Synopsis from Goodreads:
MURDER IN THE MANOR (A LACEY DOYLE COZY MYSTERY-BOOK 1) is the debut novel in a charming new cozy mystery series by Fiona Grace.
Lacey Doyle, 39 years old and freshly divorced, needs a drastic change. She needs to quit her job, leave her horrendous boss and New York City, and walk away from the fast life. Making good on her childhood promise to herself, she decides to walk away from it all, and to relive a beloved childhood vacation in the quaint English seaside town of Wilfordshire.
Wilfordshire is exactly as Lacey remembers it, with its ageless architecture, cobblestone streets, and with nature at its doorstep. Lacey doesn't want to go back home-and spontaneously, she decides to stay, and to give her childhood dream a try: she will open her own antique shop.
Lacey finally feels that her life is taking a step in the right direction-until her new star customer turns up dead.
As the newcomer in town, all eyes are on Lacey, and it's up to her to clear her own name.
With a business to run, a next-door neighbor turned nemesis, a flirty baker across the street, and a crime to solve - is this new life all that Lacey thought it would be?
My Review
After receiving notice that her divorce is final, Lacey Doyle is ready to make major changes in her life. For one thing, she hates her boss and quits her job. She then decides New York City is no longer the place she wants to be. She takes the first plane to England to the small down she visited with her father when she was a child.
The small town of Wilfordshire is right where Lacey wants to be. On a whim, she buys an antique shop and settles into her new life. Being a newcomer in a small town isn’t easy and people aren’t very welcoming. They are even less welcoming when her new customer ends up dead. All eyes and fingers point to Lacey as the culprit.
To save her reputation, business and her freedom, Lacey is determined to find the real killer.
This is the first book in a series. It’s fast-paced with interesting characters. The premise of someone just leaving their worries behind and starting over in a new country is a bit unrealistic, but I like escapism in my reading. So, I liked that someone could do something most of us have wanted to do at one point or another. Lacey does it all quite successfully.
The characters are well written and I’m looking forward to seeing them more developed in future books. The potential of a romance for Lacey is there, but the mystery is the important part of the book. There are several suspects and I was kept guessing until the end. I wasn’t completely shocked as the killer was one of the suspects on my list. I just didn’t know the hows and whys of it all.
I listened to this cozy mystery on audio. I’m hoping to listen to the next one on audio as well. The narrator did a good job, but the lead character is American so it was a bit jarring to have a British narrator. However, I did get used to it and liked the emotion she used in her narration.
Good start to the series.
For reading challenges:
Craving for Cozies Reading Challenge 2021
Cloak & Dagger Reading Challenge 2021
Disclosure: This one is from my own audio book collection. All opinions expressed are my own.
My library just got this book on audio and this one had been tempting me but I didn't know much about it. This sounds wonderful! Definitely a book that I need to read.
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