Dear Readers,
Do you know the feeling you get when your favourite characters come back for the next installment of their adventure? Well, A Witness to Murder is the third installment in A Lady Eleanor Swift Mysteries by Verity Bright. And I am the lucky one to read them all in correct order.
A Witness to Murder is out on 14 September and here is my review of the book for Netgalley.
Synopsis
A medieval house, a dead body and some rather suspicious chocolate fudge? Call for Lady Swift!
Autumn, 1920. Lady Eleanor Swift, accidental amateur detective and retired explorer, is determined to take a break from investigating murders. So when a local politician dies suddenly at an elegant dinner party at Farrington Manor, she tries her hardest not to listen to the raft of rumours around the village that he might have been poisoned by the fudge. It’s the anniversary of the disappearance of her beloved parents and she’s promised herself not to get mixed up with any more mysteries. She isn’t sure they’d have approved.
But when she arrives home to discover that Mrs Pitkin, the kindly cook from Farrington Manor, has been dismissed without wage or reference because the police consider her a suspect, Eleanor knows she needs to act. If there was a murder, then she needs to track down the culprit and clear Mrs Pitkin’s name.
Accompanied by her faithful partner in crime, Gladstone the bulldog, who has the best nose for sniffing out bones in the country, Eleanor sets out to find the killer. And when another body turns up and she finds poisoned fudge in the victim’s house, Eleanor knows she’s on the right track. But can she sort the truth from the lies before she becomes a witness to another murder – this time rather closer to home?
Review
My Dear Friend, I can’t keep up with you.
I only just read first two books in the series and hardly finished the third one, when the fourth is almost out. You keep having adventures… Well, keep on having them.
Lady Eleanor Swift hardly stepped over the threshold of her inherited mansion but she already immersed herself in the life of the village, lives of local gentry and… murders’ investigation.
This time it is all about politics, parties, dirty tricks and election campaigns. To top it all, Eleanor is running for MP… Well, the girl wants to do some good for her community, why not.
However, all these running around with leaflets, making speeches and rumming support for her election takes a lot of time and enegry. Murder investigation, in this third installment, has taken back seat more than once. And I found all these political nonsense just that… nonsense. Lady Swift and politics… I don’t think so.
Eleanor has her trusted butler Cliffords by her side, as well as her lovable bulldog Gladstone. Her staff are more like a family to her. Plus, she established very warm relationships with villagers and gentry alike. Her lovelife is a lot to be desired. I am more inclined towards detective rather than Lancelot (lord and rascal)… But that’s just me.
Lovely adventure, lovely characters. Dialogues, connections, places… What more could you wish for in cozy mystery.
Can’t wait for the next one
Svetlana Tishchenko 