This was a good premise, and had an interesting start, but I am afraid it did not hold my interest throughout.

It has been too long since the last mystery from Amy Myers and this is a great start to what I hope will be a long series. Set in 1925, Nell Drury is the daughter of a costermonger who is now a French trained chef in a stately home. During a fancy dress ball and ghost hunt, a murder occurs and Nell is drawn into the investigation. Full of dark series, all of the feel of the Roaring 20's and maybe a ghost? What more could you want. I want another in this series, please.

Oh, I'm so disappointed. This book looked and seemed so good, but alas I couldn't find myself getting into the story and towards the end did I find myself pretty bored.

Now, the book did feel promising in the beginning, but somewhere along the way when Miss Marple ... Eh I mean Nell started to investigate the case because the lady of the house trusts her to be able to talk to the servants, the family, and guest and find out the truth about the murder. Yeah, because the chef is the obvious person to go to when someone has been murdered. Anyway, the book was OK, in the beginning, thanks to the list of characters, in the beginning, was it not so hard to know who was who. The story seemed interesting and I was curious to see who would get killed.

However, the book started to go downhill somewhere along the way as Nell was trying to find out where everyone was during the murder. And, the ghost thing? It was just ridiculous. It should perhaps have been seen as a funny thing with the Lord Ansley's sister being quite positive about the house being haunted by a legion of ghosts. It wasn't!

By the time the inspector at the end revealed the truth had I already abandoned this book mentally and was just reading to find out who the killer was. Would I read more books in this series? No, Nell was not an interesting person to read about, too dull for my taste and she felt not very substantial, which I felt is the big problem with most of the characters in the book. They just didn't come to life.

This cosy mystery is a thoroughly enjoyable, engrossing read. Myers evokes the period well as steady, sensible and very ambitious Nell Drury, working at Wychbourne Hall as Chef, suddenly finds herself confronted with a violent murder of one of the guests. While it might have seemed unlikely that a young woman would land a prize post like this, due to the shortage of young men after the ravages of WWI, this was a time when a generation of women had an opportunity for a career – so long as they didn’t want to get married. Nell is one of those women. Fans of Downton Abbey will recognise the strict hierarchy of below stairs as she regularly locks horns with housekeeper, Mrs Fielding, who is thoroughly disapproving of a female chef.

But Nell has other things to worry about other than whether her soufflés will rise, when Lady Ansley appeals to her to ensure none of the servants are caught up in the bloody murder. I like Nell’s character. Her cool-headed steadiness and self-confidence comes from having to fight for her place and growing up in the war years, which still casts a long shadow over most of the characters – and quite right, too. Myers has very much caught the flavour of the age, it seems to me, having grown up with stories of the time from my grandmother, who was a flapper.

In order to make this sort of book really work, we need a good spread of likely suspects amongst the supporting cast and Myers certainly provides plenty of memorable, strong contenders. We have the eccentric aunt who is convinced the house is crowded with a posse of ghosts, all keen to make contact with their living counterparts; the gang of bright young things, including the three Ansley youngsters who are caught up in the frantic round of parties and nightclubbing; two school friends who seem far too attracted to each other rather than their supposed partners; the vamp; the terrifying elderly female relative (think Maggie Smith); and her arch-enemy a sprightly avuncular gentleman. In the middle of this, you have poor, bewildered Lord and Lady Ansley… There is also a strong cast of below stairs characters and a rather forbidding detective from Scotland Yard who travels down to investigate the murders as the local bobbies are completely out of their depth.

This is all as cosily familiar as a late-night cup of cocoa – but there is a good reason why Agatha Christie-type murder mysteries work, demonstrated here by Myers’ well-written homage. The pages simply turned themselves as I dived into this one while struggling with a heavy cold. The denouement was also well handled – I hadn’t guessed whodunit or why and was also pleased that some of the red herrings cast around during the investigation weren’t necessarily as herring-like as I’d thought. It always slightly annoys me when an author provides a parade of suspects and a trail of clues – only to suddenly provide a completely different set of motives with a flourish at the end. Myers isn’t guilty of such a sleight of hand. My only niggle is the very, very abrupt ending – unless for some reason my arc is missing a final paragraph. But this one is recommended for fans of a classic cosy mystery set in a country house.

While I obtained the arc of Dancing with Death from the publisher via NetGalley, this has in no way influenced my unbiased review.

8/10

Crackling cauliflowers and suffering stockfish! The heroine of Myers’ diverting new country house mystery is a feisty young woman known for her culinary delights and colorful expressions. In 1925, Nell Drury is the chef at Wychbourne Court, a stately home in the Kentish countryside where the upper-class Ansley family has lived for centuries. The manor has its share of resident ghosts, and Lord Ansley’s sister, Lady Clarice, claims to communicate with them.

