Review: Murder by Candlelight

Murder by Candlelight by Faith Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Arbie Swift is a rather laconic young man who enjoys fishing and lazing around in the quiet Cotswold village of Maybury-in-the-Marsh, waiting to come into his inheritance on his thirtieth birthday. After a drunken evening with a friend results in him writing a humorous book called The Gentleman's Guide to Ghost-Hunting which saw him travelling the country staying in places reputedly haunted, he has gained some notoriety and considerable success.

When he is accosted by Amy Phelps, elderly spinster and owner of The Old Forge, a large and ramshackle house which was the source of the Phelps family's wealth to investigate the family ghost Arbie is initially reluctant, but the appearance of his arch-nemesis, vicar's daughter Val Coulton-James, forces him to agree. Val and Arbie quickly realise that Miss Phelps doesn't really believe that she is being visited by a ghost, in fact she suspects her nephew Murray Phelps is playing unkind pranks on her. After suffering a fall after one such prank, Miss Phelps changes her will ... but is found dead in her own bed shortly afterwards, with the door and windows closed and locked.

There are any number of suspects. The housekeeper Mrs Brockhurst has a thirty-year-old secret. Miss Phelp's schoolfriend Mrs Cora Delaney has discovered a letter from her one true love in a secret drawer in Miss Phelp's bedroom. Murray Phelps was Miss Phelps' only male relative and was expected to inherit the bulk of her fortune. Miss Phelps' niece Phyllis Phelps had either fortune nor a job and was reliant on her aunt. Mr Reggie Bickersworth is an old family friend, best friend of Miss help's late brother who spends several weeks each summer staying with Miss Phelps in one f her outbuildings while he paints. Allegedly Miss Phelps' brother left all his wealth to Reggie until Miss Phelps persuaded him that it must remain in the family. Last, and not least, Miss Phelps had to sack one of the maids, Doreen Capstan who has been carrying on with Murray Phelps in secret.

Set in the mid-1920s, this is very much in the style of the Golden Age mysteries with a feisty heroine and a hero who hides his intelligence under a bumbling 'aw shucks' exterior.

I enjoyed it very much and I hope this is the start of a new series from Faith Martin.

I receive an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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