This is a suspenseful crime novel. The premise is absorbing and the characters are well developed. The twists and turns are very good. A well written book

Plenty of twists and turns, will keep you guessing all the way through. Excellent characters, well written as always.

Absolutely fantastic read. Hooked from the start and not disappointed. I was guessing completely until the end. The story sustains the tension throughout and is chock full
of suspense. Great mix of characters and location choice. Highly recommended.

Thank you Netgalley

I loved this! I'm already a fan of Lucinda Riley's books, especially the seven sister series - I love the big, fat sagas that I can get lost in. This felt like that - with characters I cared about, got to know and looked forward to picking up with.

This is a mystery and a really good one at that. Not hard-boiled but I wouldn't say cosy either. Just really well-written, If you're a fan of Lucinda's books you will love this.

Read this for my bookclub. Only my 2nd Lucinda Riley book. Really enjoyed the story and the writing style. Really must make a start on the Seven Sisters series soon.

I am a huge Lucinda Riley fan and this book does not disappoint. It’s her first crime novel and contains plenty of twists that will keep you guessing until the end.

Jazmine Hunter is sent to investigate the death of a student at St Stephen’s, a private boarding school in Norfolk. What first appears to be natural causes soon looks like foul play. While conducting the investigation, Jazz also deals with personal problems including a frail father and recent divorce form an egotistical colleague.

This book is full of well rounded characters whose relationships and links to the victim are both intriguing and completely believable. A great read.

Lucinda Riley sadly passed away in 2021. I’ve only read a few of her books so far, though I’ve loved what I've read to date. I read The Murders at Fleat House and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This book, her only foray into crime mystery, was posthumously published by her son.

This story felt different from the others I’ve read by this author because it’s an unsettling, tense mystery. I soon experienced the absorbing storytelling and character development I’m used to, and the twists and red herrings kept me reading well into the night. The characters were vulnerable and multilayered, the plot suspenseful, and packed with manipulation, family drama, deception, neglect, jealousy, revelations, and vengeance, among others. Very highly recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Pan Macmillan via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

I absolutely loved reading this.
The plot was great with some well thought out twists. I loved the characters and even the ones you did not like very much (was even better when karma got them mwahaha).
I really hope there will be more to read from Jazz, she is a fantastic character and really easy to gel with right from the start.

A boarding school mystery is a departure from other books I have read by this author, but it was as gripping a read as I had hoped and full of twists and turns that my suspect list seemed to change with each chapter..
This is a read with great characters played against an atmospheric setting which kept me riveted throughout.
Read and enjoy.

This was my first by Lucinda Riley and was sad to hear of her passing. The story was well written, full of twists and turns and red herrings that Agatha Christie would be proud of... gripping!.
Recommended!

I love this author and was so sad to hear of her passing. I was excited to get an advanced copy of this exceptional book. Lucinda’s talent shows through the pages of this, twisty tale of jealousies, family secrets and revenge set in a private boy’s school in Norfolk.. Full of Agatha Christie style red herrings, it will have you quickly turning the pages to find out more. Read it in a day with barely any breaks, but the breaks that I took just meant that I was thinking about it and wanted to get back to it! It was a really gripping read with lots of twists and turns to keep me wanting more…….

I have waited months for this book to be published. The sad news of lucinda’s passing, really was a shock to all of us fans. The publication of this book was a reminder that Lucinda has an amazing family who want her writing legacy to continue. The story is amazingly well planned. It weaves the past and the present together like so many of Lucinda’s books do. The pieces in the story are there for the reading to put together, but it’s not until the last few chapters that the story really comes together. I loved the characters. In particular Jazz- what a detective! The battle she’s had proving herself resounds so familiarly to me. It’s great to hear women being recognised as competent professionals.
I also loved the fact that the underdog comes good and the villains get their comeuppance.
Thank you so much to all who were involved in this book publication. I’ve loved every page.

What an absolutely amazing read!! It draws you in from the first page and keeps you engaged till the end. I finished it in 1 day and this is definitely my favourite book from Lucinda Riley. In the end, I was very sad because it would have made an awesome series! The best way I can describe this locked-room murder mystery is Agatha Christie meets Ruth Ware.
I was so glad they didn't do any rewrites and they left the book as she wrote it in 2006 because I found the voice very authentic and the descriptions were very visual. It's definitely a book that I think would make a wonderful movie or TV series. I also loved Jazz's character and found her to be very relatable.
I think the current Lucinda fans will definitely enjoy this 1 but she will also gain a lot of new fans who would want to read her other books as well.
We will miss this wonderful storyteller.
Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for a review copy of The Murders at Fleat House, a stand-alone crime thriller set in a private boarding school in Norfolk.

