The Mystery of Albert E. Finch by Callie Hutton (Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday)

 

Title: The Mystery of Albert E. Finch

Author: Callie Hutton

Publication: 11 January 2022

Format: Kindle eBook

Amazon Description

Bath, England, 1892. Celebrated mystery author Lady Amy Lovell is set to tie the knot with Lord William Wethington, a fellow member of the Mystery Book Club of Bath. Amy's great-aunt, Lady Priscilla Granville, has offered to host their wedding at her stately Derby Manor House. But on the eve of the ceremony, the festive air in the drawing room is marred by Mrs. Alice Finch's argument with her husband, Albert, in another room. The next morning at the wedding breakfast, Alice falls face-first into her breakfast—dead.

When Amy and William's favorite detectives are summoned to the house, they see two champagne glasses in front of Mrs. Finch and none in front of her husband. Did Albert give his wife a poisoned drink? Always looking for the easiest solution, the detectives charge Albert with the murder.

But Lady Amy is not convinced that Albert is guilty. There are too many things that don't add up. In the hopes of being able to leave Bath and begin their honeymoon, Amy and William once again take things into their own hands.  Suspects begin to pop up, but nothing takes them more by surprise than the discovery of a second body.  

 

Stuck in Bath until the whole poisonous predicament is solved, Amy and William are anxious to collar the perfidious poisoner and be on their way to their honeymoon. If they can't catch the killer, not only is their newlywed bliss under threat, but they may not live to see happily-ever-after at all.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I have been holding on to this one since September just waiting for it to be closer to publication date to dive in. 

I didn't only dive, I devoured. 

It was just over 24 hours from beginning to end ... including sleep, work, working out and life. 

The good news is that Amy and Michael are married!!!

The bad news is that Amy's cousin is killed at the post-ceremony wedding breakfast and her husband, Albert E Finch, is the only real suspect in the eyes of our least favorite detective duo from the first two books.

Yes, again, I beg of you .... read these in order.

And thank me later.

Finch ends up being placed at Amy and Michael's house .... along with her father, brother, aunt, various pets, and an onslaught of temporary staff thanks to water damage at their townhouse. As if that wasn't chaos enough, another death occurs just as Amy and Michael are busy trying to work out what happened to her cousin .... without the aforementioned detective duo getting in their way.

Twists and turns and herrings of all sorts of colors besides the usual red made this most definitely NOT the honeymoon that the two had been dreaming of, but it did make for a wonderful read.

Yet again I'm left hoping that Callie Hutton is a fast writer.

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"First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros" is from the first paragraph or two of a book being read now (or in the future) and is hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews. 

"Teaser Tuesday" at The Purple Booker asks for a random line or two from anywhere in the book currently being read.

The Sign of Death by Callie Hutton (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

Title: The Sign of Death

Author: Callie Hutton

Publication: 13 April 2021

Format: eARC provided by Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley

Amazon Description: 

Bath, England, 1891. Mr. James Harding was a lot of things--businessman, well-to-do, probable scoundrel--but a drinker he most assuredly was not. So when Harding is believed to have drunkenly fallen to his death into the icy River Avon, Lord William Wethington is immediately suspicious. Finding Lord William's name on a letter in the victim's pocket, the local constabulary summons William to identify the victim. Police detectives learn that William had been one of Harding's business clients--and undoubtedly not the only client the dead man had cheated.
William entreats Lady Amy Lovell, a fellow member of the Mystery Book Club of Bath, to help him deduce what really happened to the late Mr. Harding. Lady Amy, a celebrated mystery author herself, once called on William to help her solve a real-life mystery, and now she fully intends to return the favor. But it won't be easy.
Practically every one of Harding's many clients had ample reason to want to do him in. And there's precious little time to narrow down the list: William and Amy soon become prime suspects themselves when the police discover them ruffling through files in Harding's house. Lady Amy will have to be as clever as her characters if she's to save William from the gallows...and herself from Harding's real killer.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I finished Hutton's first Victorian Book Club Mystery, A Study in Murder, this morning and was quite pleased with myself for already having the next two in the series lined up and waiting thanks to NetGalley. It was splendidly delightful and I was anxious to continue and to find out what Lady Amy and Lord William were going to get themselves into next. The two books briefly overlap -- the "six months later" epilogue from the previous book occurring at the beginning of Chapter 3 of this one. I haven't made it further than that as of yet (I jumped to the 56% mark for the blurb), but I'm already quite pleased that I decided to plunge right in rather than pick up something else to stagger them out.

(Sorry if the formatting is a bit whack. I'm attempting the blogger app on my phone and will check/edit/whatever once I get to the computer. I've never been a fan of phone blogging but didn't want to wait!)

As always, Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice & Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader.

A Study in Murder by Callie Hutton (Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday)

 Title: A Study in Murder

Author: Callie Hutton
Publication: 12 May 2020
Format: Kindle eBook

Amazon Description: 

Bath, England, 1890. Mystery author Lady Amy Lovell receives an anonymous letter containing shocking news: her fiancé, Mr. Ronald St. Vincent, has been dabbling in something illegal, which causes her to promptly break their engagement.

Two evenings later, as Lady Amy awaits a visit from Lord William Wethington, fellow member of the Bath Mystery Book Club, her former fiancé makes an unexpected and most unwelcome appearance at her house. She promptly sends him to the library to cool his heels but later discovers the room seemingly empty--until she stumbles upon a dead Mr. St. Vincent with a knife in his chest.

Lord Wethington arrives to find Lady Amy screaming and sends for the police, but the Bobbies immediately assume that she is the killer. Desperate to clear her name, Lady Amy and Lord Wethington launch their own investigation--and stir up a hornet's nest of suspects, from the gardener who served time in prison for murder to a vengeful woman who was spurned by St. Vincent before he proposed to Lady Amy.

Can they close the book on the case before the real killer gets away with murder?

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff 
Today's book is brought to you thanks to another case of seeing a book on NetGalley, going "oooooooh," nabbing it .... and then finding out that it's not the first in the series. I'm still awfully glad that I did even though as of yet I'm only a quarter of the way in. When I saw "A Victorian Book Club Mystery" I had assumed it would be about a book club that read books written in or about Victorian times. Well, I was kind of correct .... but for the characters the books are contemporary as the story itself is set in 1890. (I know -- the Amazon description says as much. I'm a cover-grabber and didn't read any description.) Hopefully by Friday I'll have it done -- or at least done enough to share again for my Friday56 post with further oohs and aahs and rambles and whatnot. And then on to the next...

"First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros" is from the first paragraph or two
of a book being read now (or in the future) and is hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews. 

"Teaser Tuesday" at The Purple Booker asks for a random line or two
from anywhere in the book currently being read.