Murder at the Manor
Tommy & Evelyn Christie #1
by Catherine Coles
My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Historical cozy mystery
Tommy and Evelyn Christie are spending the weekend at Tommy’s family home, a large estate belonging to his uncle, the Earl of Northmoor. Evelyn, who is not initially from such high-society, is mostly expecting to just grin and bear it. But when the Earl dies and murder is suspected, it’s clear the weekend will be anything but boring. Tommy and Evelyn, who both worked for the police in some capacity in the past, can’t help but perform their own investigation into the plethora of family, acquaintances, and staff who were at the estate for the weekend.
The first in a series of cozy mysteries, I had some ups and downs with this book. The mystery was a little light, not that I knew for sure who had done it, but more that the motive behind it was mundane and easily suspected. The setting was interesting, though the dialog didn’t always feel true to the time period. I didn’t care for the way that pretty much every character except for the 2 MCs and most of the staff is hiding some kind of deplorable secret. Just about every married person is having an affair or had one in the past. Maybe this is completely normal for the setting, I don’t know, but I didn’t care for it.
The weirdest thing, to me, is that the investigating, in particular the interviews the MCs would perform with suspects, felt like something right out of a mystery video game. I’ve played a lot of Nancy Drew games in the past, and it seemed a lot like that. It just didn’t feel natural.
Overall, it was mostly an okay book, nothing to stand out in either direction. It’s fairly short, which I’m sure contributes to it feeling somewhat shallow, but it’s really not bad either. Just not my overall preference for a story. I thought it might be a new series for me to get into, with the 4th book being released a few months ago, but I will most likely pass on this series. However, I think plenty of fans of cozy mysteries and fiction from this time in history (1920s England) are likely to enjoy the book, so if that describes you, consider looking it up.
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If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!
A Journey of Words 
Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t finished reading the book
Maybe I’m being dense, but as the family lawyer who drew up the wills, wouldn’t Westley have known what was in Charles and Eddie’s wills? Wouldn’t he have known that Lillian wasn’t in either? So how would he profit from their deaths?
Please explain if I’m missing something!
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Sadly, I already don’t remember the story enough to even try to provide an answer to this. It was not terribly memorable for me, apparently.
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Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t finished reading the book
I don’t seem to follow the reveal at the end of the novel. As the family lawyer who drew up the wills, wouldn’t Westley have known what was in Charles’ and Eddie’s wills and that Lillian wasn’t in either? So how would he profit from their deaths?
Maybe I’m missing something!
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