"Murder at Everham Hall" by Benedict Brown is a delightful 1920s cozy mystery that follows Marius Quin, a mystery writer with writer's block, as he navigates a glamorous New Year's Eve party. When the host, a film star, is murdered, Marius and his friends must solve the mystery before more guests are harmed. With charming characters, witty dialogue, and a gripping plot reminiscent of Agatha Christie, this novel promises a joyful escape into a world of intrigue and glamour. Perfect for fans of classic cozy mysteries!

Murder at Everham Hall is a captivating and thoroughly enjoyable mystery novel. Benedict Brown successfully combines the charm of a classic whodunit with a modern touch, making it a must-read for fans of the genre. While the plot follows some traditional mystery tropes, the unique characters and well-crafted suspense ensure that the story feels fresh and engaging. This book is perfect for a cozy evening read, transporting readers to the enigmatic and alluring world of Everham Hall.

This is my First book by Benedict Brown and it won’t be the last. This is a new cozy historical mystery series. It’s set in the 1920s and Marious Quin is solving a murder at a New Year’s Eve house party. As a best selling author, he has no idea what book is coming, what he knows that there’s endless looming mortgage payments and a lot of pressure to what he is writing!

When his childhood friend, Isabella, invites him to a party, hosted by a famous actor. He sees the opportunity as a distraction. Little does he know he’ll be snowed in and there will be a murder. Can he use his skills as a writer to be the detective of the murder? Pretty soon there is some more people attacked, and he soon realizes that solving mysteries is harder than writing them!!

This is a delightfully intriguing, murder mystery party and I’m looking forward to see what comes next for our protagonist, Marious Quin!

I think I’m really going to enjoy this new cozy mystery series. Marius is full of wit, humor and charm. I like how it connects him with his ex girlfriend and together they form a new sleuthing duo. I love the 1920s era and I think the author did a fantastic job making this time and setting come to life.

The narrator George Blagden does a fantastic job creating these characters and bringing the story and suspense to life!

A good locked room murder mystery. I enjoyed the holiday setting and thought it portrayed the time period well. I listened to the audiobook and the narration was nicely done.

It has been a long time since I have read a mystery by a male author. Mr. Brown did a great job developing his characters. He had me guessing until the end. I intrigued for the next installment of the series.

I just found myself immediately hating the writing style of this book. Very little description and not much to set the characters in their world.

This is the first book in a series, and I enjoyed it enough to queue the next as soon as it was available to me. Unfortunately, I did not get the audio version of that. The audio version lends a very jaunty tone to the entire proceedings. We get to feel with the character, and a few surprises are in store.
Our protagonist is a writer with severe writer's block and in need of the money that the writing brings in. Only when we start to think of him as irresponsible is his family introduced, and I would not mind spending more time with them. I spent a significant portion of the little time we had with them, chuckling to myself.
This seemingly carefree man meets an old friend of his, and he starts to imagine a future together, but why they aren't together now was one of the surprises that jumped out at a later stage.
The death is of a man who was not well-liked, and he had invited a group of his frenemies to dine with him. It is an almost closed-room plot with a lot of alibis and finger-pointing. I guessed at the culprit but for all the wrong reasons.
I highly recommend this to fans of the genre more for the writing style itself than for the mystery (although that was fun, too).
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own listening experience.

An interesting mystery with a unique setting that I enjoyed. I enjoy mystery’s set in different time periods. The characters were intriguing. I would read more in this series. I listened to the audiobook and thought it was well done. Thank you #NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the characters in this story. I am not much of a reader of mystery books, so I enjoyed stepping outside if my normal genres.

I love a closed room mystery, and this one hit all the right spots! The roaring 20s, a writer, a cool setting. This was a great read I would recommend for anyone looking for a satisfying cosy mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My first Christmassy book of the year was a great choice and I enjoyed this cosy 1920s murder mystery.

It has all the right elements, closed group of suspects, large English country house and perky amateur sleuths. The pace was perfect with the set up not too tedious and the action starting very soon. A few good red herrings and a set of well thought-out characters.

The only thing I found a bit niggly was the soggy relations between Marius and Isabella and her OTT obnoxious fiance as the love rival.

Would definitely recommend this if you're a fan of the genre or want a seasonal read that's light and entertaining.

