Celina Grace

It's the story of a murder and a missing baby. The Fullman's were sleeping when someone kidnapped their baby and murdered the nanny. DS Kate Redman was assigned the case and started investigating...but she had no idea how intricate it was going to be. The book has lots of characters to keep up with. The storylines were also numerous, and the motives were a bit too ambiguous. The background story of Kate, our protagonist, is crucial to this entire plot. It was the one thing that lets us truly understand Kate...which when reading descriptions for other books in this series, is important, as Kate is the "star" character in all of them. I thought that DS Kate Redman was a bit too judgmental of the people that she had only just met. I know that this is what we all do as human beings, but it can cloud the judgement and cause evidence to be overlooked in a police officer that is too quick to judge and accuse. Kate also worked off of too many of her personal "hunches".... how she is feeling, what she gathers from someone’s facial expressions... that's certainly okay to take notice of and mentally store away...but not to immediately assume anything. Some of the characters were just left hanging in the wind with no explanations at the end. With so many of them being suspected, their paths could/should have been much more intricate and connected. In the end, it feels like most of them held no significance at all...just added to the word count and could’ve been omitted long before. When the plot started to follow a different character's perspective, it became quite confusing since we never found out much of anything about him. I wasn't particularly satisfied with the ending either. A lot of questions were left unanswered, and the story ended abruptly and became very predictable. One thing the book did do well was developing DS Kate Redman as a likeable, capable, character encouraging readers to perhaps continue the series. I gave the book 3 stars... It was the first book in the series, the character of Kate Redman had likeable qualities...but I'm not sure I will be visiting with her again.… (mer)

From amazonDeath at the Manor is the first in the Asharton Manor Mysteries series: a four part series of novellas spanning the twentieth century. Each standalone story uses Asharton Manor as the backdrop to a devious and twisting crime mystery, from bestselling crime writer Celina Grace, author of The Kate Redman Mysteries

Obtained on promotion from Amazon as an ebook.

This is a short book that certainly has the possibility to be expanded out as a longer story, if not a fully fledged book. Joan starts work at the Asharton Manor as Senior Kitchen Maid, but it isn't long before she becomes aware of the tensions in the house. Delphine Denford's brother John Manfield is not long back from Africa and is unmarried, rakish, exotic and seems to have an eye for the ladies. Delphine's husband spends much of his time working in London. Delphine's best friend Cleo lives in the house and for a while it appears that she is having an affair with one or more of the men. Delphine herself is constantly falling ill from unknown illnesses and her final illness proves to be fatal.

Joan has previously worked in London, where her best friend Verity (shockingly well read and educated for a parlour maid) still works. Between them, they discuss and solve Delphine's death with amazing ease. The acceptance of Verity arriving for a day's "busman's holiday" was a little implausable but not impossible. I was going to say something about the speed of getting from London to the West Country but checking the times of modern trains it can be done in under 2h30mins - so not impossible to do in 3 or 4 hours in the 1920s.

As number 1 in the series, the story could have done with some padding out and therefore adding to the tension. As the series is based around the Manor and gardens, for example, the ritual pagan site could have become a lot more threatening - it was never discussed in the house and only made one appearance during a walk.

In all, not a bad story, with any perceived failures more due to the novella format than the author's skill.

http://www.celinagrace.com… (mer)

From amazonDeath at the Manor is the first in the Asharton Manor Mysteries series: a four part series of novellas spanning the twentieth century. Each standalone story uses Asharton Manor as the backdrop to a devious and twisting crime mystery, from bestselling crime writer Celina Grace, author of The Kate Redman Mysteries

Obtained on promotion from Amazon as an ebook.

This is a short book that certainly has the possibility to be expanded out as a longer story, if not a fully fledged book. Joan starts work at the Asharton Manor as Senior Kitchen Maid, but it isn't long before she becomes aware of the tensions in the house. Delphine Denford's brother John Manfield is not long back from Africa and is unmarried, rakish, exotic and seems to have an eye for the ladies. Delphine's husband spends much of his time working in London. Delphine's best friend Cleo lives in the house and for a while it appears that she is having an affair with one or more of the men. Delphine herself is constantly falling ill from unknown illnesses and her final illness proves to be fatal.

Joan has previously worked in London, where her best friend Verity (shockingly well read and educated for a parlour maid) still works. Between them, they discuss and solve Delphine's death with amazing ease. The acceptance of Verity arriving for a day's "busman's holiday" was a little implausable but not impossible. I was going to say something about the speed of getting from London to the West Country but checking the times of modern trains it can be done in under 2h30mins - so not impossible to do in 3 or 4 hours in the 1920s.

As number 1 in the series, the story could have done with some padding out and therefore adding to the tension. As the series is based around the Manor and gardens, for example, the ritual pagan site could have become a lot more threatening - it was never discussed in the house and only made one appearance during a walk.

In all, not a bad story, with any perceived failures more due to the novella format than the author's skill.

http://www.celinagrace.com… (mer)