Is there anything that resonates more in today's world than a mystery that takes place in an isolated home? With LOCH DOWN ABBEY, Beth Cowan-Erskine offers us a rollicking country house mystery. It's as if Agatha Christie tried her hand at writing an episode of Downton Abbey. What more could anyone want?

Downton Abbey meets pandemic. Several perfectly unlikable members of the aristocracy, a second son who might've saved the family home if only his father and brother had let him, the loyal staff, a possible murder...A very quick read, and so much fun!

I loved the Thursday Club Murders and I loved this book too. Set in the 1930's it was a brilliantly written, somewhat gently suspenseful, but as a huge Marple/Poirot fan, this was perfect

While there is plenty of ad space talking about the murder mystery element of “Loch Down Abbey,” once you begin reading this book you will find there is much more going on within the walls of the 125-room mansion.

Beth Cowan-Erskine’s story swirls more around the people living in Loch Down Abbey, and while the murder is certainly a part of the tale, discovering each of the players and their individual secrets and desires will be the carrot that moves you from page to page. While most of the residents hardly leave the grounds, a recent illness that is raging countrywide causes greater distress for the members of the Ogilvy-Sinclair family. As their servants succumb one by one to the sickness, lives are affected and the family’s traditions are turned upside-down. For those of us who have not lived in an aristocratic household, the reactions of the characters will bring more than a few smiles.

While there are many things I liked about the novel, Ms. Cowan-Erskine chose to allow us inside everyone’s head, many times jumping from one person to the next with each new paragraph. Sharing the feelings immediately of both family and staff gives the opportunity to see the clashing of thoughts and beliefs and increases the opportunity for humor. However, it took me most of the book to separate all the characters (there are multiple generations in the mansion), not so much in their characterizations but in the hierarchy of the family and who was brother-sister, son-daughter, etc.

The characters save the day. Some are quirky while others can do little more than shake their heads at the madness and muddle on with their lives. The feeling of the book is lighthearted rather than stodgy, and it made it more of a quick read, and the humor was an added plus. Four stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for a complimentary electronic copy of this book.

Absolutely hilarious! Loch Down Abbey has everything: the upstairs and downstairs of Downton Abbey, mysterious illness that's spreading faster than the village's rumours, a prestigious family on the brink of bankruptcy, and a murder mystery! The only thing I had a hard time with was all the names of characters. First names, last names, ranks of nobility.....this is the time when I wish I have an actual, physical book where I can flip back to the page where all the characters and their relationships were listed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this ARC!

I loved Loch Down Abbey! First off, I love the title and the wordplay in it and then when I finally started to read this book, I just loved the whole atmosphere of being in the 1930s in a Scottish estate. Everything about this reminded me of Downton Abbey, from the various storylines following not only the Inverkillen family but also the staff that maintained order in Loch Down Abbey.

The Inverkillen family is going through a rough time. Their estate has been unable to earn money for several decades and they have gotten to a point where they are forced to consider selling the estate completely. Not only that but there is a mysterious disease spreading through the country and within the members of the staff (very similar to what happened with covid around the world). When the lord of the estate mysteriously dies, the gravity of the family’s situation becomes even more severe. As the family tries to cope with changes caused by this deadly disease, such as running out of toilet paper and food items such as flour, other family secrets are coming to light.

This was overall a very fun read. I loved all the family drama, the murder mystery, the 1930s setting, and the characters, even though some of them I just loved to hate. The only problem I had with this book which kept it from being a 5 star book was the amount of characters we had to keep track off. There were times in the beginning where I got several of the female characters confused until I found out more about them.

Highly recommend this to everyone that loves historical settings in their books, the show Downton Abbey, and family drama books, with a dash of murder mystery.

#netgalley #lochdownabbey

A good first outing from this author that I will be looking out for.
However as other reviewers have mentioned the cast was too large to keep track of and led to some confusion.
Otherwise kept me entertained on a wet lockdown weekend!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this novel! Overall, I enjoyed it - a good mystery and excellent atmosphere, especially from a new author. However, the POV switches rapidly between characters, even after only a few paragraphs, which can be a little disjointed. Also, so many of the characters were terrible people so that makes it a little difficult to spend time with them, if that makes sense. I will definitely check out future offerings from this author however!