DI Jazmine Hunter resigned from the Met and fled to Italy for personal reasons. Now, she has settled in Norfolk and is intent on a career change, but her old boss never accepted her resignation and is asking her to take on one last case in the area. With the help of DS Alistair Miles she starts to investigate the death of school bully Charlie Cavendish, who died of anaphylactic shock. Is it murder or an unfortunate accident? Jazz leans towards premeditated murder, but who and why?

I enjoyed The Murders at Fleat House, which is a well constructed novel - I hesitate to say police procedural because it’s not interested in standard procedure if it gets in the way of the plot - with a few surprises up its sleeve.

I have not read this author before, probably because I only read crime fiction, so I didn’t know what to expect. I like the writing style which is warm, inviting and clear. It draws the reader in and encourages them to keep turning the pages. The author is particularly strong on characterisation, concentrating on Jazz as she likes to be known and her troubled past and uncertain present. Such is this concentration that I wondered if there was a preceding novel that would fill in more details, but I don’t think so. It’s a case of glean what you can. Having said that the author is great at drawing quick vignettes of her other characters, allowing the reader to quickly grasp what they are like and draw their own conclusions.

The plot is acceptable. It has a well hidden perpetrator and motive with some lurid side stories thrown in to muddy the waters. I didn’t find myself taking it too seriously because it’s a bit over the top, although, on the other hand, it’s imaginative and entertaining.

The Murders at Fleat House is a good read that I can recommend.

Oh my! This was such a captivating read, I had a job to put it down! Not only was there the mysteries to solve but the reader also had the problems faced by the various characters. Jazz, the main character, had returned to the U.K. after a traumatic event and was coming to terms with a new life when she was asked to investigate the death at a nearby school. There is also the return of an unwelcome presence in her life. Jazz was a strong and determined woman and I loved the relationship with her family. There are a few other family relationships that aren’t so straightforward but that only added to the enjoyment. The ending is very satisfying. I received a copy and have voluntarily reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a brilliant read. Jazz, or DCI Hunter, as she is known professionally, takes on a case in Norfolk, after moving there following a break in Italy, for reasons connected with her ex husband, Patrick. The case is local. It concerns the murder of Charlie Cavendish, who was a schoolboy at a private school. The plot gets thicker but I read it as quickly as I was able to, since it grips a reader from the beginning and does not let up, the pace is maintained until the ending. I certainly recommend this novel.

This authors writing is so engaging and draws you in right from the start, it was an absolutely gripping read. Twisty, mysterios and unpredictable. I loved it.

Books set in schools are always going to be interesting and when its a boarding school then the mystery deepens.. This is very different to what I have read from Lucinda before but it makes it even more interesting as this is really good! Ah she was taken far too soon and now I have read this, I wonder what else she would have written. A great loss indeed.

The Murders at Fleat House by Lucinda Riley

The sudden death of a pupil in Fleat House at St Stephen’s – a small private boarding school in deepest Norfolk – is a shocking event that the headmaster is very keen to call a tragic accident.

But the local police cannot rule out foul play and the case prompts the return of high-flying Detective Inspector Jazmine ‘Jazz’ Hunter to the force. Jazz has her own private reasons for stepping away from her police career in London, and reluctantly agrees to front the investigation as a favour to her old boss.

Reunited with her loyal sergeant Alastair Miles, she enters the closed world of the school, and as Jazz begins to probe the circumstances surrounding Charlie Cavendish’s tragic death, events are soon to take another troubling turn.

I very much enjoyed reading This book which was a very different read to get series of titles ' The Seven Sisters '.
For me this book highlighted her brilliance and imagination in the many different plots that her titles contain and how she knew how to draw her readers into them. Her character range and their lives and personalities went a long way into turning just a story into a journey we joined as the book went along.
Such a sad loss for a very much loved author.

This is such an excellently written book; I couldn’t put it down! It kept me guessing all the way through. Normally I can generally figure out whodunnit from at most half way through the book, but this kept me guessing right the way until the end. I am a fan of Lucinda Riley’s seven sisters series, but wasn’t expecting much from this with it being a different genre, but how wrong was I. It is a shame she died so young and deprived the world of more of her great works, as clearly she had great talent not just with romance novels, but also managed to keep the reader gripped with mysteries. I couldn’t put this down and literally read it in one sitting. I would highly recommend, and in fact have already been recommending it to people