The Festival Murders

amateur-sleuth, England, murder, murder-investigation

The middle aged critic was not well loved, especially by his women, but there was no evident reason for him to be murdered. If it was a murder. The second death was assuredly murder but, again, where was the motive? The mystery writer becomes his own chief character and potters around investigating in his own way. While it does get a bit draggy occasionally, it's still a good whodunit!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Black Thorn via NetGalley. Thank you!

Really liked this book - a knowingly Christie style tale. The protagonist, Francis Meadowes is likeable and I reckon there is more than enough to carry this series over a few more investigations!

I received this ARC via Netgalley and Black Thorne, in return for an honest review. I enjoyed the premise of this book and the fun that the author had with all the names, like the town’s name of ‘Mold-on-Wold’. At the annual literary festival, the big name is Bryce Peabody, professional critic. Accompanied by his new (and much, much younger) girlfriend, he continues his scathing reviews in person, as well as by publication. Then Bryce turns up dead. True crime author, Francis Meadowes, who happens to be just down the hall when Bryce is discovered, decides to investigate as research. There’s a huge list of suspects and no clear cause of death. When a second death, and obviously murder, occurs, Francis digs even deeper. I enjoyed the story. The characters were clearly written so no problems in keeping them straight. The logic for the murder is also clear, when finally detailed. A few things are a bit stretched – a young woman ends up sharing Francis’ room with him, for example. Is this because there’s no other lodging in the area because of the festival? If I were her, I wouldn’t stay in the hotel room of a man I just met, particularly nowadays. There are lots of references to Francis being black, which wasn’t germane to the story and threw me a bit. Still, I liked Francis and would enjoy reading more of his adventures.

This is Mark McCrum's debut mystery novel. The setting of the mystery is a literary convention and begins with Bryce Peabody, a book critic, who is about to go to hear Dan Dickson read from his new novel. Mr. Peabody had written a brutal review of the novel. The main character, Francis Meadows, writes crime novels. After Mr. Peabody is found dead in his room, Francis decides to investigate Bryce's possible murder. As Francis goes around talking to fellow writers, he learns that there are many people who wants Bryce dead. One more murder makes the police look at Bryce's death as a murder.

This mystery keep me guessing as Mr. McCrum did a good job of throwing in a couple of red herrings. This novel is well-written, and the characters were very believable. I highly recommend this debut novel, and I hope Mr. McCrum will make this into a series of mysteries featuring Francis Meadows.

Really enjoyed the who donit aspect of the story! Didn’t know it was part of a series but warmed to the main character!
Would be good to see a few more mysteries too

A good story with description and background for all characters involved in the plot, a well written read that does not confuse with lots of minor plots

"He was the literary world’s number one hatchet man, the guy to whom all the others looked to set the agenda."

A literary festival.   A gaggle of authors, some of whom have pasts that are inextricably entwined.  When the first dead body appears, it could easily be chalked up to natural causes.  But when the second one is found, it starts to look "dreadfully suspicious".

Francis Meadowes is a crime fiction writer who has the rather good - or was it bad - luck to be right at the scene of the first crime.   It's inevitable that he put his lead character, investigator George Braithwaite, to the task.   "What would George Braithwaite have noticed?"

Add to that the unlikely cooperation that develops between Francis and Victoria Westcott - one of the other writers - as they pool resources to try and suss out the most likely among them to be a murderer.  It seems the solution is well in hand!

An exceedingly good story and quite the page turner.  A few twists and turns along the way to discovery - and who doesn't like twists?   This is one that many fans of the traditional whodunit will enjoy.

[I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author via NetGalley, and am leaving an honest review of the book.   The opinions expressed herein are entirely my own.]

This is the first in a series featuring middle-of-the-road crime writer Francis Meadowes, whose own novels feature the retired forensic science professor George Braithwaite and his ‘feisty wife and sidekick Martha’. At a literary festival in the quaintly named Mold-on-Wold, somewhere in deep Englandshire, a suitably heady mix of superstar writers rub shoulders with the not-quite-so-famous wannabes. Mark McCrum, himself an ‘insider’ – if we can call him that? – shamelessly name drops everyone and everyone in the literati, which makes this a perfect amusement for those who like their books.

