3.75 stars

Interesting debut about a neurodiverse woman who inherits a mansion in England, along with a mystery and a murder.

Jo Jones is a very intelligent, very self-aware woman with autism. She scans her own behavior and has some coping mechanisms when she feels herself sliding. Her mother (with whom she had a close but not warm and fuzzy relationship) has recently died and Jo has gotten a divorce so she is stressed. She finds out she has inherited the property and has to go in person to find out about it. Her mother was estranged from her family and never told Jo that the mansion came with a huge tax bill.

Jo is almost immediately overwhelmed. But she is a strong, smart person and when the caretaker tries to take advantage of her, she instructs her solicitor to fire him. So she is shocked to find his dead body in the cottage she is preparing to move into.

Jo's straightforward and blunt manner make it awkward for her to deal with people, especially the police, but she is persistent. A missing portrait resonates with her because of her own family secrets and she is convinced it is the key to the mystery.

Jo is a different kind of heroine and one that it's easy to cheer on. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Creepy setting of old house, small town where everyone knows your business, family secrets, characters that were and are engaging and well-written story line . And while there was twist and turns though out the story , you definitely need to pay attention to what is going on or you might miss something of importance.

Jo Jones has recently relocated to the UK from the US to take possession of a large manor house. She has come off a messy marriage and is looking for a change. But soon after arriving, the caretaker is found murdered. She sets out to work with the local DCI to find the culprit.

This book had some nice twists and turns. The characters were engaging and well-written. You had to pay careful attention as the book had lots of characters and they sometimes meshed together.

I highly recommend this book to readers.

The Framed Women of Ardmore House by Brandy Schillace is a delightful cozy-ish mystery. It was a little slow-paced, but I really enjoyed reading it!

I especially appreciated the neurodivergent representation in this mystery. The main character is autistic and side character has ADHD. Both characters’ experiences seemed thoughtful and lived in.

The plot was also super fun! All in all an enjoyable distraction!

Thank you to htpbooks and hanoversquarepress for the complimentary book and the netgalley e-arc. This one comes out on February 13, 2024.

In need of a fresh start, Jo Jones moved to England and took possession of an abandoned family estate. When the long-time caretaker turned up dead and a mysterious portrait went missing from the manor, Jo found herself at the center of the investigation. She set out to clear her name and recover the portrait before the killer struck again.

A murder mystery set on an abandoned family estate? That was enough to get me excited about reading The Framed Women of Ardemore House and it definitely didn’t disappoint! This book was easy to get into, suspenseful and kept me guessing until the very end. The occasional bits of humor were an unexpected added bonus. However, my favorite part of the book were the characters, especially Jo. She was autistic and spent the majority of her life trying to be the version of herself that others wanted or needed her to be. Despite the less than ideal circumstances she found herself in during the book, she absolutely flourished with her newfound independence. I highly recommend checking this one out once it’s published!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the opportunity to read this ARC.

A copy of this review will be published on my Instagram account (whats.amy.reading) on December 1.

I really wanted to like this one but I just couldn't find my way into it the way i hoped I would. The shift in perspective between McAdams and Jo was oddly discordant - it almost felt like I was reading two different books spliced together rather than two different characters' views on the same scenario. I also found Jo to be very flat. Something about her as a self-proclaimed neurodivergent just didn't ring true for me. To be fair I've had difficulty with a number of books that proclaimed to have autistic or spectrum main characters (of which there seem to be many lately) - I don't know if it is just a perspective I have difficulty with or if it is the way they are being presented that I find so challenging. Regardless, I never connected with Jo as a character. When you couple that with the Fleet/McAdam dynamic, which was its own challenge in his chapters, the result was a read that I just didn't find all that engaging. This one wasn't a good fit for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this DRC.
This book has so many things in it that I love. A mysterious inheritance of an old house, a love of books, genealogy, gardens, an old mystery and a new mystery, a murder, lots of suspects and a great twist! It all works amazingly. The characters are great, the pacing fantastic and the setting in North Yorkshire, beautiful. The book comes to a satisfying conclusion but leaves it open for more to come. I hope so!


