The author has researched the painter Lavinia Fontana (yes she did exist) and Huffkins ( a sweet bread roll from Kent with a dimple in the top and served to cherry pickers , with a recipe similar to a brioche ) and this adds authenticity to the story. I have said before that a good ending to a book makes for a great read, and a poor ending to a good book makes for a disappointing read, in my view. This book fortunately falls into the former category, what twists and turns happen in the last few chapters, made even more intense for me, as with a murderer roaming free and only a few pages to read, we were forced to turn off all our electronic devices due to poor weather at the airport for the landing. Three hours later I managed to find out the killer in a twist I really was not expecting. That combined with a little love interest makes this a delicious cosy crime read

I had high hopes for this series, but sadly, I could not finish it. The exclamation points and rhetorical questions abound, and attempt to give some life to otherwise dull prose. In the quest to be eccentric, this book only succeeds in being ridiculous. For readers of British cozy series, this may be a win.

My Thoughts /

First and foremost, a huge THANK YOU to NetGalley, publishers Severn House and author, Amy Myers for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review. Publication date is currently set for May 07, 2024.

I had a little trouble with this one, I'm not gonna lie, so I'm over here, sitting on Outlier Island while y'all read my review.

As the synopsis reads: Three cheers for British stately home Tanton Towers! Explore the eccentric, history-filled house, take tea in the Happy Huffkin cafe and visit the site of a recent murder?! Introducing cafe-owner and divorcee Cara Shelly, who bakes a mean cake - and solves impossible crimes - in the first of a brand-new British traditional mystery series with cozy flair.

Now I've read plenty of cozies that have cakes, pastries and baked goods as a sweet element embedded into the story. But I've never heard of a Huffkin, so I was immediately intrigued. Now for all you foodie buffs, a Huffkin is traditional bread roll which first originated in Kent and was most often eaten with jam and cream. Nowadays, Huffkins are likely to be served with bacon or sausage. So, ✅. In this story though, café-owner Cara doesn't bake a single thing, in fact, she spends so little time in her bakery you'd be forgiven for thinking she was a semi-regular customer instead of the bakery owner. So, ❌.

I've said before that a good cozy needs to: 🌟 be cleverly plotted; 🌟 have memorable characters and snappy dialogue; 🌟 have short punchy chapters. Unfortunately, I felt this was severely lacking here.

I'll give props to the premise; it does sound interesting. A British stately home (filled with history, stories, and art), which conducts public tours, has an enticing café; and is now the scene of a murder. There's easily a book or three in there.

My problems lie not with the story, but with the execution.

Every novel needs characters. A protagonist, and something else that isn't, and by that, I mean some other significant figure that needs to be outsmarted, outmanoeuvred, and otherwise overcome. Murder at Tanton Towers has a plethora of characters. Too many I think because there weren't enough pages in this book to develop any of them.

The author spends a lot of time in our protagonist's stream of consciousness. It was one of the first things I noticed and had me wondering…..is there going to be dialogue? I'm not saying that every single novel you are ever going to read must have dialogue, but this is an investigation into a murder, surely you are going to be needing to speak to witnesses and ask questions. Being in Cara's head for so much time was boring, and I was becoming disengaged. I can honestly say that the pages of this book where the written words contained actual dialogue were the most interesting. I was interested and engaged, and just wanted more.

I also think that there was plenty of scope for the investigating officer, DCI Andrew Mitchem's character to be explored more fully. He came across as a suitably experienced officer who knew how to investigate crimes but seemed to grate on Cara for no apparent reason. "Good afternoon, Ms Shelley", he greeted her. Cara gritted her teeth. It was confrontation time. Confrontation? Where? He only said, "Good afternoon"!

The plot was interesting and like I said, you could easily get a book or three out of it. But the pacing was too slow, and the spotlight was given to things that were non-essential to the story. For example, a LOT of time was spent on discovering several 'hidey-holes' within the walls of Tanton Towers. Given this is a 'stately home' built by an eccentric wealthy landowner, that little bit of trivia comes as no surprise.

I think with a bit of tweaking and editing this would easily be a four-star read for this reader. But as it stands presently I can't in all honesty give it any more than 2.5 stars.

I'm going to leave the last words to the author herself when she wrote: "There was, Cara decided, a lot going on."

#MurderatTantonTowers #NetGalley

Cara Shelly rents a former folly at historic house, Tanton Towers, to use as her cafe. Friends with Tanton's owners, she has a proprietary and professional interest in how the house supports itself by various events open to the public. One of these are regular dances performed by the Tanton Twirlers, a historic interpretive group of volunteers. But things aren't as smooth as they appeared and one of the dancers is found dead on the grounds, well after all the tourists had left for the day. That means it was done by one of the staff or the two owners. Cara knew she hadn't done it but otherwise, there were plenty of people upset with the murder victim.
This has an interesting premise that sets the stage for future books. This first novel was slow reading in sections, particularly about the many older male employees having various issues with the victim and almost everyone appeared be writing a book about the house. I'd try the sophomore effort in this series, given the opportunity.

