A cozy historical murder book!!!
We follow an unlikely detective as he uncovers a ‘perfectly plotted crime’.
I really enjoyed this book, it’s a nice easy cozy read! I hadn’t read anything else by this author but I’m inclined to investigate some of her other books after this!

Faith Martin is fast becoming one of my favourite authors. Her style is quirky and fun, it's all so well written and her words are a joy to read. You know one of her books is going to be a good read before you even start the first page. The words bounce to life off the page, they're written with such joy. Set in 1920's Cotswolds, it's really cosy murder mystery with colourful funny characters. A really great read, as are all by Faith Martin.

I absolutely thoroughly enjoyed this Christie-esque, Golden Age style murder mystery!

And that is despite me very quickly solving at least some aspects of the mystery, but only thanks to my prior reading of a certain Terry Pratchett book (which I’m not going to name specifically because a) spoilers and b) you should read all 60+ of his books repeatedly yourself, and then you would know!). If it hadn’t been for that glimmer of a clue then I would have been completely in the dark throughout the story. As it was, I still didn’t guess everything and really enjoyed following the characters as they found it all out.

In fact, it was the characters that I loved and enjoyed most, especially main characters Arbie and Val, with their sweet, oblivious, romantic chemistry and bantery one-upmanship. There was a touch of the Wodehouse in their investigative double act which kept the story light and easy to read. It was all very quaint and cosy Olde English, with a dash of modern sensibility.

This is the perfect book if you are looking for a not-too-serious but pleasantly fun cosy mystery and I would definitely be happy to read more of Arbie and Val’s adventures in future.

Mabury-in-the-Marsh is a quiet village until the owner of the Old Forge is found dead. It’s a locked room mystery: all the windows and doors were locked from the inside so how she was murdered? Author Arbuthnot ‘Arbie’ Swift is staying at the Old Forge to investigate a ghost – he’s the author of a guide to ghost hunting – but now he’s here, he’s on hand to help find the culprit. Is it a perfectly plotted crime? Arbie and his friend Val seem to think so.

I actually DNFd this book very early on... I didn't feel compelled to continue reading and felt like I was getting into a reading slump. I will give it a try again in a few months.. but for now it wasn't a book for me.

What an enjoyable mystery. If you like guessing the murderer and how, then this book is for you! What a great read

A “jolly hockey sticks” kind of murder mystery set in the Cotswolds of the 1920s. It’s a little like crossing Murder She Wrote and Midsomer Murders and then setting it in 1924. When ghost hunter Arbie arrives to try and solve a suspected ghost problem at the home of a wealthy spinster, it doesn’t go to plan. When she is the discovered murdered on a locked room, Arbie must solve a murder instead! A solid plot (as long as you enjoy the era) and although a lot of the twists are fairly obvious, I enjoyed the story.
Thanks to NetGalley for a free ARC in return for an honest review.

Set in the Cotswolds in the middle upper/upper classes in 1920's Britain where the class divide is evident, our two young and single male female protagonists Arbie and Val embark on a mystery of a haunting that develops into a locked room mystery when the rich heiress is murdered.
This cosy crime is written with tally ho humour with a jolly good fellow here and a steady on there and is an easy escapist read, There is more scope for this likeable duo to embark on more mysteries together.
With thanks to #NetGalley and HQ publishers for this preview read of #MurderByCandleleight.

Murder by Candlelight is a cleverly constructed locked room mystery set in 1924 by Faith Martin. Released 4th Jan 2024 by HarperCollins on their HQ imprint, it's 291 pages and is available in audio and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

This is such a fun cozy romp. The characters are expertly rendered and the whole is redolent of the classic golden age interwar mysteries of yesteryear. Although it's not at all derivative, there's a distinct whiff of top shelf classics such as Allingham's Campion, Marsh's Alleyn, and Sayers' Wimsey. The two main characters, a vicar's daughter and a young local author, get involved investigating dodgy goings on at the local manor house which soon turn deadly when the mistress of the house turns up dead in her own locked bedroom.

The whole is very well put together and all the parts fit together splendidly. The denouement and resolution are a *bit* over the top, but not overly so for the genre. There are red herrings galore, and an appealing story. The clues are all fair play, and clever readers have all the info they need to beath the sleuths to the solution. The ending seems to point to further adventures for Arbie and Val, and that's quite promising, if true.

Four stars. Wonderfully engaging and fun.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Murder by Candlelight
By Faith Martin

*****

Classic Agatha Christie

I have to declare that I am a great fan of Faith Martin’s crime books, I have read all of her numerous DI Hillary Greene mysteries, which are set in Oxfordshire in the present century, and her excellent Ryder and Loveday series, about a coroner and young WPC, set in late 50’s, early 60’s Oxford. With this book she has gone back further in time to the Cotswolds in the 1920’s (how things have changed in the last 100 years).

Here we find a young gentleman, Mr Arbuthnot Lancelot Swift, a bit of a Bertie Wooster character, and his former school friend, Valentina Olivia Charlotte Coulton-James, who is a more sensible and practical woman, daughter of the local vicar, in the Cotswold village of Maybury-in-the-Marsh where they were brought up and still live. Arbie has recently written a surprisingly successful book which is partly about ghost hunting and partly travelogue.

