A Midwinter Murder
(Lady Eleanor Swift #20)
by Verity Bright
Homemade baubles, reindeer-shaped cookies and snowy walks across the rolling moors… but Lady Swift’s festive plans are ruined when a body turns up!
Winter 1924. When Lady Eleanor Swift unexpectedly finds herself a guest of the reclusive Duke of Auldwyke, she’s determined to enjoy Christmas with all the trimmings at his sprawling manor house. And that includes kisses under the mistletoe and cozying up by the fire with her fiancé, dashing detective Hugh Seldon.Instead, the season of goodwill turns frosty as she finds the Duke’s studious secretary,
Mr Porritt, dead in the storeroom. Clasped in his chilly hand is a golden pendant in the shape of a rose. The Duke denies ever having seen the necklace before. But Eleanor can see the lies in his eyes… Did it belong to his mysteriously absent wife?Hugh and Eleanor must ditch relaxing with hot cocoa in favour of interviewing the Duke’s holiday guests. Every suspect has a secret they’d kill to the socialite with the false name, the Sir with a questionable inheritance and the husband hiding a crack in his marriage.
As the blizzard outside rages, Auldwyke Hall becomes cut off. Trapped by the snow, Eleanor and Hugh must skate around the increasingly secretive Duke to unwrap the identity of the killer. But does the answer to the secretary’s murder lie with a ghost of Christmas past? And when an attempt is made on the Duke’s life too, they realise the killer is closer than they think…
A gripping and twisty Golden Age murder mystery set in a country house on the Yorkshire moors, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey and Lee Strauss!
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
Taylor’s affected rangy stride as he entered the room made Eleanor wonder if his ego was even more bloated than she’d feared. Or if he’d sat on something akin to a cactus.
I dream of you and me. Of me keeping you safe. And making you happy. And watching you grow into whatever you want to be. Of me somehow being the best husband since husbands were invented. Which is still less than you deserve.
…an open heart gives an open face, and yours is like a picture book.
‘He probably keeps a record of all my blunders to delight in chiding me over one day.’ ‘Regrettably not, my lady.’ Clifford’s eyes twinkled as he waggled his leather notebook. ‘Due to insufficient pages to record them all.’
My Review:
I have read every installment of this delightful series and deem this volume the best one yet. Team Verity Bright has more than perfected their characters and excels at producing authentic, well-conjured, and smoothly-polished tales that are sumptuously detailed and brimming with clever wry wit, endearing and daring hijinks, humorous repartee, and amusing observations. I have come to adore every quirky character.
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Verity Bright is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing partnership that has spanned a quarter of a century. Starting out writing high-end travel articles and books, they published everything from self-improvement to humor, before embarking on their first historical mystery. They are the authors of the fabulous Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery series, set in the 1920s.
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