Overall, cool mystery but I did not like any of the characters. Except Bess. She was sweet and I wish that I could meet her in person. Maybe the reader isn't supposed to like any of the characters?

I enjoyed the twist at the very end (although I had figured it out earlier in the book) but I felt that there was WAY too little time dedicated to the twist. I get the point but I wish there was maybe a chapter dedicated to it.

I rated this 3.75. I can't give it 4 stars but it's a solid 3 and I added a little extra! I would read more from this author.

Benji came to live with his Aunt and cousins after his mother's death when he was 14. He and his mother had lived a simple life, but now he found him thrust into the upper echelons, and all the puzzling social expectations that come along with this life. He quickly becomes a part of the family, feeling safe and happy for the first time. But several years later, at his cousins wedding, he discovers a body in the lake on the property, and soon he begins to question everything about his family, and how much loyalty he has to them.
This was a interesting mystery read! As a reader, I was questioning every member of the family at some point, and wasn't able to figure out the culprit, or if it was a family member at all. It's an intriguing look at the life of a young man who wasn't born into this family, but was adopted, so he feels like he owes them more out of gratitude, and does that also mean protecting them and not cooperating with the police? The setting of 1960's England was refreshing as well, as so often these English manor stories are set earlier in time. I would recommend this book for mystery and thriller readers!

The Mask of Merryvale Manor is an atmospheric, often creepy, psychological historical murder mystery by Pete Sherlock. Released 25th June 2024 by Fairlight Books, it's 320 pages and is available in paperback 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.

A coming of age story set in the early 1960s, MC Ben comes to his aunt and uncle after the death of his mother. Having grown up in modest means, he's entirely unprepared for the indolence and opulence of the family, and is by turns fascinated and horrified by his cousins' attitudes of privilege and lack of compassion.

There are elements of gothic horror (a macabre mask positively *looming* throughout the story), bits of psychological thriller, standard English country house murder mystery, cold case disappearance, as well as being impressively redolent of the early 60s. Despite being a real mish-mash of genres, it manages to straddle them quite well and develops into a shocking denouement. There's not much resolution included here and it stops on a dime (quite effectively).

It's not at all derivative, but there are flashes of Shirley Jackson and Susan Hill.

For sensitive readers, there are mentions of casual sexual harassment, animal abuse (not graphic, just mentioned in context), political corruption, and war/PTSD.

Four stars. Well worth a look.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This story opens with Benjamin, walking with his cousin Natasha, on her wedding night. They are at the family estate in Dorset 1964. As Benjamin broods and listens to Natasha prattle he makes a grisly discovery.....a woman's shoe, with her foot still in it.
The story flashes back to when Benjamin, orphaned at 14, was taken in by his mother's family, event unfold over his time moving in with them, that lead to him believing he may know the identity of the dead woman.
Back in the present Natasha's twin brother Tom, has been indicted for murder and Ben is unsure what he believes.
This is kind of a slow build story with an ending that I had not anticipated.

Thank you to Netgalley and Fairlight Books for the opportunity to enjoy this mystery e-ARC

A fast paced murder mystery novel that I seriously could not put down. Every time I picked this book up, I was sucked into the story, characters, atmosphere.
We follow Benjamin as he goes to live with his aunt, uncle, and twin cousins at Merryvale Manor. At the time, he is a shy boy of only 14 trying to make sense of his new home and family. His uncle is in Parliament, and this new lavish lifestyle is all very foreign to him.
Years later, during his cousins wedding, a body is discovered on Merryvale property. Here, our story truly takes shape as we follow Ben on his quest to uncover the truth - whether he has to go against his beloved family or not.
There is murder, secret rendezvous, family drama, a trial at the Old Bailey, and of course…. The peculiar and strange Ooser mask that looms over them all with knowledge of what occurred on one fateful evening.
A wonderful debut! I absolutely adored it.

3.5/5

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All of these thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book was a little bit harder to get into, but I think that's just how I am with most mysteries. Once I got into it though I couldn't stop reading. I loved how you actually go in the court room and hear all the circumstantial evidence. As opposed to other murder mystery books where you find out who did it at the end of the book and that's that. At least for me, I had my money on the murderer being a certain someone but I was wrong. So I found it great that at least I wasn't able to predict who it was.