A fancy-dress ball brings many of London’s Bright Young Things to Wychbourne, including friends and frenemies of Lord and Lady Ansley’s grown-up children. Nell’s preparations for the evening get complicated when she’s asked to serve a leader for a late-night “ghost hunt.” She’s also caught off guard by an old flame’s reappearance. When Nell comes upon the stabbed body of a houseguest during the spook-catching exercise, Scotland Yard gets called in, and Lady Ansley, rightly concerned about her family’s reputation, asks Nell to go sleuthing on her own in case the police mess things up.

Nell is entertaining company. Born within the sound of Bow Bells, Nell had trained as the apprentice of a renowned French chef at a fine London establishment. She now occupies a unique position in the household (she’s a chef, not a cook, and will correct anyone who gets it wrong). This helps with her investigations. The plot and cast list feel overcrowded, and some people’s personalities don’t seem to extend beyond their eccentricities. However, the story picks up steam once the victim’s secrets come to light. Myers does a good job depicting the reckless jubilance of the Roaring Twenties and the darkness lurking beneath the surface gleam. The crime is also resolved more realistically than is typical in mysteries with amateur sleuths.

(from the Historical Novels Review's May 2017 issue)

Dancing with Death by Amy Myers.
1925. The fashionable Bright Young Things from London have descended on Wychbourne Court, the Kentish stately home of Lord and Lady Ansley, for an extravagant fancy dress ball followed by a midnight Ghost Hunt – and Chef Nell Drury knows she’s in for a busy weekend. What she doesn’t expect to encounter is sudden, violent death.
When a body is discovered in the minstrels’ gallery during the Ghost Hunt, Nell finds herself caught up in the police investigation which follows. As the darker side of the Roaring Twenties emerges and it becomes increasingly clear that at least one person present that night has a sinister secret to hide, Nell determines to unmask the killer among them. Could the Wychbourne Ghosts hold the key to the mystery?
This was a good read with good characters. I liked Nell. Although slow it soon picked up. 4*.netgalley and severne house.

I simply adored Amy Myers’ series featuring father and daughter Peter and Georgia Marsh, who solve cold cases that are decades old. I gobbled up all eight books in this series, and the final book in this series, Murder in Abbot's Folly, came five long years ago! How I’ve longed for another one!

I could never really warm to Myers’ classic car sleuth Jack Colby, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to see Myers embarking on a new series. Chef — not cook! — Nell Drury has managed to make her way in the world from a costermonger’s daughter in London’s East End to a French-trained chef working for a marquis, a definite rarity for a woman in 1925. I loved the sensible Nell, her determination and her inner goodness. Myers has always known how to weave a wonderful mystery, and she hasn’t lost her touch. I didn’t even guess at the perpetrator until Scotland Yard Inspector Alexander Melbray announced it at the novel’s end. I loved this novel so much, and I can’t wait for the sequels!

And Ms. Myers, please, please reconsider bringing back Peter and Georgia. We miss them!

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Severn House in exchange for an honest review.

1925 and Wychbourne Court in Kent is the place to be for the bright young things. And what could be more enticing that an evening of dancing followed by a ghost hunt. It all means plenty of work for chef Nell Drury, but she wasn’t expecting a dead body to add to her troubles.
The body in question belongs to a friend of the family, but it seems that he wasn’t as popular as some people thought. And it seems that he had a secret reason for attending the party, a reason that lured a large number of the guests there too. Nell finds herself enlisted by Inspector Melbray to help ferret out the secrets in the house, but when a second murder occurs, it seems that… brace yourself… Nell has an awful lot on her plate. No, hang on, I can do better than that… She may have bitten off more than she can chew? Sorry, it’s been a long week.
Amy Myers has written plenty of mystery novels since Murder In Pug’s Parlour in 1986, but this is the first of these Nell Drury tales, so I thought I’d get on at the ground floor with this series. It’s fair to say that it’s hardly ground-breaking, filling the cosy niche nicely. Nell is a well-constructed character, and the rest of the household staff are an entertaining bunch. The upstairs lot are a little less interesting, in part due to the fact that the cast is perhaps a little too large to give everyone enough air-time.
Plot-wise, again, there weren’t a great deal of surprises for me. For example, Nell starts off intensely disliking Inspector Melbray. Guess where that plot-line is heading… But there are some original ideas, including a very surprising one concerning the solving of the crime. Not quite sure what I thought about that bit – I know, I’m being vague, but spoilers and all that – but it makes sense. It just seemed a bit odd. And having read a lot of mysteries (no, really) the killer was a bit obvious.
But it was an entertaining read that kept me gripped, despite occasional flashes of Scooby Doo-isms, as Nell has a remarkably strange form of exclamation – she’s a chef, so they’re all food based. “Sizzling Swordfish!” “Crackling Cauliflowers!” “Suffering Stockfish!” and so on. I’m sure, dear reader, you can come up with your own to help out the author with the next book, so do leave them in the comments below.
Anyway, an interesting read with some colourful characters and a nice line in humour. Well Worth A Look.

