This was a nice cozy mystery, and almost felt like it was taking place in the 20's if it wasn't for talk of cell phones and google searches. The place I had the hardest time with was thinking any police officer would be so willing to listen to an amateur detectives theories and whatnot. Other than that, I found it an easy and enjoyable read. ( )

I received this book as an Early Reviewer. I enjoy cozy mysteries and this did not disappoint. Artist Susie Mahl is invited to join a weekend house party at Archie Wellingham’s country estate, Fontaburn Hall, along with an interesting mix of Archie’s friends. One of the party, American fun loving party girl Hailey Dune, is murdered during the weekend. Amateur sleuth Susie, who herself says that ‘once something is amiss I can become rather obsessed with working it out,’ sets out to solve the case. I enjoyed this book, which is the second in the series. The setting reminded me of a place I might find Miss Marple, and I was still guessing as to who the guilty party was at the end. I will most likely read the first book after reading this one. ( )

I won this book as an Early Reviewer. I enjoy cozy mysteries. I did read this but it was very slow moving. At first I thought the story took place in the 1930’s England. The setting was a country estate with LOTS of alcohol consumption. It reminded me more of an Agatha Christie or Dashiel Hammett novel. The time period was so vague that the only hint to the actual setting were references to Silicon Valley and a private jet. No one had their cell phones out to text or check messages or take photos. If I were spending the weekend at a country estate in Britain, I would be taking many photos. The main character, Susie, was annoying. Her relationship with her male friend was pretty vague. None of the characters were very well developed. The ending was not very believable. I have no interest in reading any more novels in this series. ( )

I received a copy of this book from Early Reviewers back in June and have been diligently trying to read this book ever since I received it. Sad to say, it's October and I'm still only partially done. This never seemed to grab me, and I couldn't decide if the book was meant to serious or comic. Not my cup of tea. ( )

I feel kind of "meh" about this book. It wasn't bad, and at times it held my interest, but at other points I felt I was slogging through a bit. It's sort of a classic British mystery--there's a mysterious death during a weekend party at a manor house. The detective is an amateur who's an artist. She's also at the party and from then on just can't let it go and wants to figure out what happened to the person who died.

Meanwhile, there is a bunch of what was to me rather boring relationship stuff, and some drawing of horses. It's all a bit disjointed and the resolution of the mystery is anti-climactic. I was particularly put off by the incredibly wrong and ignorant information related to different kinds of mental illness. The descriptions given were completely incorrect (I'm a psychologist so I'm very familiar with the disorders mentioned) and there's simply no excuse for that--there's lots of information available online, but the it seems that the author didn't want to bother to get it right. The relationship with the DCI was also extremely unrealistic (since when do the police share all of their information with an amateur, especially one who was at the murder scene?) and that was also somewhat off putting. I don't mind having to suspend belief a bit for a good story, but this really strained credulity.

So, while I don't feel that this book was terrible by any means, it's also not one I would recommend, and it's unlikely that I will read any other in this series. ( )