It’s the last Wednesday of June, so you know what that means. Book review time! This month, I decided to go with a standard mystery with historical and horror-adjacent (not quite horror, but close) elements. The Mask of Merryvale Manor by Pete Sherlock was released on some platforms on the 20th and others on the 25th (which isn’t confusing at all, ugh) by Fairlight Books. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s get to it!

The Mask of Merryvale Manor follows Ben, a 14-year-old boy who moves in with his rich aunt’s family after his mother dies. At first, he’s seduced by a life of opulence. He’d do anything to fit in. To be accepted. But a few years later, he returns home from university for his cousin’s wedding and finds remains in the lake that’s on the family property. That’s when he really starts to see the family for who they are. In the end, he must decide if fitting in is worth throwing his morals away.

Plotwise, it’s your standard English murder mystery. If you’ve ever watched Midsomer Murders, you can pretty easily guess where this one is going. There’s only one person the remains could be, so the “figuring out who the victim is” part felt a bit drawn out. I also pegged the killer right off the bat, but it was still an interesting journey to uncover them. There was also a weird fixation on the Ooser mask (it has to do with the region’s folklore) that I enjoyed. Nothing super exciting, but a satisfying plot nonetheless.

The characters were interesting, if mostly unlikable. But that’s really the point. As an outside observer, the reader can see how repugnant these people are which ups the pity we feel for Ben as he struggles to fit in with them. Not all of them are evil, some are just so self-absorbed that they fail to see what’s happening around them. I found the book more interesting as a study of human behavior than I did as an actual mystery.

As far as the writing goes, I enjoyed it. There was an old timey feel to it that lent itself well to late ’50s/early ’60s setting. It created a nice atmosphere.

Ultimately, I appreciated The Mask of Merryvale Manor for what it is. It’s not wonderful or groundbreaking or anything, but it’s a perfectly adequate mystery.

Overall, I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. It didn’t wow me, but it didn’t disappoint me either. If you enjoy mysteries, especially ones like Midsomer Murders, you’ll probably enjoy this one. It’s worth picking up.

ALERT: Substance use, non-explicit sex. Book almost impossible to put down.
The Mask of Merryvale Manor is an excellent blend of genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction and Mystery Thriller full of twists and turns and the occasional red herring to keep the reader's attention. And best of all, with this book the author, Pete Sherlock, makes his debut.
Young Benjamin, orphaned at 14 years of age, is adopted by his aunt Eva Drummond and taken to live at Merryvale Manor, the ancestral home of the Drummond family: Aunt Eva, her husband Rupert, a member of Parliament, and their cousins, the twins. Tom and Natasha.
Some years later, during Natasha's wedding, she and Ben find human remains in the lake on the property, just days before holding elections in which Uncle Rupert is one of the candidates.
Young Ben struggles with his conscience: should he talk to the authorities about the macabre discovery or remain silent to protect his adoptive family?
Over the course of the story, clues begin to appear about the identity of the victim and his killer, but the author keeps a surprise for us right at the end of the book.
Excellent story, highly recommended.
I thank the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.
The opinion I have expressed above is based solely on what I think and feel about this book.

It is the 1960s and Ben a boy of ten, now orphaned moves into his aunt and uncles home with two ready made cousins. At the beginning he is awkward with the comfort and opulence of his surroundings but then grows into it comfortably.

Fast forward a few years and human bones are discovered. The forensics will eventually identify the victim, but Ben knows at once who the victim was identified by him by the shoes. The French tutor brought in by his Aunt, also sacked without a seemingly apparent reason by his Aunt. She was last seen with his cousin who supposedly dropped her at the station.

The Mask in the story seemed a bit out of place for me. Its seemingly supernatural powers attributed to the family did not quite gell with the rest of the story. The characters themselves were very good with the Aunt and Uncle indulgent, self satisfied that their position in the county would protect them from the law. When it did catch up with the Drummond family it was a surprise for them.

