annieb123
Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.
Death at the Dinner Party is the 2nd Adam & Eve cozy mystery by Emma Davies. Released 7th Dec 2022, it's 288 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, the whole series is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.
Introduced in book 1, Adam & Eve are an appealing duo of amateur sleuths who are (and remain) strictly platonic friends. There's a significant age gap between the two, with Fran (Eve), a caterer and event planner who is older (and wiser), complementing Adam's socially awkward younger worldview. He's a computer programmer and they make a good team. This installment sees the pair of them on-site for an ultra-exclusive house party in a Georgian mansion in Shropshire. When the host turns up dead, the duo are on site and ready to start making sense of the info they've discovered about the guests and their hosts. There are secrets and undercurrents aplenty, as they soon discover.
The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 8 hours and 29 minutes and is expertly narrated by Mira Dovreni. Ms. Dovreni has a classically trained, well modulated voice and does a good job with the wide range of characters of both sexes and ages. I found her accent unobtrusive after a few minutes. It was easy to concentrate on the story.
The language is clean (PG rated) and the violence is mostly off-scene. It's perfectly safe for work/commute reading and the resolution and denouement are well written and satisfying. Spelling and vernacular are British English, but won't present any problems at all for readers in context. With four excellent books extant in the series, it would be a good choice for a long weekend binge read. The mysteries are all self contained, so they can be read in any order, but are best in the order written.
Four stars. Very fun.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.