Murder at Everham Hall

A Marius Quin Mystery, Book 1

De: Benedict Brown

Narrado por: George Blagden

A mystery novelist with writer’s block, a lavish party to ring in the new year, and a film star with three bullets through his head…

December 1927. Mystery-writer Marius Quin has one previous bestseller, endless looming mortgage payments, and no idea how to write his next book. When his childhood friend Lady Isabella Montague invites him to an intimate New Year’s Eve party hosted by a narcissistic actor, Marius seizes upon the distraction. With his perpetually glum Basset hound along for the ride, he navigates the snowy lanes to the opulent estate of Everham Hall. As the celebrations begin, fireworks light up the sky, champagne corks pop, and then the host is murdered…

Snowed-in and with the police unable to reach them, Marius is the closest thing the panicked party has to a detective and he is swiftly nominated to find the killer. But when two more guests are attacked, Marius soon realises that solving mysteries is even harder than writing them. With Bella at his side, and a clutch of conniving suspects to choose from, can Marius find the culprit before the killer targets him?

A completely charming and witty golden-age cozy mystery, perfect for the Christmas season. Fans of Agatha Christie, T E Kinsey and Lee Strauss won’t be able to put down the Marius Quin Mysteries!

©2023 Benedict Brown (P)2023 Storm Publishing

Great new series!

I love this new series! Dare I say it, I perhaps like it more than the Lord Edgington series. Marius is as endearing as the fledgling detective Chrissy in LE, and is even funnier. George Blagden does an incredible job of bringing the new characters to life. I am quite ready for Bella to figure out that Gilbert has to go and she still belongs with Marius. I suppose I’ll have to wait a few books for that to happen. I have read/listened to the first three books and eagerly await the next.

Different characters, interesting setting

Definitely entertained. Loved the information the end. Will continue to listen to this author. I recommend to ask who enjoy a light mystery

Same voices in different series

Unfortunately, I couldn’t follow this series as the main character Marius sounds and personality is narrated exactly like Christopher in another of the author’s series Lord Edgington Investgate. Unsure if story written with same tone, but audio version is a carbon copy. Which is often the problem when an author uses the same narrator for a different series, they should use a different narrator for each if their series.

I will try reading this series and hope I can get a different tone for a distinction in storylines between the two series.

Style and Story

I like the way the story is written, giving the main character personality that includes making mistakes, needing sleep, and other real life aspects. It is a delightful story with some historic value. Thank you and please keep writing!

Good tale. Characterisations need some work

The tale was fun, but I think the characters and characterisations need some work. Marius sounded and thought like an older Christopher Prentice without the engaging charm. To me Bella was a touch bland. George Blagden is an excellent narrator but too often I could hear Christopher Prentice, Lord Edgington and his mother breaking through in various voices. I think for this series to be as good as the wonderful Lord Edgington series it needs the characters and characterisations to be distinctly different.

Atmospheric Golden Age Mystery

Love the descriptive word picture the author creates to bring this cozy to life. The characters are interesting, the conversation witty and the plot keeps you guessing. I'm looking forward to the next addition to this promising new series!

I didn’t skip ahead even once.

I don’t always have the greatest patience and it’s not unusual for me to skip ahead with cozy mysteries if I find they are dragging. This book kept my interests all the way through.
There are a couple moving parts to the story with our main character working through some work issues, an unexpected meeting with an old flame, clarity about his life choices and then a murder to solve. All this is done quite well and not only gives us a pretty good cozy mystery but also a solid beginning to a new series.
Good delivery of wit with the story delivery to help keep the main character interesting.
Reasonable revealing of clues and information to feel involved in the storyline.
By the end of the story not only do we know “who done it” but we also end the book feeling that we know the main character well. And with that familiarity we look forward to meeting up again in the next book.

Humor, intelligence, humanity

I thought his books completely enjoyable. I would very much like to know each one of his characters. Write an interesting and depicted generously with an understanding of human diversity.

Decent Mystery

A mystery about a mystery writer with writer's block, solving a mystery...in a house isolated by snow on New Year's Eve...with all the guests having reasons to kill Dr. Lucky*. Fortunately, it doesn't take itself so seriously that you need to take the cliches very seriously.

Set in the 1920s, the protagonist is a WWI infantry veteran who has spent all of his second-novel advances, but hasn't written anything but the first chapter of his second novel. While trying to figure out how to pay the mortgage on his very expensive apartment in London, he is invited to a party at a stately home owned by an actor, and, this being a murder mystery, a mysterious murder ensues.

The course of the investigation is bog standard for this kind of book. There is the usual cast of assorted potential villains, in addition to the protagonist's former girlfriend, who he broke up with just before going off to the front in France. There is the usual interview phase, followed by the usual red herring phase, followed by the solution of the murder.

But the solution of the murder is clever and entertaining, and rather less cliched than the rest of the book. And there's an author's notes section after the end of the novel, where he discusses interesting bits he found during his research, that I found entertaining.

There's not enough special here for me to really recommend the book in general, but I don't think my time and money were wasted. If you want the usual thing, but not in exactly the usual way, this might be a good choice.

* Not his real name. Geek points if you can identify the source of that joke.

Mystery Maven

What a great first entry! Good story, great narration, and looking forward to the next installment. Give it a read.