I had never read a Jessica Ellicott book before, and I was a little wary about starting with book number 6 but this book was incredible. It had a deep friendship, a mystery that grips you from beginning to end, and a small English town – three of my favorite things! This audiobook did not disappoint, and Barbara Rosenblat brought Jessica Ellicott’s amazing writing to life with her wonderful narration. I am definitely going to go back and read the other 5 books now.

Thank you NetGalley and RB Media for an advanced copy of this audiobook.

A cozy mystery set post war in a small English village where everyone knows everyone’s business. So when a mysterious hateful letter is brought as evidence at a trial and the author is unknown, one would think it’s a prank. But as more and more letters appear in the village Edwina and Beryl get involved. The do run a inquiry business, but this is for their friends to solve. Even Beryl got one! Tracing down the various letters and leads opens up to many dead ends and a possible death.
The narrator really kept to pace of the story moving, not sure if I would have enjoyed reading it as much. Seemed to drag on in parts or maybe just me wanting to find out who dunnit! I did round up to 4 stars due to the narration. Thank you NetGalley for this eARC. I am voluntarily posting an honest review after reading an Advance Reader Copy of this story. #NetGalley #MurderthroughtheEnglishPost

#MurderThroughTheEnglishPost #JessicaEllicott #RBMedia #NetGalley #BarbaraRosenblatt #KensingtonBooks

This is a review of the ALC of this book.

The story is set in a quaint, English village where nothing is as it seems.

Edwina, a magistrate and Beryl, an American, are friends, housemates and private investigators.

A series of anonymous, malicious letters is sent to different people in the village, leading to a lot of fear and anger. When this eventually results in murder, it is up to the two sleuths to figure out what is going on, before more lives are imperiled.

It is a charming story, reminiscent of cozy British mysteries such as Rosemary and Thyme and Miss. Marple.

Barbara Rosenblat does a great job of narrating.

EXCERPT: The envelope seemed to be a perfectly ordinary sort. In fact, there was nothing about it that called any notice. It certainly did not seem the sort of thing to provoke offense. In fact, the hand writing was extremely tidy and legible. It was addressed to Michael Blackburn at the garage and had been neatly slit open with a letter opener. There was no return address and it had been postmarked for the previous week. Edwina slipped her hand inside and extracted a sheet of paper. She unfolded it and, to her surprise, saw before her a document comprised of letters and words cut from newspapers and magazines. She quickly read through the information it contained then looked back at Michael.

'I can see why you would be infuriated by receiving this.' She turned towards Norman. 'Norman, did you tell customers at Mr Scott's shop that Michael had not in fact received his injury by fighting the enemy but rather had been shot while trying to desert his unit?' Edwina asked, tapping her finger against the offensive document.

She kept her eyes trained carefully on Norman Davies face. She considered herself to be quite a good judge of dishonesty and all she saw flickering across his face was complete and total bafflement. He shook his head slowly as if stunned by what he was hearing.

'I would never say a thing like that. I would never even think of things like that. Michael and I have been friends since we were boys and I know exactly what kind of man he is. Who would say such a hateful thing about him, or about me?' Norman said turning back towards the assembled crowd in the gallery.

Who indeed? Edwina wondered.

ABOUT 'MURDER THROUGH THE ENGLISH POST': A rash of poison pen letters has enveloped the sleepy English village of Walmsley Parva in cloud of suspicion and paranoia. But when rampant aspersions culminate in murder, enquiry agents Beryl Helliwell and Edwina Davenport must stamp out the evil-minded epistles . . .

What began for two dear if very different friends--an American adventuress and a prim and proper Brit--as a creative response to the lean times following the Great War has evolved into a respectable private enquiry business. So much so that Constable Gibbs calls upon Beryl and Edwina to solve a curious campaign of character assassination.

A series of anonymous accusations sent via post have set friend against friend and neighbor against neighbor. In her new position as magistrate, Edwina has already had to settle one dispute that led to fisticuffs. Even Beryl has received a poison pen letter, and while she finds its message preposterous and laughable, others are taking the missives to heart. Their headstrong housekeeper Beddoes is ready to resign and one villager has attempted to take her own life.

