Murder at a London Finishing School (A Beryl And Edwina Mystery, #7)

by Jessica Ellicott

Long before American adventuress Beryl Helliwell and prim and proper Brit Edwina Davenport teamed up as enquiry agents to solve mysteries, they attempted to unravel the mysteries of deportment and elocution. Now it’s back to school for the sleuths when murder strikes at their alma mater . . .

Neither Beryl nor Edwina are the least bit interested in attending events at their alma mater, Miss Dupont’s Finishing School for Young Ladies. Their lives are very full indeed in the village of Walmsley Parva. However, when a letter arrives from Miss Dupont herself requesting their help in a professional capacity, they reluctantly pack their bags for London.

Upon arrival, they learn from Miss Dupont that her business has seen a steep decline since the days before World War I and that now she is concerned a saboteur is attempting to damage the school’s reputation. Students have reported items missing, damaged possessions, and strange noises in the night.  Some of the girls even insist ghostly forces are at play.

Then a former classmate of theirs and mother of a prospective student is found dead on the school grounds. The roll call of suspects is long, and if Beryl and Edwina are to have a ghost of a chance of solving the murder, they can’t rule out the possibility that Miss Dupont herself may have finished off the victim . . .

• ISBN10: 1496740149
• ISBN13: 9781496740144
• Publish Date: 25 July 2023
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Kensington Publishing
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/isbn/9781496740144

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Murder at a London Finishing School is the 7th cozy mystery by Jessica Ellicott to feature Beryl & Edwina. Released 25th July 2023 by Kensington, it's 304 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. The paperback format is due out from the same publisher in December 2023. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

This is a delightfully quirky, beautifully written historical cozy village mystery set in the interwar period. There's skullduggery afoot at Edwina's alma mater, and she and Beryl are soon on the case at the exclusive girls' school from which Edwina matriculated years earlier. As with the other books in the series, there are lots of side plots which are engaging in themselves, but which also enrich and entwine with the main story. 

There's a very golden age feel to the whole and the author has a deft touch with dialogue and characterization. The characters are nuanced and delightfully rendered with drawing room wit. Although it's not at all derivative in any way, the feel of the story and the narrative voice remind me a lot of why I love Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce books. 

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 9 hours 23minutes and is -masterfully- read by series narrator Barbara Rosenblat. She has a beautifully modulated quite deep voice and the enunciation and perfection of characters' accents delighted me. There is a moderate amount of quite rapid dialogue in the read and she hops from crisp cut-glass upper class British to indefinite general English with quite distinct Scottish brogue, to a domestic servant's broad midlands without a single stumble. Virtuoso reading, a delight.

It could be read as a standalone, however, there will be major spoilers for earlier books in the series if read out of order. 

Four and a half stars, five for the audiobook narration. This would make a superlative choice for public library acquisition, social reading (bookclubs, buddy reads, etc - in fact the author has suggested discussion questions on her website) as well as being a great candidate for a very well written series binge read. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.