This was a good solid read. Very interesting storyline and characters were well developed. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Dancing with Death is an excellent period cozy that takes the form of a classic manor house murder mystery.  During a house party Ghost Hunt, a guest is found murdered.  As the suspects number among the fashionable elite, scandal must be minimized.  Naturally, Lord and Lady Ansley have their doubts about the competency of the police.  As a result, Chef Nell Drury whose skill in the kitchen hides a sharp intellect and understanding of psychology, is asked by the family to look into matters.   Assisted by the Dowager Lady’s rival, Arthur Fontenoy, Nell starts her own investigation to the dismay of Inspector Melbray. 

I enjoyed Dancing with Death greatly.  It pleasantly reminded me of Julie Hyzy’s White House Chef mystery series.  Despite some similarities, Dancing with Death is admirable in its own right.  The central characters were appealing, and there was a nice touch of chemistry between Inspector Melbray and Nell.  There were minor flaws - it took forever for Nell to figure out drugs and blackmail were involved, but on the whole the novel was well done.  The series definitely has potential.  

Dancing with Death will appeal to those who enjoy period mysteries with a light touch of romance, eg. the Phryne Fisher mysteries, or cozies such as the White House Chef mystery series.

4/5

I received a copy of Dancing with Death from the publisher and netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

—Crittermom

I would like to thank Netgalley and Severn House Publishers for an advance copy of Dancing With Death, a cosy country house murder mystery set in 1925, featuring chef Nell Drury.

It is all go at Wychbourne Court in Kent as Lord and Lady Ansley prepare to host a weekend for neighbours and their children's friends, bright young people down from London. The ball will culminate in a ghost hunt through the house but it all goes wrong when chef and leader of one of the groups of ghost hunters, Nell Drury, finds one of the guests stabbed to death in the minstrels gallery. Lady Ansley asks Nell Drury, her chef, to investigate on behalf of the family in case Scotland Yard, in the form of Inspector Melbray, gets it wrong.

I thoroughly enjoyed Dancing With Death. It has a good plot to keep you turning the pages, plenty of secrets to keep you guessing and well drawn characters you can identify with.

The victim is not a nice man so much of the plot concentrates on who would want him dead but as his secrets and those of the other guests come to light the list of suspects grows longer by the day. It's very traditional but to ring the changes Inspector Melbray is a smart and dedicated detective so it is he, rather than Nell, who solves the case.

While not a humorous novel it has a running gag about the ghosts of Wychbourne Court. Lord Ansley's sister, Lady Clarice, is convinced the house is haunted by 19 ghosts (including a dog). So it is a ghost hunt that jump starts the investigation and a proposed meeting with them as a dénouement. It is cleverly done and quite funny in parts.

Nell Drury was Escoffier's first female apprentice which makes her a chef rather than a cook, a social nicety now lost in the mists of time but it gives her a much higher status than most employed women would have achieved at the time. Is it realistic? Probably not, but it allows Ms Myers to gently probe the social order of the day and expose the changes wrought by the Great War. She is, however, a great character - smart, organised, easy to get on with and career minded.

Dancing With Death is an easy read but it's well done so I have no hesitation in recommending it as a good read.

This is a classic English country house mystery set between the wars in the 1920s. If you enjoyed watching Downton Abbey as much as I did, you will love this book. It features Nell Drury, the chef of Wychbourne Court, home of the eighth Lord Ansley and family. Nell trained under Escoffier and creates all kinds of wonderful dishes for family and for the many parties held at the house.
All is well until the latest party where a glamorous guest is murdered during a ghost hunt put on by Lady Clarice, Lord Ansley's sister. She is sure the ghosts roam the house and might speak to her. Scotland Yard is called in and Nell is pressed into service to help because she is trusted both upstairs and downstairs. There are love triangles, possible blackmail and old scandals to sort out before the case can be solved.
I really enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down. The descriptions of life both above and below stairs were vividly described and the characters were well drawn and fun to read about. The plot was interesting and took some unexpected turns. I'm looking forward to more Country House Mysteries from Amy Myers!

A party at Wychbourne Hall in 1925 goes awry when one of the guests is killed. Chief Nell Drury knows that the fancy dress ball that lord and lady Ansley are throwing is bound to get a little wild. The crowd is young and wild and after the dance, a ghost hunt is planned. When a body is found during the festivities, Nell has her work cut out for her; there are plenty of suspects, both alive and dead. Myers works hard to bring the spirit of the 1920’s to this story, but I found the slang of the time just a little to cutesy for my taste