The disruption of the peace goes far beyond malicious mischief when another villager is murdered. Now it's up to the intrepid sleuths to read between the lines and narrow down the suspects to identify the lethal letter writer and ensure that justice is delivered . . .

MY THOUGHTS: Delightfully entertaining.

Although this is #6 in a series, and I haven't read any of the previous books - something I intend remedying - I had no problems with either the storyline or the characters. The author kindly provides just enough background on the characters so that the reader knows a little about them and how they came to their present positions, and each story is a 'self-contained' mystery.

This series is set after the war in the English village of Walmsley Parva, where life proceeds at a slow pace and, if you want to know the current gossip you pay the local postmistress a visit. There's a village pub, a village doctor, a store, a church or two, and the gardening circle.

Edwina has been in some financial difficulties, making it necessary for her to take in lodgers, resulting in somewhat unusual living arrangements, themselves the cause of some village gossip. Beryl, an American, has been slow to have been accepted by the locals, her different background and lack of knowledge of etiquette causing a few problems. Simpkins, the second lodger, was the gardener and husband of the Edwina's recently deceased housekeeper.

Edwina and Beryl have started a Private Investigators Agency, something totally unheard of for two women to undertake in this era! It is to them that the local constable turns when a rash of poison pen letters start being received in the village. Through their investigation we meet many of the villagers, and I had to wonder, as the contents of the various letters were revealed, if there couldn't be a grain of truth in at least some of the accusations.

The author kept me interested throughout this book. She gave nothing away and there were no obvious suspects. I was kept guessing right up to the very satisfying conclusion. I enjoyed the main characters' quirks and the easy relationship between the three housemates. The dialogue is well written and flows easily, as does the plot.

Altogether a fun and satisfying read. I was lucky enough to be provided with both a digital and audio copy of Murder Through the English Post, and enjoyed both equally.

⭐⭐⭐.6

#MurderThroughtheEnglishPost #NetGalley

I: @jessicaellicottauthor @kensingtonbooks @recordedbooks

T: #JessicaEllicott @KensingtonBooks

#cosymystery #historicalfiction @recordedbooks

THE AUTHOR: Jessica Ellicott loves fountain pens, Mini Coopers, and throwing parties. She lives in northern New England where she obsessively knits wool socks and enthusiastically speaks Portuguese with a shocking disregard for the rules of grammar.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Kensington Books for providing the digital ARC and RB Media for providing the audio ARC of Murder Through the English Post by Jessica Ellicott for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

This is my first encounter with the inquiring agents Beryl and Edwina even though this is the 6:th book in a series about the two women sleuths.
Taking place in a quaint english village where everybody knows your name makes me fall into the story quick, and even though I understand that there’s a lot of backstory I feel like I get to know what I need.
It’s set after The Great War. Edwina, the society lady, has a new task serving as a magistrate while Beryl, an american adventuress and Edwina’s house sharing friend, is rather bored.
A series of poison pen letters soon gets Beryl, and Edwina, something to do. Villager after villager gets one of the nasty letters and there’s both an attempted suicide and a murder.
The plot thickens while their ordinary lives goes on. I enjoyed the mixture!
I listened to the audiobook and liked the woman narrator very much. Her deep voice and characters with their unique dialects and voices made listening enjoyable.

I received this book as an ark from NetGalley and I’m volountarily leaving a review.

I absolutely love this series and was thrilled to get access to the new audiobook. I've been reading Jessica Ellicott's series almost non-stop. In this book, Edwina is now working as magistrate and her first case involves a fight set off by hate mail. This hate mail is spreading through the village. It seems to be limited to stirring up bad feelings at first, but then when one woman harms herself and another is found dead, Beryl and Edwina have to solve the case. This book is a little sadder than some in the series, but I think it shows a lot of personal growth for the characters. I really liked learning more about Beryl’s parents. I think the audiobook narrator does a great job and i am eager for more books in this series.

This 6th in the Beryl and Edwina Mystery series is another gentle, chatty stroll through an English village murder.

The mystery starts gently enough, when someone blames a poison pen letter for starting a brawl. Soon it's clear to our senior sleuths that more letters have caused more problems among the villagers. But some letters have helped more than harmed, adding a layer of complexity to an otherwise slow-moving plot.

