Penalty Stroke

A Lady Madison Abbott Mystery, Book 1

By: Susan Leigh Shallcross

Narrated by: Vanessa Richardson

Penalty Stroke is the first in a series that will bring hours of reading pleasure to suspense lovers with a thrilling mystery centered on the aristocratic and magnificently wealthy Abbott family...and the dark secrets of their past that continue to seep into the present.

In an almost unprecedented response to a past tragedy, Lady Madison Abbott is now the scion of the Abbott family, and heir not only to their magnificent estates in the English countryside and London, but to her father's dukedom as well. But nothing is as it seems in Madison's world. When her university friend falls unexpectedly ill and dies at a charity polo match, Scotland Yard does not believe that it could have been murder. Her once and possibly future lover may have been the killer. Or he may be the next to die. Madison doesn't know who she can trust-maybe not even herself. Degrees in psychology as well as a thriving practice in London cannot erase Madison's haunted past-or keep her out of danger now.

From her parents' splendid holdings in Tetbury to the chic clubs of London, Madison races against time and the shadowy agendas of her glamorous “friends” to solve the murder and escape her own past.

©2012 Susan Leigh Shallcross (P)2013 Susan Leigh Shallcross

How did this get published?

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I don't think this book is for anyone who 1. reads mysteries and 2. reads British Mysteries.

Would you ever listen to anything by Susan Leigh Shallcross again?

not a nother mystery never, perhaps some light Chic Lit

What didn’t you like about Vanessa Richardson’s performance?

I am sure that she can read a book well if a British Accent is only occasional. However when 98% of the story calls for a British Accent she does not have the depth of experience to pull it off

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

It was clever the way she work the Young Royals of Great Britain into the story however I the author depended to heavily on that angle to carrier the story.

Any additional comments?

if you are going to write a mystery story around the police then you need to be somewhat accurate about labels and basic procedures. As example the British police don't flash their badges the use a warrant card. One of the most glaring was with the gun usage. Yes rules in England are changing and their are more police that are trained and armed but certainly not in the way this was portrayed. The whole story just didn't hang together.