(NetGalley description)
A dead body in the study, a terrible wrong to put right, and a trail that leads to murder…
London, 1928. Mystery writer and amateur detective Marius Quin is reeling from his friend’s murder in his own home. Forced to stay away from the case, he’s in urgent need of distraction when fate points him towards Felicity Mortimer, a woman imprisoned for poisoning her husband fifteen years earlier.
Marius soon becomes convinced of Felicity’s innocence, and when he discovers a key witness with his throat cut, it’s clear that the real killer is still on the loose. Determined to uncover the truth, Marius drags his partner-in-crime-solving, Lady Bella Montague, (not to forget his basset hound, Percy) to a manor house deep within the New Forest. But what dark secrets are concealed at the picturesque estate where Felicity once lived?
As their search for answers stirs up more violence, can Marius and Bella expose a deadly plot before death stalks the halls of Rhinefield House… again?
A few years ago I read one of Benedict Brown’s first stories in his other 1920s series, Lord Edgington Mysteries, I really enjoyed it. So I went into reading this – which is the fifth in Marius Quin’s adventures, and not totally disconnected from the other series – with high expectations.
I wasn’t disappointed.
Despite being the fifth book in a series, the narration immediately pulled me in. The natural-sounding, very personal first-person narration certainly played a major part.
Marius’s voice is close and friendly, and it has the effect of making you feel as if he is telling the story directly to you across a mug of coffee. He is a witty, very English man, and I greatly enjoyed his sense of humour as well as his self-deprecation. I also fell very quickly for his sense of justice and – despite what he always says about himself – his generosity.
Marius is seeking inspiration for a story that he can love – unlike the one he is currently working on, which his publisher loves but he detests. As he often does, he visits the library to browse through old newspapers. A fifteen-year-old case catches his attention, and even from the scant press reports, he immediately starts to think that something very wrong happened there. He decides to meet Felicity Mortimer, the woman convicted for murdering her husband, in the prison she’s kept and comes out surer than ever that she is innocent.
So he and Bella, his ‘partner in crime’, start an investigation to try and help her get out of jail.
I really liked this part of the story because I was never certain until the end whether Marius was placing his trust wisely. Everyone has their opinion about Felicity, some swearing by her innocence, others certain that she was and still is a very skilled manipulator of people.
Marius and Bella find a way to get into Felicity’s family’s country mansion, and I have to say the setting is masterfully created. The place is a relatively new mansion with a very strong fairy-tale character, a dark, almost gothic atmosphere, home to people who perfectly complement the place.
Felicity’s acquired family is eccentric and very interesting, dysfunctional and still very close. You can never be sure who you can trust because it is very clear that everyone has secrets. All of them know each other’s secrets (for the most part), and all of them protect each other’s secrets. It’s a crazy system, and yet once you know what’s going on, you almost understand why it exists and why it works.
I loved the family dynamics because I could always feel there was more to know, and yet discovering anything was extremely difficult.
The mystery is intricate. Only at the end do you fully understand how much.
I almost wanted some of it to be revealed a bit more slowly rather than have all the explanations concentrated at the end of the novel. However, I suspect this was a storytelling decision on the author’s part. And anyway, it didn’t take away anything from the enjoyment of the story.
It was an excellent read around a well-thought-out plot, and I really really enjoyed it.
Arsenic and Old Lies by Benedict Brown #CosyMystery #BookReviewA gripping #HistoricalMystery set in the 1920s English Countryside, following a cold case from before the Great War. Share on XArsenic and Old Lis
Excerpt
“Mr Quin, would you mind telling me why you decided to visit today?”
My tongue still felt heavy in my mouth, but I forced myself to speak. “Yes, of course. I’ve come here because I believe that a great injustice has befallen you.”
This did not trigger the instant wave of hope which I might have expected. Instead, she looked around at the other spaced-apart groups and the grey brick walls.
“You must call me Felicity,” she said in a small, restrained voice.
This was almost enough to suggest that everything negative I’d heard about her was pure fiction. Surely the devil-tongued temptress that the British press had attacked would have uttered this in a seductive manner. Surely she would have tried to ingratiate herself with the man who had come to save her.
“I genuinely believe that your case deserves re-examination, and I would like to help you.”
It was her turn to hesitate. Her expression was perplexed, her voice oddly flat. “It is very kind of you to take an interest in the matter.”
I was confused by her attitude, even though I recognised the instinct that had produced this response. Whenever a reader complements my books, I thank them, and yet I’m not sure that their praise register in my brain. It is a writer’s fate to always be his own worst critic.
I hurried to explain myself better. “I’m a private detective. My friend and I have investigated a number of complex cases this year, and I rather hope that, with your co-operation, I might be able to help you too.”
She shook her head, and my heart sank a little. “As I said, Mr Quin, I really am grateful that you would take the time to visit me, but…”
She turned away once more and wouldn’t finish that sentence.
“But I’m not the first person to make such a claim. Is that what you’re suggesting?”
Her eyes immediately flickered back to me and, for the first time, she regarded me with something approaching curiosity.
The Thursday Quotables was originally a weekly post created by Lisa Wolf for her book blog Bookshelf Fantasy . It isn’t a weekly post anymore, not even for Lisa, but just like her, I still love to share my favourite reads on Thursdays and I still use the original template which included an excerpt.