For Ben it became a choice of family versus others. Others included justice which was not served for the nanny and Benjamin was manipulated to the end.

The obvious suspect was very apparent from the beginning but the actual suspect was totally different.

Excellent reading with lots of twists and turns set with perfect characters to suit their respective roles.

A mid-century suspense novel where no-one is as innocent—or as guilty— they appear

Reading my second mystery this month set in the south west of England, I understand the appeal of setting a mystery in a corner of the country that keeps its own counsel and has its own mysterious ways. Keeping a distance from the major cities gives it a zest, a gloss that comes from being unknown and ultimately unknowable. However, like all mysteries, the red herrings are clues to other books, other stories and in this they could have made a stronger, more thematically consistent novel.

The narrator Benjamin is a cipher and he is pulled this way and that by the forceful Drummonds, each of them controlling or forthright in their own ways. Ben doesn't want anything, neither to be there nor to get away, and even his homesickness is mentioned once then never again, as if he's just a series of commands rolled out for a particular situation. His relatives are painted as being slightly eccentric rich types in a post-war Devon of little C and big C Conservatives, maintaining a surface of snobbery and propriety over a core of selfishness and sarcasm. I didn't know who to root for, who I didn't want to have done the deed, who I wanted punished, or who to get a happy ending. As it turned out, no-one got anything, and nobody really wanted anything.

I can see the novel's literary forebears, including du Maurier and Salinger and a little bit of Hollingsworth, but without a desiring centre, I felt lost throughout, without even the consolation of a brilliantly rendered landscape to fall into, or a mysterious world of post-pagan ritual, or anything at all really.

Two stars, for failing to make me care.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Pete Sherlock for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for The Mask of Merryvale Manor coming out June 20, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I was really interested in checking out this book. I love stories set in manors in the past. I think the story was a little procedural and there was definitely an order to the investigation. I wasn’t as interested in the trial as I was in the other aspects of the book. But I understand the need for law and order. Overall, I really enjoyed the story. The characters were definitely interesting and flawed. I would definitely check out another book by this author!

"'We're actually all rather terrible.' On the cusp of the 1960s, when fourteen-year-old Ben moves into the ancestral home of his aunt and uncle, he is shocked by their wealth and glamour. Under the watchful eye of the Merryvale Mask, his sophisticated cousins teach him how to appreciate their languid opulence and draw him into the world of the elites. But five years later, when a woman's body is found on the estate, his new life begins to crumble. As the family is placed at the centre of a murder investigation, Ben starts to see their manipulative power in a harsher light. Placed on a collision course with his family, Ben faces a dilemma: how far is he willing to go to fit into their world?"

Because luxury and opulence always has a price!

Agatha Christy meets Frieda McFadden in this I enjoyed it it was similar and different in all aspects of the plot. I would recommend it to my twist loving bookish people

Taken in by his distant family, Benjamin become mesmerized by the glamour of Merryvale Manor. However, all is not what it seems and Benjamin quickly learns that not all the glitters is gold.

This is a well-written little gothic mystery. I do think that some of the story could have been expanded on because there are so many 'gothic house' mysteries. There was a definite surprise at the end result and I think that's what made the book so strong.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

First I would like to say thank you to Fairlight Books for allowing me to read an advanced copy of "The Mask of Merryvale Manor." The thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

Sherlock's novel had a strong start. I adored the way the author broke up the different parts of the story by acts, and I like that they started in the present and took us back in time to flesh out the character's stories and histories, as well as give us some world building. The little mysteries presented through the story kept me locked in. I'm also a sucker for a gothic setting, and Sherlock really provides a beautiful one.

As for the character's and story themselves, I was hooked initially by the messiness of this rich family who are aware their wealth and privilege but try to sell themselves as normal working-class folks. The only thing that irked me was how our main character acted throughout the story. I understand that he's brought in young and is shaped by his new family, but as he comes to terms with how awful his new family is he still chooses to try and keep their good graces despite being shown they don't actually care for him.