Thank you NetGalley and Severn House for a copy of "Murder at Tanton Towers" in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is the first book in the new British Stately Home Mystery series. Set in Kent we learn that Tanton Towers was built in the late 18th century by eccentric Sir Jeffry Farran. Cara Shelley has set up her Happy Huffkin Café in the old folly in the Tower's garden.

The Towers are owned by Max Farran Pryde and his wife Alison. Alison comes running to get Cara because there has been an emergency with Daphne. She's the wife of the account at the Towers Mike Hanson. She has a lot of "emergencies" and is the leader of a costume clad dancing troupe. Alison found her strangled in the orangery. Was she just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or did she stumble upon something more serious?

Max thinks that someone is trying to steal his art collection and perhaps his wife stumbled upon a plot. The staff all reflect on how much better things will be now without Daphne. Ewan Chapman the guided tours and events organizer was upset with Daphne because she wanted to run his Smugglers Tunnel tours when that was clearly his job.

We meet DCI Andrew Mitchem who spars with Cara quite often through the story, mostly about cherries in a Huffkin.

We also learn that almost everyone in the story is writing a book about the Towers. There are several hidey-holes in the Towers and they all relate to smuggling of illegal liquor and fake art.

It was an interesting story but it moved along at a rather slow pace with a lot of information that might not have been necessary.

Cara runs the tea shop inside Tanton Towers and, as such, feels almost a part of the staff. When one of the dancers (and the accountants wife) is killed onsite after hours, Cara wants answers!

I really enjoy murder mysteries set in Britain. I love inter-war settings but I’m also happy to read well-written contemporary novels too: ones where the author introduces the reader to various characters, all well delineated so that we think of them as individuals with distinct personalities; gives us a main character with whom we sympathise and who will investigate the crime; and where clues are discreetly tucked away in the exposition, as long as we pay attention. However, Murder at Tanton Towers by Amy Myers has none of those. It is probably the most badly-written whodunnit I have ever read in my 65 years. (No, replace “probably” with “undoubtedly”.) All the suspects are introduced one after the other so that we have no opportunity to make a mental image of each one: they all work at the same stately home; they are all middled-aged men; and they are all planning to write a book about that stately home. Oh, and they all resented the murdered woman. How is the reader supposed to remember which suspect is which?

The main character, Cara Shelley, works at the café at Tanton Towers. She is prickly and, based upon her thinking as revealed by the author, stupid. The tower was built by Sir Jeffry Farran in the eighteenth century. There is a tunnel connecting the mansion to an entrance further down the hill. There seems to be a general belief that the tunnel was used to smuggle brandy into the mansion. Really? The smugglers tote the brandy through the open countryside on pack donkeys for miles - and then hide in a tunnel for the last 2-300 yards so that no-one will see them? And after that, the brandy has to be hidden in secret cupboards so that on-one can see it? And when someone finds the secret cupboard in 2024, she’s killed? That’s Cara’s theory?

When Cara sees two of the staff leaving the café after having coffee together, she thinks “No chorus of farewells followed them, so their being here must be coincidence.” So, if I arrange to meet a friend in the local café and no-one says “Good-bye” as I leave, our meeting was coincidence – but if they do say “Good-bye”, it was pre-arranged? And, just because a building is over 200 years old, why has it “probably” seen murders? I noted many more examples where Logic has obviously left the room and locked the door behind her, leaving Cara alone except for Cliché.

If you’re a reader who loves reading any book set in an old British manor house; and if you’re not bothered about plots that don’t make sense; and if you’re not fazed by half the characters being indistinguishable, you might enjoy this book – and that’s great. However, I’m afraid I’m too fussy.

DNFed because I physically couldn't read this without my brain hurting. For some reason the sentences don't make sense and if they do, the next one has no correlation or connects well to the previous sentence. It was like trying to read a jumble of words which meant I couldn't understand what was going on in the slightest, I just couldn't get through hardly any of it unfortunately.

Delightful..
The first in a new series - The British Stately Home Mysteries- and an introduction to Cara Shelly, cafe owner and soon to be keen amateur sleuth. Her cafe in the grounds of the lovely stately home of Tanton Towers is thriving but Cara is in for a shock when the body of one of the Tower’s dancing troupe is discovere, very dead indeed, in the Orangery - and so, it begins. A delightful cosy mystery with a well realised and beguiling setting, a cast of eclectic and eccentric characters and a frothy plot with a mystery at its heart.

Cara Shelly runs the cafe at Tanton Towers. After several years she has come to think of her coworkers and the owners of the home as friends and family. When one of them is murdered, she doesn’t trust the detective assigned to the case, so she begins her own investigation. Will she find one of their own killed Daphne, or will she get an even bigger shock and be confronted by the killer as their next victim?

This was a great first entry tint this new cozy series. It provided a great introduction to the characters as well as the setting. It did not disappoint and leaves room for plenty of other adventures and mysteries in the future.

As always Amy Myers keeps you guessing until the very end. This is a new series of hers and I am looking forward to reading more. I also enjoyed the British humor in this story. Some parts I felt like I had to slog through.