Publication: 19th June 2025 – Storm Publishing
A dead body in the study, a terrible wrong to put right, and a trail that leads to murder…
London, 1928. Mystery writer and amateur detective Marius Quin is reeling from his friend’s murder in his own home. Forced to stay away from the case, he’s in urgent need of distraction when fate points him towards Felicity Mortimer, a woman imprisoned for poisoning her husband fifteen years earlier.
Marius soon becomes convinced of Felicity’s innocence, and when he discovers a key witness with his throat cut, it’s clear that the real killer is still on the loose. Determined to uncover the truth, Marius drags his partner-in-crime-solving, Lady Bella Montague, (not to forget his basset hound, Percy) to a manor house deep within the New Forest. But what dark secrets are concealed at the picturesque estate where Felicity once lived?
As their search for answers stirs up more violence, can Marius and Bella expose a deadly plot before death stalks the halls of Rhinefield House… again?
A captivating and atmospheric 1920s mystery that will delight fans of Agatha Christie, T E Kinsey, and Lee Strauss.
I have been reading the Marius Quin Mystery series since the first book and I am always looking forward to a new adventure, but I was especially excited about this fifth book because of the ending of the fourth book, A Body at the Grand Hotel. Mystery author and occasional private detective Marius Quin is back for another investigation together with his friend and former girlfriend Lady Bella Montague and his basset hound, Percy. However, following the shocking discovery at the end of the previous book (no spoiler!), the atmosphere is filled with tension and grief.
Their new case is a fifteen-year-old murder in which a young woman was accused of poisoning her older husband. She was sentenced to prison, but Marius is convinced of her innocence and is determined to find out the truth. The mystery was quite intriguing and the author informs us that he was inspired by the real case of Florence Maybrick at the end of the 19th century, of which he gives us a detailed and interesting summary at the end of the book.
I adore this series. The writing style is entertaining and addictive and the characters are always interesting and well-developed. As always, Marius is endearing and witty, Lady Bella flawlessly manages every situation, and Percy is his usual adorable self.
Fast-paced, clever, and with a plot full of twists, Arsenic and Old Lies is another winner for me and with yet another ending that left me looking forward to the next book!
A huge thank you to Storm Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of this fantastic 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 www.benedictbrown.net where you can also download my free mystery novellas.
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