Publication: 13th September 2024 – Bookouture
In a candlelit ballroom, London’s most fashionable amateur sleuth, Cressida Fawcett, is dancing the night away in her sparkling silk dress. It’s a night Cressida will never forget. Because outside the window, there’s a body under the falling snow…
Christmas Eve, 1925. The Honourable Cressida Fawcett is delighted to attend an exclusive ball at London’s glamorous Mayfair Hotel. When she steps out into the moonlit courtyard with her little pug Ruby wrapped in her furs, she is thrilled to see a dashing man propose to her best pal under the swirling snowflakes. But instead of squealing ‘yes’, Dotty lets out a terrified scream…
Because floating in the fountain, with her long blonde hair rippling in the ice-cold water, is the body of their dear friend Lady Victoria Beaumont.
It’s clear the wealthy young beauty was murdered, whacked over the head with a bottle of champagne. Would Victoria’s elderly husband Lord Beaumont kill his wife over rumours of her younger beau? Or did someone clobber Victoria to prevent her producing an heir for the Beaumont fortune?
A snowstorm prevents the authorities from arriving, and just as Cressida searches for clues, she finds herself locked inside a large wicker hamper. Why does the scent of the hamper’s smoky luxury tea remind her of the crime scene? And will a suspiciously rotund Ruby follow her snuffly nose and find Cressida in the nick of time?
Trapped in the hotel with a killer lurking among the guests, will Cressida lose someone dear to her heart? And when she finds a clue among the Christmas crackers, can Cressida solve her most mysterious case yet?
The perfect cozy whodunnit for a cold winter’s night. Fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey and Lee Strauss won’t be able to put this down!
Murder in the Mayfair Hotel is my second Christmas novel of the year and it’s yet another 1920s historical mystery novel. I’ve heard of Fliss Chester, but I still hadn’t had the chance to read it, until I saw Murder in the Mayfair Hotel, the sixth book in the Cressida Fawcett Mystery series, up on NetGalley and I thought that now was the time to read it and I wasn’t disappointed.
With a few Agatha Christie vibes and many twists, Murder in the Mayfair Hotel kept me quite engaged. There is a murder and little time to find the killer, a long list of suspects, a young lady determined to discover the truth, and an adorable pug that can’t stay out of trouble.
It’s Christmas Eve and the Honourable Cressida Fawcett is celebrating with her friends at the Mayfair Hotel. The atmosphere is festive and romantic. While her best friend Dotty may finally become engaged to her beau, Cressida is getting closer to Dotty’s brother, Alfred, Lord Delafield. But the happy mood is interrupted when a body is found in the hotel’s fountain. It’s clear that the young woman has been murdered and the killer is one of the guests. With only a few hours until all the guests leave, Cressida and her friends have little time to find the murderer.
I found the character of Cressida Fawcett very interesting. She is smart and witty and she has already been involved in a few investigations, so the police detectives are familiar with her. I adored her pug Ruby, always following her around, and I enjoyed the small bit of romance that she manages to get during the investigation. I can’t wait to get my hands on the other books in the series and I am looking forward to reading her next adventures!
A huge thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of the novel.
Fliss Chester lives in a little village in West Sussex, and writes historical cozy crime. When she is not killing people off in her 1920s and 1940s whodunnits, she helps her husband, who is a wine merchant, run their family business. This means she’s never far from a decent glass of something, which makes her very happy indeed.
Before writing her two cozy crime series, she wrote fun and flirty romances – the sort of thing that might make your mother blush. Not hers though, as it was her mother who always encouraged her to be ‘anything you want, darling, as long as it’s not dull’. Hopefully readers will attest to the fact that whether it’s death by cyanide or a smooch in a hot tub, there’s nothing dull about Fliss’s books.
The current series that Fliss is working on is the Hon Cressida Fawcett Mysteries Series. Our heroine, Cressida, is a fun-loving heiress in 1920s England – though when she’s not propping up the cocktail bar at The Savoy, she’s helping people with their interior decorating projects. Through her love of decorating, and the fact she keeps tripping over dead bodies, she realises that her eye for design means she has an eye for a crime too. Why not pick up the series with the first book, Death Among the Diamonds, and join Cressida for a martini and a murder!
Book After Book 