Now, the end. The end was up and down for me, the reveal was rewarding--albeit a little obvious--but ultimately disappointing. It's my own personal pet-peeve when stories end in the middle of an action. If this was going to have a second novel I would understand, but this very much reads as a standalone. The ending just left me feeling unfulfilled, and while the book was incredibly readable I still wish it had a better end.

"The Mask of Merryvale Manor" by Pete Sherlock is a captivating and atmospheric novel that delves into the complexities of family, wealth, and power. Set against the backdrop of the 1960s, the story follows fourteen-year-old Ben as he is drawn into the glamorous and opulent world of his wealthy relatives, only to find himself embroiled in a murder investigation that threatens to shatter the facade of his new life.

Sherlock's writing is evocative and richly detailed, transporting readers to the grandeur of Merryvale Manor and immersing them in its secrets and intrigues. The novel's exploration of class dynamics and the allure of wealth is compelling, as Ben grapples with his own identity and the lengths he is willing to go to fit in with his aristocratic family.

One of the novel's strengths lies in its well-drawn characters, particularly Ben, whose journey of self-discovery and moral awakening drives the narrative forward. As Ben begins to see his family in a new light, Sherlock expertly navigates the complexities of loyalty, ambition, and betrayal, keeping readers guessing until the very end.

"The Mask of Merryvale Manor" is a gripping and thought-provoking novel that will appeal to fans of historical fiction and suspense. With its engaging storyline, vividly drawn characters, and atmospheric setting, Pete Sherlock has crafted a compelling tale that will linger in the minds of readers long after the final page is turned.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for an advanced copy to review for my honest opinion.

the story follows benjamin, who was taken under the wing of the drummonds in the merryvale manor after his mother’s untimely death. he was mesmerized by the magnificent house and glamorous lifestyle, not realizing that beneath the grandeur and aesthetics, the family is trying to hide something sinister and disturbing.

as the story progresses, benjamin notices how the family is obsessed with appearances and how they can be very manipulative. he then sees them in a terrible new perspective, as the family uses him for their own gain.

this was definitely a thrilling read. from start to finish, the author kept the story really interesting. the suspense in this book keeps getting intense as the story unfolds. i was really on the edge of my seat the whole time trying to deduce to find who’s the real culprit. the ending gave me shivers because i did not expect it at all!

overall, it was an entertaining and quick read. might even recommend it too!

the mask of merryvale manor will be out on june 25, 2024.

thank you, netgalley, fairlight books, and pete sherlock for the advanced digital reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book drew me right in with the teaser scene of the discovery, and it was interesting to go back in time from there to Ben's first experiences at Merryvale Manor. Having a sense of the destination motivated me to stick with it when the pace slowed down in the middle of the book. Clara's outsider perspective helped put the Drummonds' behavior and attitudes in context, which added some complexity as the story progressed. There was just enough information doled out to keep me guessing throughout the book, and I definitely didn't expect what happened in the final reveal.

Thank you to NetGalley & Fairlight Books for an ARC of The Mask of Merryvale Manor by Pete Sherlock in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5

This was a fun story with a mystery set in a historical setting. I especially enjoyed the beginning and the end. The writing style was not for me, but the concept was interesting. I hope it finds its audience.

We are not who we think we are, but we are condemned to to be who we think we are.

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley and Fairlight Books for providing me with an e-ARC for The Mask of Merryvale Manor.

The Mask of Merryvale Manor, as a good murder mystery should, truly kept me guessing all the way through to the final act. The characters felt very real throughout the book, and the banter and quips made me laugh many times. Enough evidence is planted throughout the book to allow the reader to have multiple suspects as the plot progresses and make their own judgement prior to the reveal of the true culprit.

I loved the inclusion of the ever looming Ooser mask, it created a horror aspect that I was not fully expecting. Even though I was not originally familiar with the folklore - there is enough context and explanation given to allow an understanding of its nature.

My only criticisms of this book is that personally I wish that the flashbacks were either broken up more or additionally flashbacks were added in-between the later chapters to give more hints to who the true culprit could be. Additionally, I would have loved if the Ooser mask was able to be more of its own supernatural entity - in line with Benjamin's dreams.

Content warnings for this book include: mentions of sexual harassment, mentions of war, mentions of animal harm