I did not realize that this book was part of a series, and I’d like to go back and read the other books, I like this author’s writing style and look forward to catching up on his other books. Good characters and a solid story. I’ll also be watching for this author’s next book.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

How did I miss this series? Dropping into the third book in this series is no problem. This book can probably be read as a standalone. There were enough references to the previous history between characters in this book to help fill in the blanks to new readers. Now that I have read this book, I must go back and read the first two books. I really enjoyed this "Mrs. Fletcher" - esque book. As a child, I loved "Murder, She Wrote". It was one of the most wholesome TV shows that just brings a good feeling for me. Ms. Deveraux brings all this nostalgia back to me with this series.

Sara Medlar is the "Ms. Fletcher" character. This sweet woman seems to find herself in a spot of trouble more oft than not. I can't say for sure if she is the real sleuth in this series, because as far as I could tell, it seems Jack did much of the work. Working on a cold case by accident is all fun and games until people start getting hurt and dying. The suspense of this story as well as a view of each person's perspective of the past is enlightening and fun. I thoroughly enjoyed how some people have changed from their youth and others have either stayed the same or devolved. Some of the big reveals were painful whilst others felt like sweet vengeance.

At the heart of this story is about a young man whom people idolized as a god yet he was merely a mortal male. The "forgotten" part of this murder highlights the disparity between social economical divides. It also shows that some secrets left forgotten may still be unearthed at the worst of times. The whodunnit scene was cleverly written and brought a little bit of an Agatha Christi feel to it. This murder mystery is recommended to readers who want enjoy a book filled with suspects and plausible motives to kill.

An enjoyable cozy mystery, but found out later it was the third in a series. Could follow, but made a difference. Wish I would have read the others first, as they are referenced now and then in the story. Sara, a successful American writer, has come to England to study a 20 year old mystery of 2 disappearances. She brought her niece Kate and their friend Jack along as well, and have gathered the group still alive that were present the weekend of the original disappearance. With a found skeleton, and another murder things heat up, and trying to unravel fact from fiction becomes the norm. Who is lying? Who is telling the truth? What is the truth? Hard to put down, and one I highly recommend.

When I began reading this book, I did not realize it was part of a series. Though well enough done, I would have preferred more back story, which I would have gotten had I read the other books in the series. However, having said that, it des succeed as a stand-alone, and most readers can read and follow the story line well enough to find it interesting.

Sara Medler, her niece Kate and their friend Jack are off to Oxley Manor, an old English estate that has been converted to a luxury hotel. Once there, Jack and Kate figure Sara is up to something, and she well is. Besides her niece and Jack, Sara has invited several people, who were present the night, years ago, two people ran off and were never heard from again. As things progress, we find that the guests all have some secrets they want to keep, and things become real interesting when a body is discovered. Was the missing couple involved in something? A homicide perhaps? Sara intends to recreate the night the pair disappeared and use what follows for a book she plans to write. However, the guilty party covered things up for years and intends to continue this. Now, Sara, Kate and Jack and the other guests are embroiled in a plot that wants to never end.

This was a fair book, good enough to keep my interest. However, I did find it a long read, which, I think, could have been shorter, with less drag throughout. There are many suspects revealed as the story progresses, and each one of them has his/her motives that ring true. The setting is great for a good, solid mystery, but the author really did not take full advantage of it, in my opinion. Still, the book is worth the read and will definitely hold the reader’s interest throughout, I think. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.

The 3rd book of this series finds Sara, her niece and their friend Jack going on a vacation and visiting an old friend of Sara's in England.
Kate and Jack soon find out that Sara is up to something and even invited other people. It is to fins out about 2 missing people and the murder of another person that had happened a long time ago. Sara has them reenact the night that everything had happened to find out the truth.
Meanwhile Kate and Jack plan on going on vacation without Sara to see where their relationship will take them. I am hoping for more of this series to not only see these 3 work together solving crimes but to see where the relationship of Jack and Kate goes.
I received this from NetGalley for review.

When I requested this book from NetGalley, I didn't realize that it was the third book in a series. Good news though, it reads wonderfully as a stand-alone. Moreover, having finished A Forgotten Murder, I've added Deveraux's first two books in the series to my TBR list. I really loved this book!

The stars of the book are romance novelist, Sara Medlar, her niece, Kate, and her honorary grandson, Jack. Sara has invested heavily in the renovation of an old English estate called Oxley Manor, which is now operating as a luxury hotel. In researching the property, Sara discovered that decades earlier a group of college students had partied there and that after one party, two people ran off/disappeared. Sara thinks there might be fodder there for a true crime novel so she books a visit for herself, Kate, and Jack. As the hotel is closed for the month of March, Sara has also invited four other people who were at the party the night of the disappearance. In addition to the seven of them, three others will be at the property -- Bella, the current owner, Mrs. Aiken, a very cranky cook, and Mrs. Aiken's daughter Puck. Puck was around when the disappearance occurred and is one of those people who moves through life invisible to others but seeing and hearing everything. Unbeknownst to everyone, two years earlier Puck discovered a skeleton in an old well on the property, and she knows that it is Sean, one of the two who disappeared. Sara's plan is to have everyone who was around the night of the disappearance reenact the evening in the hopes that she will discover the truth.

