Publication: 18th December 2023 – Storm Publishing
A mystery novelist with writer’s block, a lavish party to ring in the new year, and a film star with three bullets through his head…
December 1927. Mystery-writer Marius Quin has one previous bestseller, endless looming mortgage payments, and no idea how to write his next book. When his childhood friend Lady Isabella Montague invites him to an intimate New Year’s Eve party hosted by a narcissistic actor, Marius seizes upon the distraction. With his perpetually glum Basset hound along for the ride, he navigates the snowy lanes to the opulent estate of Everham Hall. As the celebrations begin, fireworks light up the sky, champagne corks pop, and then the host is murdered…
Snowed-in and with the police unable to reach them, Marius is the closest thing the panicked party has to a detective and he is swiftly nominated to find the killer. But when two more guests are attacked, Marius soon realises that solving mysteries is even harder than writing them. With Bella at his side, and a clutch of conniving suspects to choose from, can Marius find the culprit before the killer targets him?
A completely charming and witty golden-age cozy mystery, perfect for the Christmas season. Fans of Agatha Christie, T E Kinsey and Lee Strauss won’t be able to put down the Marius Quin Mysteries!
I am always looking for a nice cozy mystery novel and Murder at Everham Hall was a nice discovery. It’s an entertaining and gripping story with a charming and witty protagonist.
Marius Quin’s first novel has been a huge success, but now it seems to be suffering from writer’s block, so when his former love, Lady Isabella Montague, invites him to spend New Year’s Eve at a party at a friend’s house, an actor mostly famous for his drug problems, he looks forward to the distraction. Accompanied by his basset hound, he arrives at Everham Hall, but the atmosphere is tense among the guests, especially after the host is found dead, shot three times. A snowstorm prevents anyone from arriving or leaving the house, which means that the killer is one of the guests. And with the police unable to reach the house, it falls on Marius to investigate the murder. Helped by Bella, the two need to figure out the truth before the killer hits again.
The story is set in 1927 and it’s a fantastic whodunit mystery full of twists, secrets to be revealed, and feelings to uncover. I loved the character of Marius. He is likable, intriguing, smart, with an interesting past story which I am hoping it will be more explored in the next books, as well as his relationship with Lady Isabella which makes for a gripping side story and adds some romance to the plot.
Well-written, suspenseful, and immersive, Murder at Everham Hall is my first novel by Benedict Brown, but it certainly won’t be my last. I have already got my hands on a couple of his other books (the Lord Edgington Investigates series), but I am really looking forward to the next book in the Marius Quin Mystery series… I can’t wait to see what he and Bella are up to next!
A huge thank to Storm Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of the novel.
I’m a Welsh-Irish-Englishman originally from South London but now living in Burgos, a beautiful medieval city in the north of Spain, with my French-Spanish wife and two our ridiculously international children. Writing has always been my passion. It was my favourite half-an-hour a week at primary school, and I started on my first, truly abysmal book as a teenager. So it wasn’t a difficult decision to study literature at university which led to an MA in Creative Writing.I grew up in a crime-fiction-mad family and had made a few clumsy attempts at writing one over the years before coming up with the idea for my contemporary whodunits “The Izzy Palmer Mysteries”. My second series, the 1920s-set “Lord Edgington Investigates…”, has been a great success, with each of the books making a mark on the mystery charts, and I’m about to launch a second historical series.If you’d like to tell me what you think about my detectives, my writing or the world at large, feel free to get in touch at http://www.benedictbrown.net where you can also download my free mystery novellas.
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