All the series regulars get their cameos. While neither Beryl nor Edwina is a keen-witted Miss Marple, their personalities and skills make for good contrast with each other. The solution unfolds slowly too, without much in the way of unladylike tension.

The narrator, the esteemed Barbara Rosenblatt whose voice I know and love from the long-running Amelia Peabody mysteries by Elizabeth Peters, does a fine job of differentiating the two sleuths from each other and from the various villagers. Her performance is more impressive considering the text has a lot of jarringly placed 'said' phrases and the peculiarly American problem of all social classes and educational backgrounds among these isolated, early-1920s village characters resulting in no differences at all in their vocabulary or speech patterns.

If you like leisurely detecting and lots of repetition of information by gossiping villagers, this is your cup of tea... and a biscuit.

While Jessica Ellicott is new to me, I am a long-standing Barbara Rosenblatt fan. So as soon as I saw her name associated with this audiobook, I knew I wanted to listen to it. And she did not disappoint!

While this book is part of a series, it was easy enough to follow along despite not having read any of the other titles in the series. And the characters intrigued me enough that I plan to look for earlier installments in the series to listen to more, especially if Ms.Rosenblatt is the narrator.

As Beryl and Edwina try to identify and stop a poison pen writer, they also try to stem the wounds being created by the maliciousness of the letters. As they investigated the case, twists and turns led us astray, first making the listener suspect one person and then another.

I will say that I had a feeling early on that I knew who the writer was, but could never piece together the proof. And ultimately, I was only partly right.

This was British mystery at its best with quirky characters, odd goings-on, and a village I would love to visit one day. And true to form, Ms. Rosenblatt presented us with strong female characters with a backbone and intelligence.

Thank you to Jessica Ellicott, Barbara Rosenblatt, RB Media and NetGalley for the advance review copy.

Beryl and Edwina and co. are always a delightful cozy to slip into. Murder Through the English Post is the 6th installment in this series and although you can certainly start here if you'd like, I recommend starting with book 1, Murder in an English Village. If cozy mysteries are your bag then you will want to devour this entire series.

This installment's solid mystery surrounds the cautionary tale of Poison Pen Letters, (a lesson our current internet trolls could learn from) and contains some delightful and significant growth in the arcs for long-standing characters in the series. I enjoyed this installment thoroughly and was excited to listen to it.

Barbara Rosenblat continues to do an excellent job with all of the character's voices. She is able to do that rare and wonderful magic of making you forget that this is all being performed by one person.

I hope Jessica Ellicot will continue to give us these enjoyable diversions into the village life of Walmsley Parva and especially the extraordinary adventures of Edwina and Beryl.
5 stars.

Thank you to Jessica Ellicott, RB Media, Recorded Books, and NetGalley for the chance to read this audiobook.

This is a well written and beautifully narrated cozy village type mystery. A bit mid summer murders. I managed to thoroughly enjoy it, however I hadn’t read the rest in the series and this is #6 so I think I missed quite a lot in the way of backstory between the characters that I feel sure would’ve bumped the review up a star or two.

I received an arc copy from NetGalley in return for an honest review. Thank you.

Edwina has a new position as magistrate in Walmsley Parva, England and this leads her and Beryl to solve the case of who is mailing poison pen letters to residents in order to stir up trouble.

I really enjoy this historical cozy mystery series that takes place after the Great War. A lot of topics brought up are through provoking about the time period and life in a small town. I kept trying to figure out who was sending the letters and am thankful that Jessica Ellicott didn't make the solution easy. It was a nice surprise! I was given the audio version of this book and as always Barbara Rosenblat does a great job as narrator! I can't wait for the next in the series!

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for access to this audiobook so I could give an honest review.

Sign me up for all the cozy English village murder mysteries!

Beryl and Edwina are quite the pair and seem like they would be such a lot of fun in real life. This installment in the series sees each challenging herself in new ways and adapting smoothly. Many familiar faces from the village (beloved and otherwise) make reappearances. I could have done without the recaps of previous books, which add little to the current storyline and are unnecessary for following the plot. Matching the one earlier book I have read, the story progresses mostly through conversations rather than events. This isn't a fast paced thriller - it's a very cozy, slice-of-life sort of mystery. And a listener couldn't hope for a better audiobook narrator to match the book's vibe than Barbara Rosenblat, with her calm, comfortable voice and casually perfect accents.