Because of the book, he and Val are invited by the wealthy local spinster, Miss Amy Phelps, to investigate a possible haunting in her house, and to a dinner with her house guests, these are: her nephew, Murray Phelps, who runs the business that has generated her fortune; her niece Phyllis Thomas; her lifelong close friend, Miss Cora Delaney; and the close friend of her late brother, Reggie Bickersworth, an amateur artist.

It may not be a total surprise that Amy Phelps dies soon after in potentially suspicious circumstances, and Inspector Bernard Gorringe is called in to investigate, however Arbie and Val pursue their own parallel investigation. The potential suspects are just the dinner guests and possibly the housekeeper, Jane Brockhurst, and Doreen Capstan, former maid to Miss Phelps and paramour of Murray Phelps.

We follow the unofficial investigation, and to some extent also the official one, which is both somewhat bumbling and quite amusing, which eventually results in a suitably unexpected conclusion.

I can only say that I do hope that Faith Martin will consider the characters she has created here worthy of further outings! The period setting is well described without being too intrusive. Arbie and Val make an interesting team with their frequent sparring, and, as should be the case, the reader is guided through the mystery with varying suspicions of the guilty party.

I read this book from a pre-publication copy kindly supplied by the publisher, but this is an honest review with no concession to their generosity.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for an ARC of this book in return for an unbiased and honest review.

Thursday Murder Club cover vibes. I'm in.

The mystery was not too predictable and the characters were lovable! It felt cozy but sinister at the same time! Will definitely be recommending!

I am very much into “murder in the Cotswolds” right now and this book delivered! Great book and love the cover art!

A cozy mystery set in the Cotswolds in 1924, in a quaint little village full of gossip and now also ... MURDER!
The lady of the house has been murdered - with cyanide nonetheless - and Arbie Swift finds himself in a sleuthing position, together with the vicar's daughter Val. The two youngsters act under the watchful eye of the local detective and they uncover clue after clue in search of the culprit.

All in all, it is a very nice cozy, ticking all the boxes required in the genre: a sleepy village, the manners and etiquette of the upper classes, adorable characters, funny dialogue and a locked room mystery. What's not to like?

Although very well written, this is no grand literature but in its genre it is perfectly well done and a welcome distraction from more serious books.

A sincere thanks to NetGalley, HQ Harper & Collins and the author for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Good cozy mystery.

It was very entertaining and slow at the same time. I was expecting a bit more from this book but it fell a little flat. I mean come on you're solving murder and dealing with a ghost! nonetheless, the book was a nice read.

Thank You to Faith Martin for the digital ARC provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

This is a book that I feel falls into the category of ‘cosy crime’. It wasn’t gory or violent in any way which may also be reflective of the time in which the story was set. An elderly lady is murdered after seemingly being ‘haunted’ by a family ghost. A young man enlisted to look for the ghost goes on to solve the murder. There was some clever misdirection in the story and until the end I was convinced it was one character which proved to be a false impression. A good read, but a little slower than I like my crime to be.

This is a lovely cozy mystery and what I hope will be the start of another historical crime series to enjoy.
Friends Albie and Val are tasked with helping Amy when she fears she is being haunted, is it by a ghost as some would have her believe or someone more solid? Albie has become somewhat of a ghost expert after he mistakenly wrote a tongue in cheek guise to ghost hunting and Val is keen to escape the drudgery of life as the vicars eldest and unmarried daughter.
Some good characters and a healthy dose of old English charm with a decent story.
Happy to recommend to those who enjoy this genre.
Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

An advanced copy of this book was sent to me in return for an honest review.

This was a very different type of book to what I’ve been reading. It was set quite a long time ago and it showed how different the English language is these days! I really liked the way that the story flowed. It was a classic whodunnit. I didn’t actually think it was the character that did do it. All the characters seemed well written but you don’t then hear about a couple of them at the end. Their reactions, what happens next etc. It was a jolly romp. I would definitely read a follow-up, if there was one. What ho!

Arbie, an ironic writer of ghostly lore in the Costwolds, and Val, his school friend from days gone by, try to solve a local murder. Was the perpetrator a ghost, or a human with a grudge? I couldn't quite get into the prose on this so it was a bit of a slog, but the plot points of the murder/s themselves kept me interested enough that I had to finish! I learned quite a bit of science with this one. I kept waiting for something to happen between Arbie and Val, but maybe that's saved for subsequent books - I can definitely see this being first in a series. There's quite a bit going on that seems outside of the crime at hand, which felt like a setup for additional books.

Did I love it? No. Did it hold my interest enough to finish? Yes. It reads a bit like an old-timey cozy mystery.

A classic murder / mystery set in the era of a time when a certain Mrs Christie was coming to the fore with her crime stories. Plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing right to the end. Something a wee bit different from this author but enjoyable nonetheless.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC to review

This is a lovely cosy crime novel set in the 1920s in a small village in England. Echoes of Miss Marple, and Sunday afternoon TV dramas give you all the cosy vibes. Of course there's a murderer to find, but it's a lot of fun along the way!