Carol's Notebook

The Murder at World’s End by Ross Montgomery

January 30, 2026January 30, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

The Murder at World's End is a fun locked-room mystery. The characters are quirky and the setting is unique. It's 1910, Halley's Comet is about to pass overhead, and we're at Tithe Hall on an island off the Cornish coast, Word's End. Lord Stockingham-Welt believes the comet will bring dangerous gasses with it and has decided to seal his staff and his family members into the mansion over night, complete with air tanks and gas masks. Stephen Pike arrives, ex-convict turned manservant, arrives in the midst of the chaos and is hired, despite his original offer of employment not being legitimate. While the comet obviously doesn't cause environmental disasters, Lord Stockingham-Welt is killed that night, in his locked study. The family members are rather unlikable and the staff are acting suspicious. Our sleuths are Stephen, who has been targeted as the main suspect, and the elderly Lady Decima, a difficult,, frustrated scientist who is also Stephen's only alibi. Lady...

The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley

January 28, 2026January 28, 2026 by Carol2 Comments

Foley has a formula that works. Take a fabulous setting - this time the Manor, add an event of some kind - opening weekend/ solstice celebration. Give us a dead body, but don't tell us who it is until the last few chapters. We've got multiple points of view. Francesca is the owner and grew up spending summers there. Her husband is the architect. Bella is a guest. Eddie is the dishwasher, one of the few locals on staff. DI Walker, a specialist in cold cases, is on the team investigating the events of the weekend. They all have secrets and connections. The setting was fabulous. The Manor is trendy, extravagant, and, in theory, relaxing. The woods surrounding it were appropriately looming and mysterious, The local legend of the Birds added a nice, if easy to predict, touch. I listened to the full cast audio which made the characters come alive and made me care more about some of the...

The Gathering of Clan McFee by Karen Baugh Menuhin

January 24, 2026January 23, 2026 by Carol2 Comments

The Gathering of Clan McFee was not my favorite of the Heathcliff Lennox #14 but it was enjoyable enough. A Castle McFee, the laird has passed away without a clear heir. Descendants from across the globe had gathered at the castle, each hoping to prove they have the best claim to the inheritance - essentially a money pit of a castle and the land that goes with it. When one of the potential heirs ends up dead, Lennox and Swift are dispatched by Scotland Yard to investigate. The group that has crowded the castle is an odd bunch, as are Lady Peggy and her staff. The potential motive is obvious and shared by all the guests, but when another body is found, the whole situation becomes more dangerous. I found most, if not all, of the potential heirs annoying. Lady Peggy's butler was overly eccentric. The plot moved along at a good pace, though, and I didn't guess who the...

May Contain Murder by Orlando Murrin

January 23, 2026January 23, 2026 by Carol2 Comments

Paul is invited to travel with Xéra, his good friend of fifteen years, on board a private yacht as they travel from England to the Caribbean. The trip is part pleasure, a celebration of her recent wedding, and part work - she wants Paul to write her biography and they plan to work on it together on board. The trip starts out poorly when Paul's clothes are dropped in the water and his cabin located in the crew area. Xéra seems tense, which only increases when her priceless necklace, a present from her new husband, is stolen. And the other members of the trip, family and friends of the husband, are self-centered, unlikeable people. I like Paul, I really do, which is why it annoys me that so many bad things happen to him here. I guess I should really list them, because that would probably ruin half of the plot, but it's a bit over the top. It's almost like...

The Queen Who Came in from the Cold by S.J. Bennett

January 21, 2026January 21, 2026 by Carol4 Comments

The Queen is travelling to Italy and one of her entourage witnesses a body dump while traveling on the train. Initially it is thought that the witness was drunk, but the more time that passes, the more they are realizing that it might have actually happened. The Queen, along with her assistant private secretary, Joan McGraw, decide they need to look into the case, maybe give the official investigation a nudge or two. This time around, as the title suggests, we get a little Cold War intrigue along with the murder mystery, While some of the household are reading James Bond thrillers, the Queen is dealing with her own potential international incident. I love the Queen in these books. She's a working woman, with an unusual job with unusual constraints, but still a job, in addition to being a wife, mother, daughter, sister. She's also a woman in a man's world, surrounded by people who try to protect her when...

The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie

January 20, 2026January 27, 2026 by Carol2 Comments

Our story opens with Mrs. Dolly Bantry being woken up by a maid and told there's a dead body in the library. She, in turn, wakes her husband, Colonel Arthur Bantry, who takes a bit of convincing before he will go down and check for himself. Sure enough, there's a dead girl in the library, a stranger wearing a rather cheap dancing dress. Mrs. Bantry immediately calls Ms. Marple and states if there has to be a murder in her house, she intends to enjoy it. The two women end up heading to a nearby hotel, where one of the staff has disappeared. I enjoy Miss Marple. She's so observant and maybe a bit cynical. She allows people who don't know her well, to believe she's just a harmless, quiet older village lady when she is really quite shrewd and intelligent. She sees everything and bides her time, asking seemingly innocent questions and making seemingly absurd comparisons until she has...