I don't love the old-fashioned values that make an appearance, specifically the ideas that every woman would be better off with a husband and that a wife is responsible for her husband's infidelity. But Ellicott's writing style nails the feel of time period so perfectly that it's hard to believe this is a book being published this year.

This is one of my favorite series and this book didn’t disappoint. The duo was up to their detective ways and created a wonderful storyline. Highly recommended

I’m not sure what it is but this series just does not work for me. I have only tried one other book in this series and because I thought that I didn’t give it enough of a chance, I decided I’d try another one. Sadly, same result, it was so boring that it took me four days to finish it even though there are a lot of things about the series that should appeal to me. It takes place during the between the war years, it has two female protagonists, it is set in an English village. And to top it off, this one uses a poison pen writer as the culprit. Poison pen letters were a common concept in the novels of several Golden Age authors including Agatha Christie, Dorothy Lee Sayers, and Patricia Wentworth to name a few. I gave it a chance but it just lacks that spark to hold my interest.
Narration was by Barbara Rosenblatt who has been one of my favorite voice actors for more than twenty years. I gave the audiobook four stars because of her.
Otherwise three stars for the book.

Audiobook: Murder Through the English Post
Series: Beryl and Edwina #6
Author: Jessica Ellicott
Audiobook Narrator: Barbara Rosenblat
Publisher: RB Media Recorded Books
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Pub Date: July 26, 2022
Rating: 4 Stars

Walmsley Parva a typical English village is having a rash of poison pen letters appear the mail.
Our amateur sleuths Beryl Helliwell and Edwina Davenport are on the hunt to stamp out the evil culprit or culprits.

I enjoyed this story and I also enjoy when British Actress and audiobook narrator Barbara Rosenblat performs the characters. She has won the “Golden Voice’ award. She has narrated several audiobook series. She states
~~ Recording a series is like meeting old friends in a new restaurant. ~

Want to thank NetGalley and RB Media ~ Recorded Books for this Audio eGalley.
Publishing Date was July 26, 2022

This was just not engaging. There are so many 'cozy English mysteries' that something is needed to stand out -- and this book did not.

Murder Through the English Post is the 6th Beryl & Edwina English cozy mystery by Jessica Ellicott. Released 26rh July 2022 by Kensington, it's 256 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback large print format due out in fourth quarter 2022. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.


This is a delightfully quirky, beautifully written historical cozy village mystery set in the interwar period in sleepy village Walmsley Parva. There's a poison pen campaign sowing distrust and discord in the village and intrepid enquiry agents Beryl and Edwina are soon on the case. As with the other books in the series, there are lots of side plots which are engaging in themselves, but which also enrich and entwine with the main story.

There's a very golden age feel to the whole and the author has a deft touch with dialogue and characterization. The characters are nuanced and delightfully rendered with drawing room wit. Although it's not at all derivative in any way, the feel of the story and the narrative voice remind me a lot of why I love Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce books.

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 9 hours and is -masterfully- narrated by Barbara Rosenblat. She has a beautifully modulated quite deep voice and the enunciation and perfection of characters' accents stupefied and delighted me. There is a moderate amount of quite rapid dialogue in the read and she hops from crisp cut-glass upper class British to indefinite English with quite distinct Scottish brogue, to a domestic servant's broad midlands, and midwest American without a single stumble. This is unquestionably the best audiobook I've heard this year.

The plot is slow and measured. Aside from the poison pen campaign, there's not a lot of action in the first third of the book apart from former gardener turned ready-made canned food magnate Simpkins' foray into greengage plum jam with en eye to adding it to his company's product line. I found the methodical plot development very relaxing and restful.

It could be read as a standalone, however, there will be major spoilers for earlier books in the series if read out of order.

Four and a half stars, five for the audiobook narration. This would make a superlative choice for public library acquisition, social reading (bookclubs, buddy reads, etc - in fact the author has suggested discussion questions on her website) as well as being a great candidate for a very well written series binge read.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I tried to make it through this book. I haven't dnf'd a book in a really long time. but this book was really boring. it was slow and unrelatable and the characters were fake. it was painful. i feel really bad writing this. I wanted to like it but i just couldn't get through it. i'm so sorry.