All of the characters in A Forgotten Murder are expertly crafted and all are interesting. I absolutely loved the mystery and the way Deveraux plotted the story. It moved quickly, with plenty of twists and turns. I loved every page.

Thank you NetGalley and MIRA for providing me an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sara is a successful writer who has been looking for unsolved and forgotten murders to take as inspiration for her books. Upon arriving to visit her friend Bella at the luxurious Oxley Manor hotel, she comes across a very poorly explained case of a young couple missing on a fateful night many years ago. Her niece Kate and their friend Jack accompany her on this trip but Sara's idea is to be alone at the hotel to unravel this mystery.

Of course, when the couple finds out about Sara's plans, they decide to postpone their trip to Scotland and stay at the hotel a little longer to quell their curiosity in this case. To the desperation of cook Mrs. Aiken, all these people who were unexpected and some more ghosts from the past arrive at the hotel making her super angry.

I thought it was fantastic how Sara conducts her deductions and discoveries to present to the mystery for those interested, as everything is unfolding, I stay with my eyes wide open and anxious to know how the whole story would unfold.

The only thing I really missed was the epilogue, I would love to know what happened after that last surprising scene.

A Forgotten Murder is a little too much cozy mystery-ish for me, but it's nice to step outside my comfort zone every once in a while. This one does have a sufficient amount of suspects to weed through to keep the story going, but it gets a little bit repetitive with the rehashing of clues as things progress. All things considered, I prefer more grit, but this one wasn't a bad read by any means. It was a decent way to while away a few hours with the rain pelting the windows.

Hmm so I've been on and off with this book for a couple of days now. There was just something about this I couldn't get into for a while. I love a good mystery suspense novel. I thought it was interesting seeing the back and forth between history and past. Then there was the whole mystery surrounding in the past and wondering if it had something to do with the current mystery murder that was taking place. While I enjoyed the book there was parts that were kinda disconnected for me, not sure if I'm explaining it right but now that I konw that this is a book three I can see where things would be that way. It felt like I was missing something when it came to the main characters who were solving the mystery. Overall it was a pretty good book, it was good enough for me to want to see what happens before this.

A vacation at a troubled Manor, where two people had disappeared decades ago, had Sara come up with a plan of inviting all the people present on that day to get to the truth.

Having read this author a long time ago, I was quite eager to get to this. A cozy whodunit where I played the Detective to try to get to the killer before Sara. I had a few suspects in mind.

The writing was quite twisty with dead ends and real clues. The author kept the plot hopping, there was pure sleuthing in the prose.

Overall the author had the magical touch. A fun read

A strange story of a woman writer and 2 others trying to solve a murder at an English manor. They invite all the possible suspects for a free weekend at the manor and question them and the writer creates a play for everyone to act out until the killer is revealed...

Here are my pros and cons for A Forgotten Murder:

Pros

1. I thought the mystery itself was intriguing. It felt a bit like Clue or an Agatha Christie murder mystery. The story had just enough twists and turns to keep it interesting without becoming convoluted.
2. I thought the author did a reasonably good job of maintaining the individuality of the characters while revealing their relationships with each other and the murder victim.
3. I loved the history aspect and, honestly, could have used more.
4. Reasonable and generally believable ending.

Cons

1. I did not understand the relationship between Jack and Kate. It felt stunted, weird, and sometimes even inappropriate. I never really felt like I got to know Jack, Kate, and Sarah in general. They were very one-dimensional.
2. The writing was a bit choppy in my opinion. I found myself not sure who was talking from time to time. I even got a little lost occasionally regarding what was going on. Parts of the book lacked some cohesiveness in my opinion. There were times when it felt like random thoughts were thrown together to form paragraphs.
3. Jack’s character was constantly trying to be witty and charming, but I found him to be awkward and clumsy at best. At worst, he was arrogant and narcissistic. I did not like Jack.
4. Puck was underutilized.
5. I did not like the weird reenactment thing at the end. Very odd.

Summary
I was unaware that this book is the third in a series. That probably explains some of my frustrations. I felt there like were some gaps in the story, particularly with regard to the relationship between Sarah, Kate, and Jack, and the previous books probably helped define that better. While I think that this book may be read as a standalone, I do think there will be others like me that feel like something is missing.

Thank you to NetGalley and MIRA for a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am usually a big Jude Deveraux fan and read her as soon as she is published. As the 3rd book in a series, I don’t think that it flowed as easy as a stand-alone. I read the first book in the series, awhile ago, did not read the second, and felt a bit confused with characters on the third. The book was decent, but I had a hard time getting through it. I received an ARC fro the publisher and NetGalley and this is my honest review.

Yeah, we get to spend more time with these characters! And Kate and Jack finally, finally, are at the point to have a romantic relationship. The will they, won't they is a side, but significant, part of this book, at least as a continuation of the a series story arc!

