Tag: Beth Cowan-Erskine

Only Murders in the Abbey by Beth Cowen-Erskine

Published on by Margaret6 Comments

Hodder & Stoughton/ 13 February 2025/ 363 pages/e-book |Review copy| 5*

I read the first Loch Down Murder Mystery, Loch Down Abbey in 2021 and enjoyed it very much, so I was looking forward to reading Only Murders in the Abbey, set in 1930s Scotland . And I’m glad to say that I thought it was even better than the first one.

Description from the publishers:

Mrs MacBain, thank god it’s you.’ Without another word, he grabbed her arm and pulled her into the room, locking the door behind them. Mrs MacBain turned around, clearly offended at being manhandled, but then gasped, ‘Is that blood?’

Loch Down Abbey is full of guests for a Highland Ball. Including several uninvited members of the Inverkillen clan, the Abbey’s former residents. Housekeeper Mrs MacBain thinks her biggest challenge will be finding suitable rooms for everyone and keeping the peace at cocktail hour.

Until the morning after the ball, when one of the guests is discovered inside the Abbey’s library – as dead as a doornail.

Who would have had motive to want them dead? And how did they manage to commit their crime and escape while keeping the door locked from the inside?

With an Abbey full of suspects and secrets, it is down to Mrs MacBain to catch the killer before they strike again…

The Abbey, formerly the ancestral home of the Ogilvy-Sinclair family is now an hotel, owned by several of the long-standing employees and staffed mainly by the former servants, led by Mrs Alice McBain as the Director of Operations. The manager of the hotel is The Honourable Fergus Ogilvy-Sinclair, the youngest grandson of Lady Georgina, the Dowager Countess of Inverkillen. Her eldest grandson is Lord Angus Inverkillen, the current Earl of Inverkillen.

There are so many characters in this book including family members, hotel staff and guests that I found it difficult to keep track of all of them. However the main characters are very clearly defined and there is a list of all the characters at the beginning of the book, which is a great help.

The book begins the morning after a Highland Ball as Hudson, one of the co-owners of the Abbey, is doing his rounds when he finds a dead body in the Small Library, which had been locked for the Ball. The name of the victim is not revealed. The narrative then goes back to the fortnight before the Ball, introducing the characters and their relationships and it is not until the second half of the book that the identity of the victim is revealed.

Detective Inspector Jarvis from the local constabulary is called in to investigate, but as Mrs McBain thinks he is not ‘the sharpest axe in the shed’. And it is mainly down to her to get to the bottom of the mystery – how a murder could take place in a locked room, who had the motive to commit murder and how was the opium trade in Shanghai involved. As the victim had been stabbed to death the number of suspects includes all the men at the ball who were in Highland dress which includes a sgian-dubh, (pronounced ‘skeen doo’), a small single-edged knife, worn as part of Highland dress in the sock of a kilted Scot. So, there are many suspects, making the investigation tremendously complicated and involving many red herrings, and twists and turns as several secrets and scandals are revealed.The Epilogue introduces yet another unexpected turn.

How on earth Beth Cowan-Erskine kept so many strands in play, set in a richly described location and with believable characters is totally beyond me. But she did, with immense skill making this a most enjoyable book. As she describes it it is ‘a lunatic world’ that she has created. I really hope there will be a third Lock Down Murder Mystery.

Many thanks to the publishers for a review copy via NetGalley.

WWW Wednesday: 5 February 2025

Published on by Margaret16 Comments

WWW Wednesday is run by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently I’m reading Only Murders in the Abbey by Beth Cowan-Erskine.

This is the second Loch Down Abbey Mystery, to be published on 13 February. Set in 1930’s Scotland the story revolves around Loch Down Abbey which has now been turned into a hotel. The Abbey is full of guests for a Highland Ball, including several uninvited members of the Inverkillen family, the Abbey’s former owners. Housekeeper Mrs MacBain thinks her biggest challenge will be finding suitable rooms for everyone and keeping the peace at cocktail hour. Until the morning after the ball, when one of the guests is discovered inside the Abbey’s library – as dead as a doornail.