I love the concept and idea for this book; a wealthy and huge family who can barely do anything without their maids, stuck in a house, and with a murderer among them. One of the things I find very intriguing about this book is how creative the author was when she described the atmosphere. It truly feels like we're diving deep into history and I can truly feel the desperation when this family realized the storm coming toward them.

Though I do like the ending, I have actually have mixed feelings about this book. For one, this book involves a horde of characters and it was a real challenge to remember who is who. I had to come back to the List of Characters in the beginning of the book (Thank God for that) every few moments or so when I started and it impacted my enjoyment toward the book. Secondly, the author jumps between POVs ever so suddenly. Combine that with the confusing cast, it really started to go from enjoyment to confusion. Third, I was fully expecting a thriller-y story, with a bunch of complicated characters; but I didn't get that. Though the mystery was a little interesting at the beginning, I quickly lost interest halfway through. If you're expecting a tense, 'gets you out of your seat' thriller', this might not be for you.

I felt this was a decent offering if a murder mystery set not only in the 1930s, but also under a 'sickness' very much like covid-19.

However, I didn't the the sickness was actually utilised in the plot, apart from the clever wordplay in the title, and a few references throughout the book. The cast was so huge I had trouble keeping them apart and I'm still not sure I know who Victoria is, possibly because I skimmed the middle part - it just felt too long and very reminiscent of the film Gosford Park.
In the end, the twist was.noce if slightly far-fetched.

Good for people into mysteries and the Downton Abbey/upstairs-downstairs setting.

"Anyone who said there were no secrets in a small village had clearly never been to Loch Down.”

Loch Down Abbey has one hundred and twenty-five rooms, a Library, and five thousand acres of land. That doesn’t include the servants’ quarters of course; one never counts those. But, nineteen people only use six, Other than the bedrooms, too shame!
This is a story of accidental death and a heart attack and a scandal, no two, three is better or maybe 4, I think of 5!!!

A funny grandmother, very selfish children, and grandchildren, full of rumors and gossip. 6 children exploring an amazing Abbey and find its secrets. They search the house and find the hidden paths but, adults could not. More than 20 servants being less and less, to get the family mad.

Royal residents of Loch Down Abbey are not very interested in being out or do something but, they always are busy. The head housekeeper, After fifteen years, didn’t understand what it was they did all day. They hardly can even be dressed, and of course, they don't know the way of the kitchen.
“Why must he always try to do things? He isn’t good at doing things. Doing Things is what servants are for.”

Mrs. MacBain, the head housekeeper, is worried about new sickness in the village, and the accidental death which looks no accidental at all. But, what could she say? "I suspect one of the family murdered His Lordship?"

It was a very interesting, funny and mysterious book with strong characters, I easily could imagine them. This wasn't a crime- mystery but, there were lots of secrets. I really enjoyed this Scottish set. I loved the house, It was so amazing and exploring. With lots of secret passages that no one could see if somebody sneaking around. I'm sure the killer, loved the house as I am. :)

Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for giving me the chance to read Loch Down Abbey by Beth Cowan-Erskine in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely loved this book! It had absolutely everything I love in a book. Was disappointed when I’d read it as I wanted to read it again for the first time. I even slowed down reading it towards the end to stretch it out.

I thank Hodder and Stoughton for a copy of Loch Down Abbey. It is described like Down Abbey, with humour and a disease that his harming the Scottish town. So, because of that I was interested to read it.
It’s the 1930’s in the deep Scottish highland lies Loch down Abbey the home of Lord and lady Inverskillens and the huge number of staff. When a mysterious illness effects and staff and the nearby town. The Inverskillens are horrified when they must start caring for themselves and must deal with the Lord who is found dead. Is it an accident of was he murdered? They also must deal with the Abbey has run into debt and have the bailiffs at the door.
Loch Down Abbey has a unique storyline of a historical murder mystery, and hint about a disease like Covid. After the Lord died, I found it quite hilarious how the family had to cope and do things for themselves. Even arguing over a couple of toilet rolls. He made me think about our Royal family when I read this and wondered if they had similar arguments that the people in this book did. This is an entertaining read that I read in one sitting. The only criticism I have that they were far too many characters and got confused who was who. But it made up with the conclusion of this story

I really enjoyed this book.

