This is another fun romp from Edwards following his Gallows Court which first introduced the series characters. I think they're more thrillers than traditional murder mysteries and are more bloodthirsty though not graphic. There's a lot of gathering of the strings before the mystery becomes clear, and a definite homage to a Christie plot once we're finally at Mortmain Hall. Beneath all the intricate window-dressing is a camp plot! A lovely little amuse-bouche between more serious reading.

*Many thanks to Martin Edwards, Poisoned Pen Press, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
I was encouraged to request this book by two reasons: the Author and the idea of Golden Age mystery. And I was not disappointed. The plot, the language, the characters - the perfect ingerdients which make this book a delicious read for those who want to enjoy a good murder mystery without graphic descirptions. And, the manor, Mortmain Hall, is a perfect setting for this kind of mystery.

"Next in the Rachel Savernake series, perfect for fans of the Golden age of mystery and readers of Anthony Horowitz and Sherry Thomas.

Framed for murder and with nowhere to go, Jacob Flint turns to an eclectic group of people on a remote estate to save him...

1930. A chilling encounter on London's Necropolis Railway leads to murder and a man escapes the gallows after a witness gives sensational evidence. After this string of strange, fatal events, journalist Jacob Flint discovers that he has been framed for murder. To save himself, he flees to Mortmain Hall, a remote estate on the northern coast. There, an eccentric female criminologist hosts a gathering of eclectic people who have all escaped miscarriages of cruel justice. This strange group puts Jacob a little on edge, but they may be his only hope to clear his name.

When a body is found beneath the cliffs near the house, it seems this gathering might be an ingenious plot to get away with murder. Are these eccentrics victims or are they orchestrators of the great deception? Jacob must now set out to uncover the labyrinthine of secrets within Mortmain Hall, alongside Rachel Savernake, woman whose relentless quest for the truth might just bring down the British establishment..."

I was sold at Golden age meets Anthony Horowitz, throw in a remote country estate and I might just move into this book.

Martin Edwards’s Mortmain Hall grips the reader from the first sentence, “The ghost climbed out of a hackney carriage.” I don’t think it’s a spoiler to tell you that this is really a flesh and blood person, not a stream of ectoplasm.

I hadn’t read Edwards’s earlier book, Gallows Court, and I can promise that you don’t need to have read it before Mortmain Hall, but I bought it as soon as I finished Mortmain Hall just because I enjoyed the latter so much. Edwards’s research is impeccable. He knows that the first class tickets on the London Necropolis Railway (and he knows it’s “Company”, not “Railway”) were white. One very minor quibble and I’m happy to be corrected: when Rachel catches the Necropolis Company’s train from Waterloo to Brookwood, the ticket collector tells her the express is waiting. Was it really an express? I don’t believe the trains stopped at any intermediate station.

The book is a magnificent homage to the Golden Age detective stories. The homage extends to a map of the Hall’s surrounds; and a Cluefinder at the end of the book, where the author points out the clues that were scattered along the way, enabling the reader to realise what was happening – if they’ve been paying attention!

There is humour: “Inspector Tucker was a tall, spare individual with a disconcerting resemblance to Mr Milne’s Eeyore.” And I loved, LOVED, the reference to passing tramps. (An explanation for readers who are not crime fiction fanatics: Martin Edwards and Curtis Evans are real experts in the history of the genre. Curt Evans’ blog is known as The Passing Tramp. That in turn is a reference to Ben the Tramp in JJ Farjeon’s 1930s’ novels.

He only aspect of the book that disappointed me (and it’s hard to discuss without spoilers) was the suggestion that the British Establishment (to use the modern description) would monitor individuals and interfere in their lives where it was thought necessary. I just found that aspect of the book quite implausible, I’m afraid. But maybe I’m naïve… Other than that one aspect, I loved this book.

In this followup to Gallows Court, amateur detective Rachel Savernake once again takes an interest in multiple crimes and figuring out the dark forces that connect them. On her heels is young journalist Jacob Flint, whose job seems to be to stumble onto clues, usual at the risk of his life.

