married. She’s handed it to her eldest daughter, who is getting married soon. It’s a big, ugly lump of red and no one except Norah is keen on it.

When one of the guests is found bludgeoned to death in the study, his death seems completely random. He wasn’t the nicest man, but he wasn’t the worst either. Then the ruby is missing, and perhaps he was killed by a thief? The local detective thinks so, and pins it all on a footman. Luckily Hannah and Aunt Violet are on hand to untangle things and solve the crime.

There’s a car chase through the snowy woods, a soldier with shell shock, an annoying neighbour, various other hijinks ensue and Christmas isn’t quite the holiday Iris wanted it to be. But Hannah has some news that might just save the festivities too. 

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.