This is the first book that doesn't take place in Florida. Instead, we're in England, and there's atmosphere and decades old mystery. I loved watching it all unfold! And meeting these characters who haven't been together since everything imploded, that was really fantastic!

Entitlement. That's a big theme in this book. There's a lot of rich characters, in the present, and in the past, when the events of the mystery were taking place. Well, the initial mystery. There's a few threads, and it was interesting to see what connected, and what didn't!

One of my favourite parts was the play that they put on, that was written in the book as what happened, the events they were recreating, not the present and them putting it on. There were little interludes between scenes, to react to what was happening, and it all worked wonderfully together! Such an interesting way to discover what had happened that night!

Loved this book, and I hope we get more, because I don't want to say goodbye to these characters!

A Forgotten Murder by Jude Deveraux is a compelling mystery novel. Sara Medlar is a retired romance author who is bored. She decides to journey to Oxley Manor in March with her niece, Kate and honorary grandson, Jack. Oxley Manor, a country house hotel, is closed for March so repairs can be made to the aging manor house. Sara’s money paid for the massive renovations that Isabella “Bella” Guilford made when she purchased Oxley Manor. Kate and Jack soon learn that Sara wishes to investigate a disappearance that happened in 1994. The earl-to-be, Nicky was having a party with his friends. Sean and Diane walked out of the house and were never seen again. Sara has arranged to bring back the remaining party members to recreate that night and get to the truth. A Forgotten Murder is a classic whodunit brimming with suspects, subtle clues, and red herrings. You do not know if the suspects are telling the truth or lying through their teeth (which is the fun part). The suspense built as the story progressed. You could feel the tension as the trio got closer to the truth. The story alternates between the past and the present. It all flowed together beautifully in this twisty whodunit. I thought the characters were developed and realistic. A Forgotten Murder is the third book in A Medlar Mystery series, but it can be read alone. After reading A Forgotten Murder, you will find yourself eager to go back and read the prior books. If you enjoy reading cozy mysteries, then I suggest you pick up A Forgotten Murder. A Forgotten Murder is captivating mystery with shady suspects, a cantankerous cook, a disconcerting disappearance, arguable auto accident, a thrilling theatrical reenactment, and remarkable revelation.

Intriguing, but not quite what I was expecting. First, as it is book 3 in the series, it works as a standalone, but I felt like I had walked into an important meeting and everyone had started without me and I never quite caught up. So yes, it works as a standalone, but I felt like I was an outsider to few of the references and didn't quite "know" the characters. Also, and perhaps I just missed something, but Jack's looks are referenced so many times in relation to another character and I don't really understand why. For some shock value for the remaining cast, yes, but beyond that? It seemed like it should have been more to this. Was it just a red herring? Did I seriously miss something? When I got to the end it bothered me. And speaking of the ending, it needed something more. I kept trying to advance to the next page because it felt a unfinished. Let's talk about Puck... Puck had such a starring role, so to speak, at the beginning... and then she seemed to have lost importance to the story - she should have shone.

Now, that may sound like a lot of complaints, but they are just my observances. What I did find is that the mystery was intriguing. I loved how the author unraveled the events of "the night." The characters had depth and you either loved them or hated them, and sometimes felt both within the first chapter. The setting was colorfully and intricately painted and I felt like I was an invisible observer to every single scene.

Not a bad book, not a great book, but a good getaway while we're trapped away from our friends. (And with friends like these, I don't think you'd want to be trapped with them...)

RATING: 2.5 STARS
2020; Mira/Harlequin

I was so excited for Sara, Kate and Jack to be in England, and involved in another cold case. It started out good, like a Midsomer Murder episode, but then just got dull and long. I have liked the other two stories a bit, but I keep saying after the next book I will decide if I continue. I am almost done with this one...but, gah, I will try another.

***I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.***

Great plot and wonderful characters. This whodunit has the markings of a cozy murder mystery with all the twists and sophistication of a dark murder mystery. The characters are great and the plot twisty enough to keep you guessing!

This is the third book in the Medlar Mystery series. I would recommend reading the others because it's been a bit since I've read them and I was a little confused. Very good mystery. I found it intriguing and I couldn't put the book down at times. Recommended for fans of this author!

This is an author I've seen around for years but never read and this particular story sounded like something I would absolutely love.


My Impression: I wanted to love this one. I really did. I went in just knowing I was. And... well I didn't hate it. There's a lot of potential here and moments that I really enjoyed. But the bulk of it felt like I was reading a detailed outline that hadn't quite made the jump to the actual finished manuscript.



The mystery was interesting and there were definitely secrets galore which I found intriguing. I though Puck was an unusual character and I liked that she had found a way to live life her way even if it was on the odd side. Frankly, I would want to hide from most of the characters too. The flashbacks which centered around her were the best parts of the story and were the only times I really felt myself connecting with what was going on.



This was a story that I didn't mind reading but never felt fully invested in or was ever really able to just sink into the story. I was always very aware of each word I was reading. While this wasn't a particularly engaging read it wasn't terrible and it does make me curious to read more of Deveraux's books but this is one I probably wouldn't recommend.