When the body of a strange young woman is found in the Earl of Unsworth’s garden during a party, his capable secretary Mr. Quayle is tasked with keeping the family from scandal during the investigation – a task only made harder by the secrets everyone is keeping.
This is a cozy sort of mystery in 1920s England, with the vibe you’d get if you blend the adventurous plots of Sherlock Holmes and the humorous domestic drama of PG Wodehouse. I liked how the author built the rigid class structure of the times into the mystery and the characters’ attitudes, making the post-war setting come alive. The mystery is a complicated one with plenty of red herrings and dead ends, and I liked that I was able to solve some of it but not the whole.
However, I did feel like the big reveal of the solution was poorly handled, overlong with some amount of melodrama and dastardly behavior on the parts of the villains. The writing got repetitive in parts as well, with certain words and phrases – glares and ‘sharp smiles’ – peppered noticeably throughout. While characters were distinct and had their share of shades of grey, I never got particularly interested in any of them, maybe because no one struck me as very likable or interesting.
I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by Rafe Beckley. I thought he did an excellent job, bringing humor to the production and providing distinct voices for a range of characters with different regional accents. His performance definitely elevated my listening experience and kept me absorbed in the story.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.