One suspicious death. Two amateur sleuths. And an utterly impossible crime…
The Cotswolds, 1924. At the Old Forge in the quiet village of Maybury-in-the-Marsh a cry of anguish rings out: lady of the house Amy Phelps has been discovered dead. But with all the windows and doors to her room locked from inside, how – and by whom – was she killed?
Arbuthnot ‘Arbie’ Swift finds himself in the unlikely position of detective. The celebrated author of The Gentleman’s Guide to Ghost-Hunting is staying at the Old Forge to investigate a suspected spectre, but now the more pressing matter of Amy’s murder falls to him too.
With old friend Val, he soon uncovers a sorry tale of altered wills, secret love affairs and tragic losses – and plenty of motives for murder. When events take another sinister turn, Arbie must find the killer, fast. And to do so will mean cracking a most perfectly plotted crime…
I enjoyed this book, I loved our main characters Arbie & Val - they made a great duo although think they would make a lovely couple also! Arbie seemed somewhat reluctant to be involved as the book he had written was mainly a tour guide of places to stay with very little 'ghosts' involved!
I loved the 'locked door' aspect as it did make it very difficult to work out the 'how' even though we had plenty of options for the why! There were some red herrings thrown in along the way to help throw us off the scent of our murderer and that was nicely done. I loved the final scenes when Arbie had figured it all out and was revealing who had done it, why they had done it and most - how they had done it!
I enjoyed the fact that we also got to learn a little about Arbie and his past and also his uncle who seemed very eccentric but another great character! I do hope that we may get to hear more from these characters as I would love to see them solve another case!
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