#TheFramedWomenofArdemoreHouse #NetGalley

The Framed Women of Ardemore House
Book by Brandy Schillace

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice:

Hello!
I just wanted to share the book that I'm currently reading. I had the opportunity to read it before the publication date (the beginning of next year).
The store develops itself around our protagonist Jo Jones, a neurodivergent book editor, who decides to start a new chapter of her life in England
She moves into the English estate in North Yorkshire where a crime takes place and she becomes one of the suspects. With the need to clean her name, she decides to reveal the truth and capture the suspect before another murder takes place!

It's such a good story for this season!

Jo inherits an old crumbling estate upon her mother's death and heads to England to move in. After she accuses the caretaker of stealing a portrait, he subsequently ends up dead. I especially liked the neurodivergent Jo, who comes off as just "different" enough to throw off many of the people encounters. I also really liked Gwilym, the eccentric antiques dealer she joins forces with to track down the origin of the mysterious missing portrait. I would hope to see more about Jo as she continues to track down Evelyn's story. 4 stars

As I read this book, it took some time for me to get fully engrossed in the story. However, the book's setting is brilliant, and I loved it. However, I had no amateur sleuth vibes while reading this book; the mystery surrounding an old estate in England was enough to keep me engaged throughout.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

(partial transcription from video)

I enjoyed this book more than I’d initially expected to! I’m not really a murder-mystery or thriller reader, but the premise coerced me with its coziness.

Enter Jo Jones, a neurodivergent New Yorker recently divorced, whose mom has recently died. She finds out that she’s inherited an English estate in the countryside, so she moves from New York to England, where a creepy groundskeeper steals a painting (or at least is suspected of doing so) and then there’s a murder!

There’s a library, which is sadly in disrepair, and some weird sisters who were both married to the same guy at different times…and he was a cheating bastard. There’s a detective who’s kind of sweetly neurotic, a Welsh antiques dealer who is terrible at flirting, an adorable Irish barmaid who married a guy much younger than herself, and an entire cast of characters that were delightfully individual.

It was a fun read! And I had no idea where it was going at any point. Every time that I though I knew what was going on, I was wrong. And although there were romantic elements, there was no direct romantic plot, which was a nice palate cleanser after all of the romance books I’ve been reading recently.

I give this novel a rating of: 3 ½ derringers. Sit by a fireside, drink some whiskey, and read this book. You’ll have a good time; you’re welcome.

Jo arrives in England to claim her inheritance, an old manor house in a tiny town she’s never been to that belonged to family she’d never met. Upon her arrival, secrets old and new begin to unravel.

I loved it. The murder mystery in present day was so convoluted and twisted, and the old family mystery was equally good. I do wish we got a little more family history and found out what happened with the *you know what*. While I thought Jo’s autism was an interesting plot point (hyperlexia, drawing conclusions others don’t see) I don’t think it needed to be as drawn out as it was. The word repetition wasn’t necessary to further the plot. I also don’t necessarily think that her divorce was necessary. I do also wish we got more info on who her mother/father were. Overall though, fantastic

This book is really great if you're a fan of the genre. The characters are engaging, the story is interesting, but the pacing is a bit wonky. If you can make it thorough the establishing chapters and the beginning of the book, you will absolutory love it, though!

It took me a while to truly immerse myself in this book. Initially, I paused around the 20% mark, but when I resumed reading, the story became more engaging, especially with the evolution of Sid's character.

Contrary to the synopsis, this isn't your typical amateur sleuth story. Jo focuses on unraveling the mysteries of her family's past rather than actively investigating the murder. MacAdams and the police take the lead in solving the crime. I anticipated a narrative centered more around community secrets based on the description provided by the publisher, but it leaned more towards a police procedural. This was surprising, especially since one of the primary POV characters wasn't highlighted much in the description.