The last book I read was The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths

This is the first in a new series – an Ali Dawson Mystery to be published on 13 February. I loved it. It’s the first in a new series. It’s not like her other books, but it’s still a murder mystery. You do need to suspend your disbelief because she heads a cold case team who investigate crimes so old, they’re frozen – or so their inside joke goes. Most people don’t know that they travel back in time to complete their research.

I do hope there are more Ali Dawson books in the pipeline. The way this one ends it looks as though there will be at least one more.

What will I read next? I’m not sure. At the moment I think it won’t be crime fiction as I fancy a change.

So it might be Greek Lessons by Han Kang, the winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, a new-to-me author. This is a new translation by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won, of the 2011 novel that explores how a teacher losing his sight and a pupil losing her voice form a poetic bond. It is a short book, of just 149 pages narrated by the two unnamed characters, one a woman grieving for her mother and her son, now in the custody of her ex-husband. She is also experiencing the loss of her ability to speak. The other is a man losing his connection to place and family, as well as the loss of his eyesight.  They meet when the woman attends his Ancient Greek lessons.

Or it could be something else.

Top 5 Tuesday: Top 5 anticipated reads for Q1 2025

Published on by Margaret6 Comments

Top 5 Tuesday was created by Shanah at Bionic Book Worm, and it is now being hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads. For details of all of the latest prompts for January to March, see Meeghan’s post here.

The topic this week is Top 5 anticipated reads for Q1 2025. It’s time to talk about all the shiny new books coming out in January, February and March in 2025. What are the books you can’t wait to hold in your hands the most?

Murder as a Fine Art (A book in the Julian Rivers series) by Carol Carnac (E.C.R. Lorac) Publication date 10 January 2025

When a civil servant at the newly formed Ministry of Fine Arts is found crushed beneath a monstrous marble bust after dark, it appears to be the third instance in a string of fatal accidents at the department. Already disturbed by rumours of forgeries and irregularities in the Ministry’s dealings, Minister Humphry David is soon faced with the possibility that among his colleagues is a murderer – though how the bust could have been made an instrument of death is a masterstroke of criminal devilment. Taking charge of the case, Inspector Julian Rivers of Scotland Yard enters a caustic world of fine art and civil service grievances to unveil a killer hiding in plain sight.

Murder on the Marlow Belle (The Marlow Murder Club Mysteries, Book 4) by Robert Thorogood Publication date 16 January 2025

Verity Beresford is worried about her husband. Oliver didn’t come home last night so of course Verity goes straight to Judith Potts, Marlow’s resident amateur sleuth, for help. Oliver, founder of the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, had hired The Marlow Belle, a private pleasure cruiser, for an exclusive party with the MADS committee but no one remembers seeing him disembark. And then Oliver’s body washes up on the Thames with two bullet holes in him – it’s time for the Marlow Murder Club to leap into action.

Oliver was a rather complicated chap and he wasn’t short of enemies. Judith, Suzie, and Becks are convinced they’ll crack the case in no time. But things are not as they seem in the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, and the gang will need to keep their wits about them, otherwise a killer may sail away scot-free …

Only Murders in the Abbey by Beth Cowan-Erskine Publication date 13 February 2025

Loch Down Abbey is full of guests for a Highland Ball. Including several uninvited members of the Inverkillen clan, the Abbey’s former residents. Housekeeper Mrs MacBain thinks her biggest challenge will be finding suitable rooms for everyone and keeping the peace at cocktail hour.

Until the morning after the ball, when one of the guests is discovered inside the Abbey’s library – as dead as a doornail.

Who would have had motive to want them dead? And how did they manage to commit their crime and escape while keeping the door locked from the inside? With an Abbey full of suspects and secrets, it is down to Mrs MacBain to catch the killer before they strike again…

The Frozen People: An Ali Dawson Mystery by Elly Griffiths Publication date 13 February 2025

Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old, they’re frozen – or so their inside joke goes. Most people don’t know that they travel back in time to complete their research.

