The Limestone Manor

by Jonny Thompson

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

The Limestone Manor is a cozy village mystery series opener by Jonny Thompson. Released 18th Nov 2023, it's 266 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 and references throughout. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

It's always fun to find new authors. This is a nicely entertaining village cozy featuring an octogenarian retired police detective living in a house share, and who's suddenly faced with a murder which he and his housemates need to get to the bottom of if their collective is to continue. 

The plotting moves along at a good pace and the mystery is well engineered and comes to a satisfying resolution. Surprisingly good characterization and setting and the prose is pleasant and easy to read. The language is relatively clean (PG, a few damns, a couple other mild curse words, and one bloody). As stated before, the main characters are all seniors, and the author has a lot of fun with it without ever being mean or ridiculing.

Four stars. It's not foreshadowed or stated explicitly in the review materials, but it would definitely make a nice series and readers can hope the author revisits the characters going forward.

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