Bryce Peabody is ‘the literary world’s number one hatchet man’, the main literary critic for ‘The Sentinel’ who has come to the festival to deliver a devastating talk on celebrity authors and, it is rumoured, about to destroy the career of one of them. Needless to say, he is found dead the night before his talk, and our erstwhile crime writer turned amateur sleuth, the ever-persistent Francis Meadowes, takes it upon himself to investigate the death. For fans of the traditional murder mystery, every kind of suspect is here: spurned lovers, the current glamorous girlfriend, writers who have been savaged in Peabody’s writings, a group of hangers-on involved in Class A drugs… When a second death happens, the race is on the find the culprit.

This is a breezy, self-referential and amusing story. OK, the clues are there and if you guess the identity of the killer early on, it’s all pretty obvious. But McCrum has a lot of fun with the conventions of the Golden Age crime novel, and it becomes at times a pastiche of itself. Meadowes invokes the spirit of his amateur detective to help him poke around: everyone involved opens up to him, answering his most probing questions without blinking an eye; the police are happy to share information with him that defies belief; and, of course, the classic Golden Age conclusion, where all the suspects are gathered together, is arranged by Meadowes whilst even he admits: ‘Braithwaite would have hated a set-up like this – as near as dammit to the traditional “group denouement” of the Golden Age!’

It's fun, never intended to be taken too seriously, and thoroughly enjoys itself with its nods to the absurdity of the festival circuit so prevalent nowadays for writers. I shamelessly enjoyed it, and look forward to more in the series. To paraphrase Eliot’s Prufrock: this is not Agatha Christie nor was meant to be. Enjoy it for what it is and just escape for a few hours. An enjoyable 3.5 stars, happily rounded up to 4.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

This is a lovely series and this book was one of the instalments.
I loved the great description of the atmosphere of the festival, the well thought and fleshed out characters, and the setting.
The mystery is solid, full of red herring and twists, and it kept me guessing till the end. The solution came as a surprise.
I can't wait to read the next instalment.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

If you are looking for a foot-to-the-floor action-packed read, full of chases and gun battles, this isn’t it. This is one of those murder mysteries where there is a dead body which sparks our sympathetic protagonist into deciding to track down his killer… I liked the steady parade of suspects, who all had reasons of their own to wish Bryce dead and the sudden shift in pace and urgency, when there is another death. McCrum is good at giving us a steady drip-feed of plausible, three-dimensional characters without breaking the rhythm of the writing. I always prefer to really like the main protagonist – if I’m going to invest time and energy in reading a book, I’m not all that thrilled if I’m constantly grinding my teeth at the stupidity or sheer nastiness of a lead character. Francis is a thoroughly nice chap, with his own emotional wounds, that somehow drives him on to want to sort out the tangled mess surrounding Bryce’s death.

Any niggles? One that stood out glaringly. A big problem for modern writers of this particular style of genre is the sheer professionalism of our modern police force. No perspiring DI is going to turn to our brilliant-but-quirky investigator to solve the case for her, these days. I think McCrum successfully navigated his way around that hurdle throughout the investigation… just about. And then blew all believability out of the water by staging the classic denouement, where he gathered together all the suspects and walked everyone through the whole thing, before dramatically announcing the murderer. It frankly graunched, yanking me right out of the story and I’ve knocked off a point for that stunt, alone.

Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed this classy, well plotted and enjoyable whodunit and I’ll definitely be reading more in this series. The ebook arc copy of The Festival Murders was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest opinion of the book.
8/10

This is a cozy mystery set at a literary festival in England. I was attracted to the synopsis of the book, and I really liked the protagonist Francis Meadowes. I also liked the author's writing style. However, I thought the story moved along a bit too slowly at times.

I had a couple of issues with the story though. I couldn't quite figure out how Meadowes got away with asking all those questions. You would expect people to just tell him to mind his own business. Also , it seemed sort of odd that the victims girlfriend moved into his room after the murder, and just ended up staying there. After all, they were strangers to each other.

That being said, the author presented a lot of plausible motives and along with those motives, quite a number of suspects as well. The novel was well plotted and the story ends in a most unexpected, but believable way. I don't think that I would ever have guessed how it ended.

I believe that this was the first book in the series. While I didn't love this one, I liked it well enough to borrow another in the series from the library.