Review: Murder in the Mystery Suite

Murder in the Mystery Suite by Ellery Adams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.5 Stars. For this being a first in a series, this one was actually really good! The author did a wonderful job on introducing her characters and throwing in a little at a time of their backstory here and there instead of spending most of the book telling it, along with getting to the murder. This is one series that will capture you before you’re done with chapter 3.

After her husband’s unexpected death, pregnant with twins, Jane Steward moves to live with her Aunt Octavia and Uncle Aloysius to the family owned resort, Storyton Hall, set in Virginia. Jane is the manager of this old house and it’s where her twin boys are born and grow up. Fast forward to 6 years later and Jane is still managing the resort, but the place just doesn’t have the guest to help with the up keep of the place, so Jane decides to host a Murder and Mayham weekend where the guest can be any of their favorite murder mystery characters from Miss Marpels, to Hercule Poirots’, to Ian Flemmings’ and a host of others.

Before the guest arrives Jane and the boys go into their quiet, sleepy little town to make some purchases. Jane hears a lot of noises and fears that her rambunctious twins are causing havoc. When she gets to where the commotion is coming from Jane sees a horse running away with its rider and a man on another horse trying to catch the runaway rider and horse. The doctor of the town calls Jane in to see if she might know the young lady and informs her that it appears she died of a heart attack.

Jane returns to Storyton to finish preparing for the guest to arrive. Once the guests arrive, she tells them of their plans of week-long events that they are welcome to enjoy as well as remaining in their characters. That evening, Jane kicks off the event with a Scavenger Hunt and hands each guest with their first clue. The winner is a gentleman who is dressed like Ian Flemmings and is award a book from Aunt Octavia’s collection. A couple of the guest try and buy the book from the winner but he refuses to part with it, then Jane’s twins coming running in the room to get her, Aunt Octavia has taken ill. Jane rushes to her aunt and she tells Jane she has to get the book back, she gave out the wrong one. Jane tries to reassure her aunt that she will do her best to get it back as she’s whisked off to the hospital with Uncle Aloysius right behind her along with Jane. Once at the hospital they find out Aunt Octavia has had a stroke and then tells Jane the family secret, they are the guardians of a secret library. But the secrets don’t stop there.

Jane returns to Storyton and finds the winner Ian Flemmings dead. It appears to be another heart attack victim. Jane gets involved in the investigation as she has a stake in it; she needs to save the reputation of the resort.


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