As with Gallows Court, multiple characters are introduced with different stories, seemingly unrelated. Eventually the reader gets an idea of what might be a connection between them, but it’s not until the end of the book that Rachel puts it all together—in this case, in a classic gather-the-suspects scene.

Though this and Gallows Court are described as Golden Age mysteries, I think they are on the fringe of what is usually understood as the conventions of Golden Age mysteries. The Rachel Savernake books feature multiple crimes, not the usual single whodunnit, the elements of the crime are not revealed early on in the book (it usually takes at least half the book for Savernake crimes to be revealed), and there are not enough clues provided to allow the reader to solve the crime(s). In this book. Edwards provides “clue finders” at the end, but most of these are the merest hints.

To me, the Savernake books read more like Victorian mystery novels, just set in the between-the-wars period. The end of Mortmain Hall has a real flavor of the overheated gothic novel climax.

So I quibble with the Golden Age description, but the real question is whether the book is a good read. I’d strongly recommend you read Gallows Court before Mortmain Hall so that you can understand Rachel Savernake and several other prominent characters. Then be prepared to possibly be overwhelmed with many characters and their stories. You have to just go along with the ride and wait for the story to come together. Though I prefer a more “fair play” approach to mysteries, I thought the climax of Mortmain Hall was a hoot.

4.5/5⭐️

I really enjoyed this mystery set in 1930 London. It’s second in series so I really look forward to going back and reading the first one to catch up on some backstory.

The heroine is a bit of an enigma (lots of room for interesting discoveries), a rich, very clever independent young woman who was recently “liberated” from a remote island when her ailing father (an eccentric judge) passed away. She is a fascinating character and rather obsessed with murder solving. She has a loyal set of servants/friends who help her along her crime-solving journey, and an intrepid reporter and Scotland Yard man to round out the cast.

This was interesting and totally absorbing with solid writing and a clever, intriguing plot.

Much thanks to #NetGalley and #PoisonedPenPress for providing me the ARC. The opinions are strictly my own.

#netgalley #mortmainhall

I guess that this is the second book in a series. I wasn't able to figure out what was going on, so I probably need to read the first book to get a better understanding of the storyline.

Over the last few years multiple people who seem to have committed murder get acquitted or never charged. When the latest one has a last minute witness to save him, an invitation makes its way to Rachel Savernake via a journalist friend, Jacob Flint. This meeting is with Leonora Dobell, the mistress of Mortmain Hall and a published criminologist. Over the course of just a few days after that initial meeting multiple men are "murdered" in very different ways but they all have one thing in common, The Clandestine Club. What is happening and why are some people being saved while others not.

Mortmain Hall is the second Rachel Savernake novel and while some novels in a series you do not need to read in order I would say that is not the case here. I have not read the first novel so I am not sure how much background and relationship development occurs in the first book but I always felt like there was information I did not have.

This is an odd mystery story where the there are 5 murders over the course of the book but only the last two are really the mystery and they occur in the last 40 pages or so. Rachel Savernake also reminds me to the detectives on Death in Paradise where she spends the last main scene of the story summing everything up and revealing the killer.

This is one of those books that I find difficult to review – it is complex with several plot lines. So, I’m going to be brief. It begins most unusually with an Epilogue in which Rachel Savernake is talking to a dying man about a ‘perfect crime’ and asks him what had happened at Mortmain Hall. Then chapter one begins with this strange statement, ‘The ghost climbed out of a hackney carriage‘ and I was hooked. Rachel followed the ‘ghost’ as he entered a funeral train run by the London Necropolis Company for privileged first-class passengers. What was going on?

The novel moves on to a scene in the Old Bailey where Jacob Flint, a journalist is watching the trial of Clive Daneskin, accused of murder. After the trial he meets Leonora Dobell, a mysterious woman. Then the book gets very detailed, as more murder cases were described at length and I couldn’t see, at first, how they were connected, or how Mortmain Hall came into the story. But then I thought about the Epilogue and I realised that this is a book about ‘a perfect crime’, so I persevered and eventually it all became much clearer.

