annieb123
Written on Apr 3, 2022
Murder Most Festive is a modern Golden Age style country house mystery by Ada Moncrieff. Released 12th Oct 2021 by Poisoned Pen Press, it's 288 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately; it makes it so easy to find information with the search function.
This is a lighthearted historical country house mystery set in 1938 on the cusp of WW2, in Sussex. The author has peopled the scenes with a selection of characters of various backgrounds and levels of wealth, sprinkled in a murder, lots of secrets, and stirred well.
It's banter filled and not always in a good way. It hearkens back to the days of witty repartee drawing room comedies of the stage. I honestly found much of the dialogue forced and found myself (after a while) reading the lines as if they were read by actors in a play which lent a frenetic quality to the banter, but did nothing for the narrative as a whole. Some of the characters frankly irritated me (lookin' at you, Stephen & Lydia), which also cut into my enjoyment.
The mystery, resolution, and denouement are fairly well constructed, if straightforward and heavily foreshadowed. It's the dialogue and relentlessly, almost frenetically, "witty" writing which I found somewhat wearying. I would recommend it to die-hard fans of period mysteries, but this book in particular won't be for all readers. There were also several anachronistic (modern) phrases and constructions which threw my suspension of disbelief out the window.
Three and a half stars. It's a very very light read and will entertain folks who enjoy golden age country house mysteries.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.