Jo Jones leaves America for an inheritance in England from an unknown relative and it’s a huge estate. Right away things seem off with the lawyer and caretaker, especially when the caretaker threatens her then turns up dead the next day. Jo is neurodivergent which makes for an interesting character. MacAdam’s and Green are the investigating officers while Jo is more interested in the history of the house, her unknown relatives and an old painting she discovered. So many characters, sometimes hard to keep track of, in this book but apparently this is the first book in a series. Interesting relationships between all the characters make this a worthwhile read.

I’ve got to admit, it took me a long time to get into this book. It sat on my reader at 20% finished for ages before I finally picked it up again and started enjoying it. That’s probably because Sid made a much better character once he was a dead body.

One thing to point out is that this really isn’t in the amateur sleuth genre, despite the synopsis. Jo doesn’t investigate the murder, she sticks to historical research into the mysteries of her family’s history while MacAdams and the police investigate the murder. I was expecting something more about the community and its secrets (though there are some…) and less police procedural based on the publisher description, something that barely mentions one of the main POV characters.

I enjoyed "The Framed Women of Ardemore House." The plot - a crumbling estate, a small English village, murder - is usually a recipe for an entertaining story. With this book, the recipe was successful but perhaps laden with too many sprinkles, if the analogy carries. The main story was logged down with too much detail, especially too much interpersonal drama that we never get to see and wouldn't want to. Jo, our protagonist, is autistic - something that is blatantly addressed but not used as an excuse to make a character extraordinary in a quirky, annoying way. Nor was the character given cliche personality traits. As someone who is also on the spectrum, I found Jo to be one of the most relatable characters I have come across in a long time. It was refreshing to read a voice with the same questions and perspective about the world that I do. It may not be for everyone and the strengths of the development of the protagonist are perhaps not enough to act as a balm to the superfluous details of the greater plot. When thinking about how I feel about a book (especially mysteries) I make a decision based on two criteria: if the plot is well-structured and engaging or if the author brings something new to the genre. Here, the plot is not the strongest but we have a new type of heroine introduced to the genre and I for one greatly support that.

3/5 ⭐⭐⭐


**Many thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for sharing this advanced digital copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.**

I love nothing more than a good murder mystery that takes place in a manor. So, it’s no surprise that when I saw this synopsis, I had to request it!

Jo Jones is not your typical protagonist. A neurodivergent and hyperlexic book editor from the hustle and bustle of New York, she suddenly finds herself thrust into the serene yet enigmatic English countryside. Just when she thought her life couldn't get more complicated, a dead body turns up in her cottage.

I really enjoyed Jo as a character; I found her witty and charming. From the start of the book, she is thrust into a series of unfortunate events. She lost her job, got divorced, and her mother passed away all in one year. And now she learns that she inherited her mother’s estranged brother’s estate. When she discovers that mysterious painting that no one else has ever seen before, I knew there would be a haunting vibe to the whole story, which I enjoyed!

I did have trouble with the narrative also showing the detective's POV. I found it a little distracting as I would have rather stayed in Jo’s POV, as I really liked her. The story sort of weaved in and out of scenes. I’ve encountered this type of writing before, but in this case, it caused a disconnect for me. The story did drag a little for me in places, but overall, it was a cozy little murder mystery.

Overall, it was a cute story, perfect for fall vibes. I’m curious to read what else this author has in store

I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery! Jo Jones is looking for a fresh start when she comes to England to check out the estate she inherited. She gets a little more than she bargained for when the groundskeeper is discovered dead on her living room floor. This is a good, gothic-feeling story that was populated with interesting characters, none more than Jo herself! I enjoyed how Jo and Detective MacAdams were both finding clues to what happened, but neither knew the whole story. My only complaint was that there were a few too many loose ends when the novel ended. I'm hoping that means a sequel is on the way! Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy in return for my honest opinion.

A sharp, savvy mystery about an autistic editor who inherits a crumbling English estate, only to find herself at the center of a murder investigation when a family portrait vanishes and a dead body turns up.

What a fun novel! I really appreciated the autism representation. The characters and setting were really engrossing.