Clare Chase is one of those authors where you pick up one of her books and you know you’re going to get sucked in. I love that the protagonist of the Eve Mallow series is an obituary writer, giving her the perfect plausible excuse for digging into deaths and family relationships. She also shows the realities for many writers, as Eve also has to take on a part time job to keep the wolf from the door, rather than romanticising writing as so often happens. It keeps Eve as a grounded and sympathetic character, and even in her 13th outing in this novel, I’m still keen to follow her adventures.
Famed diplomat turned academic Lance Hale is found dead after a party at Lockley Grange, the third member of his family to die, following the death of his middle child some months before and his first wife who died at the property when the children were barely teens. Eve pitches to write the obituary, and in researching the larger than life Mr Hale, finds Lockley Grange a cauldron of suspicion – Lance’s two remaining children, an MP and an academic, his loyal assistant, his second wife, the family doctor – each having their own reasons for wanting him gone.
Eve has to unravel family secrets, current ones as well as those buried in the past, to uncover the murderer. It’s a race against time as Eve has her own wedding coming up, and her research work once again puts her in dangers path.
The author keeps us guessing to the end in this take on the Country House mystery, and it’s a fabulous way to spend an afternoon. The family are not people you’d choose to spend time with, but the author keeps us hooked as we unpick the tangled web along with Eve, and I can’t wait for her next adventure.
I received an advance copy of this novel from Netgalley and the publisher, Bookouture in exchange for an honest review.
Mystery at Lockley Grange is out NOW!
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