"In post-World War I England, foul play at a suspicious séance provokes the delightfully mismatched sleuthing duo of American adventuress Beryl Helliwell and prim Brit Edwina Davenport to dig up some dirt...

Hidden beneath her British reserve, Edwina has a secret: she's finished her novel and is bravely mailing the manuscript to a publisher. Beryl also has a secret: as thanks for solving a case, the American adventuress has been gifted an airplane. After swooping over the fields and hedgerows of Walmsley Parva, livestock scattering beneath her, she flamboyantly lands the plane on the village green, prompting a startled Edwina to consider a stiff gin fizz.

Beryl's aircraft is not the only disruption of village peace. Miss Dinsdale, a psychic medium, has started holding séances. After the church organist resigns to serve as musical accompaniment for the séances, the vicar's wife hires the enquiry agents to expose the medium as a charlatan. Beryl is confident she can spot the fraud, having learned from Harry Houdini himself some tricks of the trade. The dubious Miss Dinsdale claims her spirit guide is an Egyptian princess whose mummy resides in a sarcophagus in the room. But the only body in the sarcophagus belongs to a murdered villager impaled with a dagger.

As the sleuths begin to investigate, Beryl discovers her plane has been sabotaged and wonders if there's a connection. Whether in the air or on terra firma, Beryl and Edwina must go round a circle of suspects to divine the culprit..."

I was literally JUST talking about how Houdini exposed fake mediums, this is timely reading indeed!

These characters, Beryl and Edwina, are lovely. And I love their friendship. Sadly, somehow this episode just didn't hang together for me. Perhaps a little too much history as a background to each character in the village. A lot of that was sad/difficult and so somehow it also felt a little maudlin... Hmm.

The story didn't stretch me, it was a little transparent, Don't want to create spoilers - but the evolution of the personal relationships felt a bit twee. Hmm

Not quite sure how this series is going to progress. It was 3 out of 5 on the enjoyment scale.

Thanks to #Netgalley, Kensington Books and the author for my Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

Recently reconnected schoolmates Edwina and Beryl have become detectives, with silent partner and former gardener, Simpkins who lately found he was heir to the "mustard" fortune. Beryl has secretly gotten an airplane as a bonus from their last case and is trying to find a way to gently break the news to her more timid partner. Meanwhile, Edwina has met the new "medium" and her brother.
If this is not enough, the Vicar's wife wants to hire them to discredit the medium because she has hired Hazel Moffat, the church organist for her seances. Hazel was given an ultimatum to choose the church or the medium and flounced out of the church, leaving them with an enthusiastic but untalented replacement.
Beryl and Edwina start attending the seances. At the second one, Hazel's body is found in the Egyptian sarcophagus used as a prop stabbed with a dagger. The return of the organist now being moot, they start to unravel her murder with the blessing of the village constable.
They find that Prudence the postmistress was giving information to the medium and some of Hazel's tenants are acting oddly.
Even more distracting is their friend attorney, Charles, is the guardian of his cousin's two year old son, Georgie, after her death in an auto accident, as his father was already dead in The Great War.
Beryl finally manages to get Edwina to go up in the plane and that gives them the final clue to catch the murderer and unmask the medium and her husband who had been pretending to be her brother.
It is such fun to see the characters develop in this series, especially seeing Edwina growing into her best self and taking chances, like writing a novel and daring to send it off to a publisher.
Really good series!

Another mystery to solve for Beryl and Edwina, this time they don't even have to leave Walmsley Parva.

With the arrival of Miss Dinsdale, a physic medium and her brother arrive in Walmsley Parva, the small village is quite excited except the Vicars wife, who believes that they are frauds and employs Beryl and Edwina to find out the truth.

You will not want to put this book done until you discover all of the secrets!!

Another wonderful read full of excitement and mystery until the very end!

"Murder at an English Séance (Beryl and Edwina Mystery #8)" by Jessica Ellicott is a P.I. Mystery set in the years just after the Great War (World War I) and the Spanish Flu outbreak in a small village in England that borders on the cozy side of the mystery genre. I say boarders because typically the main characters aren't paid mystery solvers but Beryl and Edwina are Private Investigators, amongst other things.

In this book a medium moves to the village to set up doing séances for the locals. She creates quite a stir by "stealing" away the church organist for use as accompanist during the séances. The vicar's wife hires Beryl and Edwina to find out if the medium is a fraud. In the course of doing this a much bigger mystery unfolds. Beryl and Edwina must figure out both mysteries while having Charles (who is smitten with Edwina) and Charle's toddler ward living with them.

I have to be honest, I found this one difficult to get through. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it's because it was a lot of build up before it finally started getting to the bigger mystery solving but I don't know if it was that at all.

It's rather like taking a leisurely time machine back to post WWI England when I visit Edwina and Beryl. You somehow adapt to the slower pace and simply find yourself going with the flow. Even Beryl, Edwina's energetic, adventuresome American friend seems to have settled into life in the village... sorta. After all, just because she's found peace with the calmer, sedate pace of village life doesn't mean she isn't excited to suddenly be gifted with a two-seater airplane. True, the more cautious, restrained Edwina isn't quite as thrilled to learn she's part owner and has no intentions of going up in the plane, even if Beryl is the pilot. Or, well, maybe because Beryl is the pilot. Edwina is already usually stressed to the max simply riding in Beryl's auto. Do you think it might have anything to do with the barrel rolls Beryl was doing before she landed the plane and told Edwina she was part owner?

That's soon the least of Edwina's concerns, however, as Beryl and she, who are what we'd call private investigators today, are hired to determine the credibility of the psychic medium who has recently taken up residence in their small village. Even worse, she's managed to steal away the church's sole talented pianist to perform at the seances. Needless to say, Edwina and Beryl attend. As it turns out, Beryl has worked with another well known psychic skeptic, Harry Houdini, so she's sure she'll be able to easily spot a fake medium. What they didn't anticipate was stumbling across a body in a casket. Well, a real body. Not the probably fake Egyptian princess Roxanne. Honest, that was the name they were given for her mummy. The real body is the church pianist. And this is where the story really begins.

I won't detail the plot. It's an intriguing one, complete with several suspects and red herrings. Oddly enough, I found myself as caught up in the side stories, which includes an orphaned child, village gossip, gambling, flying (of course), and watching Edwina, in particular, grow as a person and judge. Edwina isn't quite ready to admit it yet but, shh, romance may be blooming, too. Even Beryl shows signs of growth that Edwina never imagined. I like them tho', like Edwina, not so sure I'd want to go flying with Beryl. The supporting cast, particularly Charles, Beddoes, and Simpkins, all play vital roles. And, hey, let's not forget Crumpet, Edwina's dog. Like Edwina, he shows at the end that maybe he doesn't crave peace and quiet as they thought. Nope, that's all I'm saying. Read the book. Thanks #NetGalley and #KensingtonPublishing for letting me hop in their time machine to go back in time and visit with Beryl and Edwina once again. I always look forward to that opportunity, especially as we learned quite a bit about how the war impacted even the smallest of villages in ways I'd never really thought about in this book. The history major in me thoroughly enjoyed that aspect.

A good cozy mystery set in the British countryside. Beryl and Edwina work together to solve the murder of a woman found stabbed to death and left in a box to be discovered during a seance. Lots of characters and small town antics make for a fun read. Would recommend.