Manor of Dying (A Hampton Home and Garden Mystery Book 4) by Kathleen Bridge

Meg Barrett and her friend Elle are headed for Nightingale Manor, the site of a former mental asylum, complete with the history of a grisly murder. They are to pick out historical props for an upcoming series set in the 1930's. But when they arrive there is friction between factions and the house itself is cold and forbidding. The inventory is in the attic but the tension everywhere else has Meg curious, listening- for Murder is in the air...

I really loved the plot. The type of work Meg does and her friend Elle, that is exactly what I would like to do, particularly in set research for film. The additional plus of cataloging inventory and Thirties decor, between the two, was a major plus. The whole book read like my dream life with a dream job. I suspect many Readers will feel this way. This is Book 4 so there is quite a bit to take in.. especially the first few chapters. The pace is fast though and before I knew it I was halfway through the Book.

The descriptive details are amazing... a  ferry with its rough waves and a gray, forbidding ocean...a small cottage tucked into Montauk with views of a lighthouse.   But all through the Book these charming details are sprinkled and they add to the story along with- the warm friendship between Elle and Meg. Some of these characters I have not met yet, such as a boyfriend who delivers yachts to buyers and has invited Meg to Cornwall. But I can't wait to do so...

The shivery aspect of the Manor House, complete with Tombstones next to the gate house or tickets tucked into an armless doll, will enthrall everyone. Added to that, the forbidding, coldness of the Rooms and the basement which still houses the Asylum gurneys, will guarantee this will be a story you want to read. I could not stop until I had devoured the last page. Five stars

Blurb:

In a new Hamptons Home & Garden Mystery, Meg Barrett will have to uncover the truth about a long-ago murder before a killer decides she’s history . . .

When decorator Meg Barrett travels to a remote mansion to help select period pieces for a new 1930s-style television mystery series, she’s chilled to learn that the manor was once a mental asylum and the site of a mysterious decades-old murder. And when a fierce blizzard knocks out the power and strands Meg and her cohorts in the home’s rickety old elevator, they emerge to discover that another person has been murdered—in the same macabre manner as the original victim.

With a suspect list limited to those who were also stranded at the manor, Meg begins digging through their backgrounds for clues to both the old and new murder, trying to discover a connection that will lead her to the culprit’s identity. But the more she learns, the more clear it becomes that someone wants to keep the secrets of the past buried, and Meg knows she’ll have to watch her back before a ruthless killer decides to commit her to a grisly fate . . .

Includes scrumptious recipes and vintage decorating tips!

The Case of the Famished Parson by George Bellairs

I found George Bellairs through the recommendation of a Golden Age Mystery site. He is one of the English Writers from a time period of the 1940's that produced small Village Murders often set around a manor house or Hotel and intricately woven plots and characters. I will say up- front that I am a huge fan of these type of mysteries and relish them when I find them. So I jumped at the chance to read one of his.

Inspector Littlejohn is on vacation and run down. He is looking forward to his time at Cape Mervin Hotel, when a Bishop is coshed over the head, and he is asked to investigate. The body of the religious leader is emaciated from lack of food, which on the surface is a very odd thing, until you find out he is trying to follow psychology through the Eastern Religions, which recommends fasting. But as the Inspector interviews and tracks... through a bewildering amount of interviews, it becomes apparent this won't be the only murder.

Bellairs has a way with words and from the first page I was in my chair until I finished the book. He throws a lot of red herrings at the reader- but they are worth pursuing. I especially like his gift for story telling. The Characters are well- developed and I particularly enjoyed the eccentricities of the Macintosh family. So I highly recommend George Bellairs, as a new Author, to people who love the golden age of Mysteries and who read Nagio Marsh and Dorothy Sayers. Five stars

Blurb:
A corpse belonging to a gentle bishop is found at the base of a cliff on the Isle of Man in an ingenious mystery by the master of the “pure British detective story” (The New York Times).

Dr. James Macintosh, the Bishop of Greyle, was a mysterious man. For a long time, nobody even knew his last name… until his body is found emaciated and battered having been pushed face-first off the edge of a cliff.

Inspector Littlejohn faces an incredibly peculiar case. How to explain the savage murder of a gentle Bishop? Did he know too much about the secretive citizens of Cape Marvin? Or did it have something to do with the strange family he left behind in Medhope?

Above all, why was the Bishop’s body so undernourished that death by violence won out by only a few days over death by starvation?

 

A Knife for Harry Dodd by George Bellairs

I haven't read George Bellairs until now but I certainly will again. This story moves with a really well- written cast of characters. Inspector Littlejohn is a regular in a long line of books and he puzzles things out by chasing the clues wherever they lead. There is a long, twisted, path of possible people with enough red-herrings to make it very enjoyable. I like the rural England shown in these descriptions written in 1953 and the Pub life in particular. The characters that hang out there...which Bellairs had a talent for developing-give life to this book.

George Bellairs wrote over 50 books in a long career. The writing is reminiscent of the top-notch English mystery writers of the day with plenty of puzzles and not a lot of gore.  I am fond of this type of writing and rejoice I have found another of these authors.

I had Bellairs recommended to me on one of the Golden Age Mystery sites and I highly recommend him to you. Harry Dodd has secrets in his life and they may have just gotten him murdered. Five Stars...

Blurb:

At first, the women hadn’t believed Dodd was dead. They had put him in his pyjamas, fixed up his wound with plaster and lint, and put him to bed. Then, they’d realised he had died quietly whilst in their hands.

When Harry Dodd calls Dorothy Nicholls for a ride home from the pub, she and her mother think he’s just had too much to drink. Little do they know that he’s dying of a stab wound to the back. By the time they get him home, he’s dead.

Who would want to kill Harry Dodd? When Inspector Littlejohn is called in to investigate this murder, he uncovers the dark side of the power-hungry Dodd family. Perhaps Dodd’s life was not as simple as it seemed…

Bogged down with jealousy, greed, and spurned lovers, Littlejohn has more suspects than he can handle. And as the body count rises, it seems there might be more than one murderer in his midst…