And there is further clarification when you reach the end of the book where the Epilogue, in its right place, is continued, followed by a chapter called Cluefinder, in which Martin Edwards lists 30 clues in the narrative, in the tradition of the Golden Age detective novels. Mortmain Hall is not a quick read because it is so detailed, but I did enjoy it.

My thanks to Poisoned Press and NetGalley for a review copy.

This book is very reminiscent of the classic Agatha Christie "cozy mysteries". Criminologist Rachel Savernake has a mysterious background, some say she killed her recluse father. Jacob Flint is a crime correspondent and worked with Rachel on a previous murder case. At the beginning of the book Rachel is meeting a ghost, a man that dissappeared and has returned from the dead to attend his mother's funeral. Jacob sitting in the courtroom of the Old Bailey. Joining him is a court room artist and a mystery woman named Leonora Dobell, they have an interest in the case of Clive Danskin, a man accused of murder. There'is a surprise judgment in the case and then a series of murders that are very suspicious.

Rachel is invited to a somewhat mysterious meeting at Mortmain Hall on an isolated, wild coast in Yorkshire. The gathering is hosted by Leonora and her invalid husband Felix and Felix's nurse Miss Cope. Joining her there is Rachel's trusted servants the Truemans, and three people that were acquitted of murder: Sylvia Gorrie, Henry Rolland and Clive Danskin. Then a body is found, then another, and before that, there was an unfortunate accident and a man was devoured by lions in a private zoo. The police arrive and force all the guests to remain while they interview everyone and investigate. Then things get really interesting and the cliffs near the house start to crumble into the sea during a violent storm.

If you love a murder mystery with lots of twists and unpredictability, you'll love this book like I did. Rachel is a complicated woman with a troubled and mysterious past, but she has skills, trusted friends and is brilliant at solving the murders and exposing the murderer.

Twisty mystery, set in the 30's. Fascinating characters set in a period of an intense onrushing political nightmare. I did have some issues with the mysterious government agency hiding in the background such that the ending is a bit too pat. Does a great job of examining the underbelly of British society pre-WWII..

I really enjoyed this book and I think the fans of Agatha Christie will love what Martin Edwards has to offer.

Despite not reading the first book in the series, it was not an issue for me to quickly understand all that was happening and get immersed in the story. I guess part of the reason would be the way Edwards wove an interesting and perfectly executed plot. Mortmain Hall really takes you to the Golden Age of mystery and will make you do theories in your head non-stop while reading it. The characters were also really well constructed and each one of them had a crucial part on the story's plot, but my favorite was Rachel. Definitely recommended.

Mortmain Hall is the second Rachel Savernake book. Although Rachel is a main character in these stories and one around whom much of the action takes place, I think that they could just as easily be called the Jacob Flint series. While Rachel sits in almost God-like observation of the action, Jacob blunders through along with us, trying to understand what is actually happening. He's not exactly a Watson to Rachel's Holmes, although he does fill much of that role, it is certainly through his eyes that we see more of the action and mystery.
This second story is again set in the golden again of crime, although as with the first book, there is a much darker edge that is absent from books that were actually written in the period, or at least missing from those that I have read so far.
Mortmain Hall is a complex mystery, not simply a case of a couple of murders and lots of suspects. In fact, it would be more than fair to say that it's not immediately apparent what the crime that we are trying to get to the bottom of is. There is more than one mystery to solve here. It's not as simple as the good guys work out who done it and the bad guys get punished.
I have to admit that while I'd figured out some of the solutions to this, but there were other aspects that I missed entirely. At the end of the book are a number of 'clues' that signposted who was behind various aspects and why, all in the style of some books from the golden age. I spotted some, but missed most.
Overall this was another gripping read from Martin Edwards. I'm looking forward to hearing more from Rachel and Jacob in the future.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I was hooked by the cover and I was hooked by the description. Unfortunately, I wasn't as hooked by the book itself. There were interesting characters, but after 100 pages it just didn't seem like the plot was going anywhere and it felt a bit stagnant to me. The more I kept reading, the less I was motivated to find out more which is disappointing since it had such a great premise!

