I had fun but this spin-off of Lady Hardcastle series is not a favorite even if it's entertaining.
Good plot and character development, funny banters.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The usual humour and murder solving with this brilliant spin off from Lady H and her cheeky companion (also highly recommended series).
This is the second book with these characters and is just as entertaining as the first. Kinsey creates the most likeable characters and entertaining storylines you won't help enjoying them. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC of this book.

What a fun book! The jazz band was full of interesting characters. They land a gig for a ball but when the rain starts they are stuck for several days. The host is murdered then more death and chaos ensues as the not so perfect life of the rich family unravels. Ellie, Skin and Dunn (doesn't that sound like a good name for a band) begin to hunt for clues. Nothing like a good mystery to avoid boredom while they wait for the rain to cease and the water to recede. Excellent reading!

I’d give this book a 2.5/5 stars, and overall, I did enjoy the idea behind this book. The murder mystery was very Knives-Out and the characters in Dizzy Heights were full of banter. I didn’t actually realize this was the second book in a series when I read it, but I appreciated that you didn’t need to read the first book to vibe with the characters in this one. There were fun twists and turns throughout the book, and with each murder, it drew you further in. However, I felt the ending was rather lackluster for me. I was expecting a huge twist and I did not get that. It felt too easy. Overall, enjoyable, but forgettable.

Another very fun read from T.E. Kinsey, this time with the heroes of the extended Lady Hardcastle universe, the Dizzy Heights. The characters feel more fully realized and the location and mystery swing along nicely; I'd like to spend a bit more time with Barty Dunn and less with Skins, who I think the author finds more entertaining than I do, unless he is meant to be kind of annoying? That being said, we are firmly in country house mystery territory and while the novel does integrate some of the tropes of the genre quite a few are also turned on their head and the potential tiresomeness of class warfare between the aristocratic family and the normie detective/policeman is avoided (which I appreciated because how many times can you read a variation of "How DARE you ask me that, sir? I know the Prime Minister!" without wanting to backhand slap everyone in the scene). All in all, a recommend.

A Baffling Murder at the Midsummer Ball (A Dizzy Heights Mystery book 2) by T E Kinsey

📓Genre: Mystery | Thriller | Suspense
Star: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

🔖A nice little mystery that was both fun and interesting.
🔖London’s finest jazz musicians, the Dizzy Heights – find themselves in the midst of a tricky situation when a murder is committed in one of the rooms of the Bilverton House in Oxfordshire – the very place housing the Midsummer Ball, where the talented group of musicians had come to perform.
🔖When the locked room crime baffles all, the members of the Dizzy Heights resolve to solve yet another crime.
🔖The writing style was engaging and the whodunit kept me guessing. There are several characters – some mysterious, some hiding secrets, but the main protagonists belonging to the musical group were all likable.
🔖Music also plays an important role in the story and it added a nice touch to the storyline.
🔖Overall, this period-style murder mystery was a delightful read!

🔸Final Verdict: Good
🔸Book Cover: It's similar to a classic mystery novel
🔸Writing Style: Fun and engaging
🔸Character Development: Good

✨Many thanks to Amazon UK (Publisher) and Netgalley for sending me the ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

#ABafflingMurderattheMidsummerBall #NetGalley #arc #bookreview

I enjoyed this more than I expected and really got to enjoy learning more about the band members. I am a big fan of the Lady Hardcastle series and this spinoff is good but not quite as much fun.

I must confess that I downloaded this title thinking that it was part of the Lady Hardcastle series. I stuck with it after realising and still enjoyed it. I hadn't read the first in the series but soon became familiar with the characters. I liked the setting and the contrast between the younger 'modern' characters and those who were more traditional. It wasn't the most baffling mystery and I did guess the perpetrator before the end, but it's still worth a read when you don't want anything too heavy.

Another fun caper with the Dizzy Heights band! This novel is set in one beautiful country estate where the band was invited to play for a family of famous biscuit makers. After a torrential downpour, the host is found dead of what appears to be a self inflicted gunshot. But the Dizzy Heights group senses that something is awry and an investigation ensues. This mystery had a lot more moving pieces to it and I loved all the real detective work that went into solving this crime!

Another hit by T.E. Kinsey. The author has now taken on the 1920s in his new series but with some old friends from the Lady Hardcastle series. Dizzy Heights, a group of jazz musicians, have proven to be almost as good at solving mysteries as they are at playing music. When asked to play at a Midsummer Ball, the group also discovers a mysterious death, a locked room and…well that would be a spoiler. Read this charming and fun book to find out!

I switched back and forth between reading and listening to this. I found it hard to distinguish the different character voices at first—though, I could understand what was being said just fine—but I picked it up eventually. Lady Hardcastle and Flo are still my favorites but this is well worth the time to read it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review.

With their invitation to play at the Midsummer Ball at Bilverton House in Oxfordshire, the Dizzy Heights jazz band were keen to participate. The guests had a great time, with the festivities lasting well into the night, and once everyone left, there was just the band and the family. Skins and Ellie, along with Barty and the rest of the crew, were billeted in the chapel which the family had converted. When they woke the following morning, preparing to leave by lunch time, the rain had become relentless – it wasn’t long before they were flooded in.