Thanks very much to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for my gifted copy of this audio book. Apologies for posting this so late!

I just found this book boring. So much of what happened turned out to be pointless. A good mystery has no useless facts - even when something seems like a red herring, it winds up being important anyway. This was not that kind of mystery.

This was a delightfully entertaining audiobook that had me guessing until the very end. The narration was wonderful and added greatly to my enjoyment of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

Murder at Everham Hall is the first book in a new historical cozy series by Benedict Brown. Released 3rd Nov 2023, it's 273 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

This is such a quirky fun cozy read. The characters are very well rendered, with witty repartee and the author does a good job of the closed suspect pool country house mystery format. Odd duck writer Marius is having a spectacularly bad week. On top of writer's block, he's stuck at a posh country house with the woman (out of his league) whom he left behind during the first war. When the host of the party is murdered, it seems like everyone has a motive to have wanted him out of the way permanently.

Really humorous, well written, eminently readable. Pure golden age classic fun. Fans of Sayers, Allingham, and the others will likely find much to enjoy here.

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 7 hours 43 minutes and is capably narrated by George Blagden. He has a classically trained, nuanced tenor voice and manages the varied accents without a stumble. His reading is pleasant to listen to an neutral enough not to be annoying or intrusive.Sound and production quality are high throughout the read.

There's a sequel due out in Feb 2024 from the same publisher.

Four stars. Well written and eminently entertaining. Highly recommended for fans of classic golden age British cozy crime with a definite slug of P.G. Wodehouse at his irreverent best in the mix.

What a fun start to a new, cozy historical mystery series! It's set during the roaring 1920's and the cast of characters are snowed in, which reminded me of Then There Were None. I'm looking forward to the next installment. The characters were delightful and I was guessing who the killer was the entire time. I recommend this if you love a good cozy mystery! I'm really glad that I read it during January.

Thank you to Dreamscape Select and NetGalley for the advanced reader's copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Marius Quin is a British mystery novelist and WWI vet who is struggling through a bought of writer's block when he happens to run into his childhood sweetheart, Bella. Despite the years of baggage between them, Marius agrees to attend a New Year's Eve party at the mansion of Bella's wealthy actor friend. When this friend turns up dead only a few hours later, Marius is then tasked with putting his skills as a storyteller to the test in the hopes of solving the titular murder.

Murder at Everham Hall is a brisk but quiet whodunit, not a thriller. Although there's plenty of personality on display among the many suspects, this is primarily a book about people--most of whom don't particularly like each other--talking in rooms. This makes the middle of the story feel somewhat mundane, but Marius' snark makes for a clever distraction, and the story is redeemed by a twist ending. There's even a touch of social commentary for those who are looking for it. But if there's one demographic that this book will appeal to the most, it's probably the American anglophiles who love all things British. As for me, Murder at Everham Hall proved a pleasant read, and I look forward to checking out the sequel.

It’s hard to go wrong with one of my favorite format of cozy mystery! Early 1900s, British, little town (or in this case closed door mystery). This format will always make me happy and it’s even better with a great narrator who brings the book to life!! And having a dog character is the cherry on top!

Set in the 1920s, mystery writer Marius Quinn is faced with a dilemma. His publisher gave him an advance for his next book, and yet Marius hasn't gotten past the first chapter in the year since he was paid. He's either got to deliver this book or find another way to support himself and his family.

When he runs into a childhood friend, Bella, he is invited to a swanky New Year's Eve party and thinks perhaps that will give him some ideas for his book. So he agrees to go.

Unfortunately, the night he arrives at his unknown host's home, the homeowner is killed and Marius and Bella are left to figure out whodunnit.

This is the start to a new series, and I really enjoyed it. I felt it was a fresh twist on the amateur detective trope and its historical setting lent itself to many interesting details that wouldn't necessarily be familiar to a modern reader.

If you enjoy Agatha Christie novels, you'll want to meet Marius Quinn as well.

Thank you to Benedict Brown, Dreamscape Select, and NetGalley for an advance review copy. I'm looking forward to the next installment in the series!

First time reading this author. The mystery kept me guessing. I'm not sure how I feel about the MC. might be a little whiny for me.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, the narrator and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* this was a pretty good cozy mystery, different though from what i was expecting. 3.5 stars rounded up