This was an enjoyable enough book. The middle was great... but it took a while for me to wrap my mind around it at the start, and conclusion was fairly unsatisfying. Some of my confusion might come from this being the second book in its series, and me not having read the first one. The plots don't seem connected apart from the main characters though, and their relationship and history was flashed back to for clarifications. But I just couldn't figure out what the case was till about 50% in. There were several chapter dedicated to already solved cases, and I didn't see their significance for this story till very late. And the way these cases were presented were very high on the tell instead of show level, making them just not all that interesting for the current plot (which I couldn't find). 

And the solution of the mystery had a very high 'seriously?' level for me. Though I do like a case I cannot crack myself, I do want the solution to make sense and the clues to be obvious to see in retrospect. This wasn't that. The clues actually needed to be explained in an appendix, which I feel shouldn't be necessary.

The action, detectiving and murders that take place in the middle of the book are very so superb though, the the main character is quite something as well, making this still an enjoyable and fun read. I am in no hurry to pick up the first book though, or a sequel if that were to come out.

Mortmain Hall is the second book in a mystery series written by Martin Edwards. It follows amateur sleuth Rachel Savernake in the 1930’s, following a strange series of events, crime, and murder. In the wake of these events, several individuals, just barely within reach of being framed for these crimes, are brought together as a common denominator. Linking these events together, those involved are invited to a house party at Mortmain Hall. But things turn awry quickly when a body is found at the base of the cliffs, and Savernake and the others must get to the bottom of what really happened – and what brought them all together.

Review
Mortmain Hall is the second book in a mystery series (with a third book on the way). When requesting this ARC, it was not stated to be the second in a series; I only found this out after picking up the book. It is the kind of series that you can pick up mid-way, but from my experience reading it, I do think it would have made reading a bit easier had I started from the beginning.

This is the first time reading a true mystery book in a while, and this book helped me remember what I was missing. This story very delicately interweaves all of its clues within its large group of characters, and the outcome was ultimately pretty difficult for me to guess! And if you’re stuck after the reveal, a cluefinder is included at the end to help you re-trace your steps in reading.

However, the inclusion of so many characters in this story and their buildup definitely impacted the story progression for me. The book goes into detail of all of the characters, their separate incidents, and how they all end up at Mortmain Hall. And while this was all necessary buildup, the early half of the book did feel confusing at times. Additionally, the main death that’s included in the novel (and the journey to Mortmain Hall) doesn’t happen until the last third of the book, which definitely impacted my expectations. I think that some more intrigue could have been created by starting with the party at Mortmain Hall, dropping some hints about why they were there, and then going back in time to each individual’s perspective.

Regardless, Mortmain Hall has been a nice return to the mystery genre for me. I certainly enjoy a good mystery novel and I also love gothic settings, so if you do enjoy the same, you should consider picking this one up.

1930s London. Reggie Vickers is so concerned for the life of old friend Gilbert Payne that he contacts criminologist Rachel Savernake for help. Gilbert Payne has been presumed dead by faking his death, is back for the funeral of his mother. But there are men waiting to kill him.
A Mrs Dobell, a writer and criminologist, writing under the pseudonym of Leo Slaterbeck, invites Rachel to her husband's family home of Mortmain Hall. But what is the connection between the guests.
Rachel has previously been given four names by Reggie Vickers. Gilbert Payne is dead, but the other three are the guests. Clive Danskin, Henry Rolland,and Sylvia Gorrie.
Journalist Jacob Flint crime reporter for the Clarion and friend of Rachel, becomes interested in previous murder cases.
An interesting and well-written murder mystery with a cast of varied and curious characters.

I felt that if I read the first book in the series I would have enjoyed this second book better because I would have some background information about the protagonist and her role in the story but because I didn't so it was harder for me to get into the story.