The latest assignment sees Ali venture back farther than they have dared before: to 1850s London in order to clear the name of Cain Templeton, the eccentric great-grandfather of MP Isaac Templeton. Rumour has it that Cain was part of a sinister group called The Collectors; to become a member, you had to kill a woman…

Fearing for her safety in the middle of a freezing Victorian winter, Ali finds herself stuck in time, unable to make her way back to her life, her beloved colleagues, and her son, Finn, who suddenly finds himself in legal trouble in the present day. Could the two cases be connected?

Murder at Gulls Nest: Nora Breen Investigates by Jess Kidd Publication date 13 March 2025

Somewhere in the north, a religious community meets for Vespers. Here on the southeast coast, Nora Breen prepares for braised liver and a dining room full of strangers.

After thirty years in a convent, Nora Breen has thrown off her habit and set her sights on the seaside town of Gore-on-Sea. Why there? Why now? Instinct tells her it’s better not to reveal her reasons straight away. She takes a room at Gulls Nest guest house and settles in to watch and listen.

Over disappointing – and sometimes downright inedible – dinners, Nora realises that she was right to keep quiet: her fellow lodgers are hiding something. At long last, she has found an outlet for her powers of observation and, well, nosiness: there is a mystery to solve, and she is the only person for the job.

Loch Down Abbey by Beth Cowan-Erskine

Published on by Margaret7 Comments

Hodder & Stoughton| April 2021| 300 pages| ebook| Review copy| 4*

Description

It’s the 1930s and a mysterious illness is spreading over Scotland. But the noble and ancient family of Inverkillen, residents of Loch Down Abbey, are much more concerned with dwindling toilet roll supplies and who will look after the children now that Nanny has regretfully (and most inconveniently) departed this life.

Then Lord Inverkillen, Earl and head of the family, is found dead in mysterious circumstances. The inspector declares it an accident but Mrs MacBain, the head housekeeper, isn’t so convinced. As no one is allowed in or out because of the illness, the residents of the house – both upstairs and downstairs – are the only suspects. With the Earl’s own family too busy doing what can only be described as nothing, she decides to do some digging – in between chores, of course – and in doing so uncovers a whole host of long-hidden secrets, lies and betrayals that will alter the dynamics of the household for ever.

Loch Down Abbey is a light, quick and easy read that kept me entertained. The pun in the title suggested to me that it would be an amusing novel and the publishers describe it as a playful, humorous novel set in 1930s Scotland. I think it’s quite like a cross between a P G Wodehouse novel and a country house mystery, with elements of farce.

Loch Down Abbey, is a large rambling house with 125 rooms, not including the servants’ quarters, and 5 thousand acres of land on the shores of Loch Down. It has been the home of the Ogilvy-Sinclair Clan for six centuries. I found it quite bewildering at first as there are so many characters. I had to keep going back to the List of Characters to remind myself who they all were.

It’s partly a cozy, historical murder mystery, but mostly a family saga. Lord Hamish Inverkillen is found dead, and at first it looks like an accident, but the housekeeper Mrs MacBain thinks it could be murder. It becomes clear that the Abbey, as well as their whisky distillery is in debt, so much so that the only way they can survive is to sell the house, the distillery and land. There’s a mysterious illness known as Virulent Pernicious Mauvaise spreading around the country. Loch Down Abbey has to go into lockdown! Most of the servants catch the disease and have to be isolated away from the family, meaning that the family have to make their own breakfasts, light the fires in the bedrooms and make their own beds – unheard of for aristocrats! And as Nanny has died the children run wild causing all sorts of mayhem.

As Mrs MacBain and Inspector Jarvis investigate Hamish’s death, lots of secrets and scandals are revealed. I really liked the descriptions of the Abbey itself complete with secret passages, reminding me of Enid Blyton’s novels and I thought the ending, though a bit unbelievable, was inevitable.

My thanks to the publishers for a review copy via NetGalley.