But it was when everyone was in the main house, that Ellie heard a gunshot. John Bilverton was dead. But was it suicide, as it looked to be? The three sleuths, Ellie, Skins and Barty set out to discover whodunit – before the floodwaters subsided and the police announced it to be a suicide. Would the three be able to solve this latest mystery?

A Baffling Murder at the Midsummer Ball is the 2nd in A Dizzy Heights Mystery series by T.E. Kinsey (of Lady Hardcastle fame!) and I quite enjoyed it. Light and entertaining, it’s filled with jazz music and old fashioned tunes which I always hear in my head – I’d love to hear them play! Ellie is a great character – she puts up with a lot! I’m looking forward to #3 already (but I hope he writes some more Lady Hardcastle first 😉) Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

3.75 stars

This second installment in the Dizzy Heights historical mysteries is as delightful as the first. The story centers around a jazz band and is set in England in the mid 1920s. Main characters Skins Maloney and his brainy wife Ellie and the band are at a ritzy country house to provide music for their midsummer ball. The patriarch of the family is found dead, shot inside a locked room. He was an irascible old character, not much loved by his kin, and they are ready to accept the verdict of suicide.

But Skins and Ellie are sure it's murder and start investigating and looking for a will. And in the way of British cozies, they are marooned and cut off from communicating by bad weather. The relationships among band members and Skins and Ellie is a bit madcap and highly entertaining. This is a highly enjoyable series. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

An amazing cozy mystery who-dunnit that was full of glitz and glamour from the era the book was set in. Flamboyant characters. These type of reads are one of my favourites.

Who doesn't love a locked door mystery?! This mystery had me guessing until the very end. Only in the last few chapters did I finally start to put the pieces together. The characters are witty and full of personality and the relationship between the main trio is just remarkable.

What an interesting and captivating read. I could see the grandeur as the historic home was described in each chapter. How wonderful looking for hidden doors and rooms, trying to find clues as who is the killer. Amateur sleuths who play in a band, added a little fun to this book. A great read.!

The Dizzy Heights are back and booked for their next performance at the Biverton’s country house as the entertainment at their Midsummer Ball. The Jazz is loved by the party guests and everything seems to be going well until morning brings the realisation that a storm has stranded the band and one of the Bilverton’s family members is found dead, murder or suicide? The Dizzy’s are asked to investigate the mystery and find themselves trying to understand the complex web of familial and friend relationships.

It’s the ideal set-up for a good cosy mystery, all the guests in the house and no way to leave, more motives than can be counted but no opportunity, how will they unravel it? Not all the steps in the solution felt entirely plausible to me but then, it is a mystery being investigated by a Jazz band so perhaps that’s not entirely surprising! Mingled into the detective work is lovely banter amongst the band and a lot of fun to be had on the journey! It’s a four out of five on the enJOYment scale and I’m looking forward to the next one!

Thanks to Netgalley for A Baffling Murder at the Midsummer Ball by TE Kinsey, book two in the Dizzy Heights series which is a spinoff from the previous series. This story is a combination of a locked room mystery and a stranded house party story. It was pretty easy to know who was the culprit but it really didn’t matter to the enjoyment of the story. Looking forward to more of Ellie, Skins, Barty and the rest of the crew. They’re the bee’s knees.

I’m enjoying this series of books and it’s the cozy Sunday afternoon reading treat you can enjoy after a hard week. Love it. Keep them coming.

The Dizzy Heights are playing a private party this time at a pretty swank out-in-the-country house in Oxfordshire. And though some of the family are welcoming (notably the youngest son and the music producer uncle), there are definitely undercurrents of animosity as the wealthy father has recently remarried and the new wife is only a year older than his oldest son. With a fortune built on biscuits, he has money to divide up and there is some indication that he may be changing his will and that most of his children (if not all four) seem to have a problem with that. No surprise, of course, that he ends up dead. It appears to be a suicide at first glance but Skins and Dunn quickly realize that there is more than meets the eye.
A highly enjoyable story, as usual from Kinsey. The author capture the feel of the time and place and acknowledges things like "Oh, we couldn't possibly find ANOTHER secret passage.."

Four stars
This book came out March 1, 2021
Follows The Deadly Mystery of the Missing Diamonds
ARC kindly provided by Amazon Publishing UK and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

This is the second book in a new series by TE Kinsey. I read both book 1 and book 2 back to back, making for a great few days being immersed with the Dizzy Heights, a highly regarded jazz band in London.. Dizzy Heights has been engaged to play at a country home Midsummer Ball. Unfortunately, the family patriarch is found in a locked room, apparently a suicide.
The band searches for clues, and another death occurs. Due to flooding, the band remains stranded at the estate for a few days allowing them to find the killer, and how they managed a murder in a locked room to look like a suicide.
This was an engaging read, and I liked the characters immensely. Besides the funny puns that pop up frequently, these characters seem very real for the time and place, making the situations they find themselves in, believable.
I am also a fan of Kinsey's Lady Hardcastle and Flo series. Now i have another one to highly recommend in the English cozy realm. Thanks to Net Galley for the eARC.