It is always good to start with the first book but not always. If each story in the series is unique and follows police procedurals with a murder and a list of suspects in the beginning one doesn't need to read the first book first but this book is different. This book is about study of past crimes that were committed so it would be good to know the background of the protagonist because I don't really know her role in the story and what was she trying to achieve until about 30 to 40 % of the book (I was reading this book on my kindle so I could be accurate with the percentage).

There was a good punch to the starting but after that, the story fell flat. After 30-40 percent of the book, I finally realized where the plot was going: crime study of a few crimes that happened in the past.

I felt that there were just too many characters in this story and many things seem to happen at the same time. I was confused.

And it just went on and on until 70% of the book and then it started to get interesting at the 70% mark when all the parties were invited to Mortmein Hall and what happened there. This means to say that the first 70% of the book wasn't all that interesting.

At the 80 % mark, there was a murder and then the lists of suspects came into the story. I didn't guess who was the murderer. It was a surprise to me. There were also other subplots in this book that tie to the main plot. It is not a really complicated mystery but because of the many characters in the story and too many things happening, it felt that it was complicated.

The writing was good, simple concise, and direct to the point and reminded me of one of my favorite authors, Philip Margolin. Not wishy-washy with too much of unnecessary descriptions. The author is clever in the use of words too and he likes to use idioms a lot but overall I like the writing style.

I also didn't quite like the protagonist Rachel Savernake. I just find her too cold and too intelligent. She seems to know everything and has everything within her clutches and has everything all nicely planned. I prefer that my protagonist in the story appear more human with flaws etc

Overall is still a nice read for me and the writing suits me.

I had some difficulty getting into the story because it felt a bit like I was dropped into the middle of it and expected to know more than I did.
However, Edwards weaves a brilliant web of events and connections that kept pulling me in and making me wonder at how well every element of the plot seems to have been planned and thought out.
Rachel Savernake is presented as a woman full of mystery and a huge enigma and what little is revealed about her throughout the book only adds to it and never actually reveals much about her. I believe there is a point to this, but it's what kept this from being a full five-star read for me. It might be me being picky, but I felt like I could never really connect with her character or care much about her.
On the other hand, journalist Jacob Flint was a huge draw and I enjoyed following along with him as he discovered the tangled web that is the plot's leading allure.
Overall, it's a complicated and surprising mystery that did not end at all how I was expecting and that hardly ever happens anymore, so there's definitely extra brownie points to Edwards for that.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the early read!

Another winner from Martin Edwards. Book two in the Rachel Savernake series, Mortmain Hall continues her adventures with journalist Jacob Flint, which began in the first novel, Gallows Court. I enjoy how the author does a wonderful job giving us great detailed characters, Rachel and Jacob, along with Rachel staff; they are wonderfully intricate and well fleshed out. This time, the story centers around a select group of individuals who appear in various cases to have "gotten away with murder". Rachel, along with the assistance of Senior Crime Reporter Jacob Flint, leave London for the stormy coastline of Yorkshire to uncover the truth.

I loved the buildup of the plot and start off with the Necropolis. So interesting! Mr. Edwards wonderful researches for his books. He starts his story at a nicely paced slow burn, and you can feel yourself slowly chugging up that roller coaster that leads to a wonderful satisfying thrill ride through the story and then plummeting down towards a satisfying conclusion.

I really enjoyed how the Martin Edwards used multiple points of view from the different characters within each chapter. The characters were well-developed and described, so much so that I could visualize them in my head. I felt that the author did a wonderful job with detailing the setting - excellent attention to details of the cars, the foods, the clothing, lingo, the music. I felt like I was right there in the late 20s early 30s. An excellent homage to Golden Age Crime.

I loved the plot. So dramatic and wonderful. I adored that at the end of the book, the author gave you a guide to all of the clues detailed in the novel, which makes a second reading enjoyable or a perfect setup for a book club selection. It really makes you see that Mr. Edwards gives you his full knowledge and shows you that he has a true passion for crime novel/mysteries of this era.

I really recommend this book for lovers of historical crime fiction, especially if you love books by Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Etc. An excellent second book in the series. I'm already looking forward to a third book in this series.

I would like to thank Martin Edwards, Poisoned Pen Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.