It was tongue in cheek and so obvious but was goofy and fun. There were elements of our own 2020 lockdown with the limitations of toilet roll and the mysterious illness.

I liked the layout of the book with the characters of who is who - which was needed as there were a lot! Plus the epilogue was fun to see what happened to the characters.

It would never happen that servants have enough money to save but I loved the idea and the comedic aspects made me want to carry on with the murder mystery part almost taking second place.

A fun cosy Read.

Thank you for the arc.

I have really mixed feelings about this book. I loved the word-play in the title and the concept of bringing current events into a fictional past. But some things just didn't work for me. If you are expecting a serious murder mystery, you may be disappointed. My general feeling is that this is meant to be a parody of 1920s/30s mysteries. You have the very large cast of characters, mysterious events and secrets, and every thing is revealed at the end. As a parody, it was well done. The references to toilet paper shortages and other circumstances familiar to all of us who have lived through 2020 were hilarious. However the mystery itself felt a little flat. Much of the plot was predictable and the characters were all pretty one-dimensional with very little done to flesh out their motives. That being said, there were a few characters who had enough personality for me to care a little about them, but not enough for me to feel attached or particularly invested in them. In many ways, this story would make a great movie- something along the lines of the 1980s Clue. But as a book, it just had something missing that I can't quite put my finger on. All in all, I did enjoy reading it, but I don't see myself revisiting it.
Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I chose to read this book because I thought it would be a clever tongue-in-cheek hat tip to Downton Abbey during a Covid-like crisis. And it was.

I’m a huge fan of the Downton Abbey series and Ms. Cowan-Erskine brought me into that world for the first time in print with a fictitious family who was completely dysfunctional, arrogant, and absurd. Having a firm grasp on the subtle humor and characters from the show made it easy to step into this kind of dystopian alter-world and the book made me smile and laugh.

The plot was securely in place and the end brought twists and a very satisfying conclusion. If I had complaints, it was about the writing technique and the point of view and head hopping the author did. There were loads and loads of characters with the upstairs-downstairs thing and while I could kind of understand why Cowan-Erskine chose to do this, it was startling and difficult to get into. With no warning, she would change character point of view not only between paragraphs but sometimes within them. Often jarring, I eventually got in the rhythm and once I settled, the book felt like a nice cup of tea with a slice of cake.

This was an interesting read; it was a tad difficult to read due to the way the book is broken down and with all the characters, as well as their POV, but the story was enjoyable. I believe there was suppose to be one character who should “solve” the mystery, and she does, but this was really more of an ensemble than an individual character; she’s just the central character to tie everything together. I will say again that I really quite enjoyed this, but it wasn’t much of a mystery. More like there just happened to be a mystery, and everything was really quite easily guessed.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion of this book.

The description of the book had me really excited for it. A combination of Downton Abby mixed up with a Whodunit and a mysterious virus taking out the inhabitants (COVID anyone?). It also was centered on the family of the Ogilvey-Sinclair house (and I am a Sinclair!) which intrigued me even more. Sadly, I just couldn't get into it - I went back to it over and over but my mind just couldn't process what I was reading. There was too much going on and it made it much to difficult to follow.

I do think, however, that this story might be better as a movie or mini-series. Like others have said it is also hard to follow the characters and to go back to the list that author thoughtfully placed in the beginning of the book is hard when you are reading on a Kindle.

I do have to remark, again as others have, the title of the book is brilliant! A solid 2.5 stars.

I found this book laugh out loud funny in so many parts. From the children's antics to the grotesquely unlikable characters there was so much to love about this book.

As funny as it was, it didn't read too much like a parody. I was genuinely invested in the mystery and loved all of the twists, I kept guessing and I have to admit I kept being wrong!

A fun and enjoyable read and it was nice to just enjoy the book and not think of the new lockdown for Covid.