Just Make Believe

By: Maggie Robinson

Narrated by: Gemma Dawson

Gloucestershire, 1925. A weeklong house party in the country - why not? Lady Adelaide has nothing else to do, now that her year of mourning for her unfaithful husband is up and her plans to rekindle her romantic life have backfired. But when her hostess is found dead on the conservatory floor, Addie knows just who to call - Detective Inspector Devenand Hunter of Scotland Yard.

Dev may not want to kiss Addie again, but he's anxious to solve the crime. Who would want to kill Pamela, the beautiful wife of one of Britain's Great War heroes? Certainly not her devoted and wheelchair-bound husband, Sir Hugh Fernald. The other guests seem equally innocent and improbable.

But despite all appearances, something is very wrong at Fernald Hall - there's a body buried in the garden, and the governess has fallen down the stairs to her death. Who's next? Addie and Dev must work together to stop another murder, and they have some help thanks to Rupert, Addie's late and unlamented husband. Rupert needs to make amends for his louche life on earth, and what better way to earn his celestial wings than catch a killer?

©2020 Maggie Robinson (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Upper Crust All Riled Up

Poison is a woman’s choice for murder it’s said.
With so many knowledgeable with herbs,”Who Done it?” A good British mystery.

Fantastic!

Enjoying this series so much! Hard to figure out who the killer was! Lots of red herrings! Hate just have 1 more. Great narrator!!!!

Charming surprise

When I read that a ghost was one of the characters in this series, I almost chose not to purchase the first book. I don’t usually go in for spectral beings in a story but the Rupert the ghost of an ex-husband is my favorite character. A dashing figure with a dry wit. These books are a fun and easy read/listen & the narration is spot on.

Good read!

cozy-mystery, law-enforcement, ghosts, amateur-sleuth, country-house, class-consciousness, historical-novel, historical-research, situational-humor, verbal-humor, rural, multiple-murder, lies, secrets, paranormal, detective, friendship, England, murder-investigation, 1920s, poisons, family-drama, family-dynamics*****

3 bodies in 4 days.
Addie attends some nearby friends, and who is there almost immediately to torment her? Right. The ghost of her philandering husband, Rupert. Then there is the first body, so she notifies The Yard and is fortunate enough to get DI Devenand Hunter, the very man she would LOVE to see more of. Always fun as well as a good mystery in this series!
I found the audio on sale and as it is narrated by Gemma Dawson, I chose audio.
Dreamscape Media/Poison Pen Press/Sourcebooks

Entertaining

Well written, well read. Kept my interest throughout. Gemma Dawson does an admirable job of narrating. Full of twists and turns.

Not what I expected or wanted

I thought this would be more like an Agatha Christie novel. A closed set, all staying in the house, solving a murder by questioning suspects and looking for clues. It was none of that. The protagonist doesn't actually do any detective work, relying only on her dead husband ghost to snoop and give her answers, which he's not even very good at, and then she gives them to the detective, who they mention several times being very clever but he also uncovered almost nothing himself and in the end *spoiler kind of* the killer just admits everything themselves. I haven't read any of her other books but the romance element they kept trying to fit in was boring and unnecessary and felt like two characters in a movie who are supposed to like each other but the actors have no chemistry. If you like true murder mystery books you'll likely find this one very simple, unimaginative and boring. Definitely not worth the money in my opinion.