If you’re a fan of cosy murder mysteries then this book is quite a charming, period locked room mystery set in the 1920s Cotswolds. When the newly famous young author cum ghost hunter, Arbie Swift and his old chum, vicar’s daughter, Val find themselves coming to the assistance of Miss Amy Phelps, who suspects she may be being visited by the ghost of an ancestor, little do they think they will find themselves in the middle of a murder investigation. Having spent the evening with the suspects, Arbie and Val decide to carry out a spot of amateur sleuthing. I thoroughly enjoyed the rapport between these two young friends and thought Val a fantastically spirited young woman of her days. And despite the obvious suggestions of possible sparks between them, I was pleased the book didn’t veer off in that direction. I was kept guessing throughout as to the who, why and how, and I did enjoy Arbie’s big reveal at the end. The Inspector was a great character and I liked how he humoured the two amateurs as well as realising when they might actually be on to something. All in all a very enjoyable read and who knows, Arbie and Val could well be back together for a new mystery in the future, the ending certainly left the possibility open!
With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, HQ Digital for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for a review.

I enjoyed this book, I loved our main characters Arbie & Val - they made a great duo although think they would make a lovely couple also! Arbie seemed somewhat reluctant to be involved as the book he had written was mainly a tour guide of places to stay with very little 'ghosts' involved!

I loved the 'locked door' aspect as it did make it very difficult to work out the 'how' even though we had plenty of options for the why! There were some red herrings thrown in along the way to help throw us off the scent of our murderer and that was nicely done. I loved the final scenes when Arbie had figured it all out and was revealing who had done it, why they had done it and most - how they had done it!

I enjoyed the fact that we also got to learn a little about Arbie and his past and also his uncle who seemed very eccentric but another great character! I do hope that we may get to hear more from these characters as I would love to see them solve another case!

I've read a fair bit of murder mysteries lately and Murder by Candlelight seemed to hit the mark. It's got a decidedly period feel about it, being set around the 20s, and is so charming with polite mannerisms. Just the ticket! I tucked in blissfully but failed to really connect with it fully. Why, I wondered? Because I guessed the murderer? No, that's not right, as the pool of potential killers was rather lacking, But the mechanism for murder was ingenious and well worthy of high praise. Was it the red herrings? They seemed a bit limp and not worth investing grey matter on so not quite the distraction intended. It just lacked a bit of motivation and felt full of filler, intended, possibly, to be taken for red herrings. Not by me, I can tell you.

I really liked the style of writing and the method of murder - how brilliant! - but felt the story lacked a bit of spark that would have propelled it to great levels. Suckered in by a smart cover but was time well spent. I did enjoy it.

A good cozy mystery for a cold winter night! I picked this one on a bit of a whim as I wanted something easy and cozy for the Christmas period. It really wasn’t a bad choice at all!
The characters are sort of likeable and the plot is easy to follow. Think afternoon episode of father brown type mystery!
The plot focuses on friends Albie and val who become embroiled in solving a murder that happens while they are ghost hunting.
The only negative was that at felt at times like the author had swallowed a thesaurus but once you work past this, it’s not a bad story at all. I did wonder if this was to try to make the story feel like reading a Victorian tale but it really didn’t work for me.
Read through netgalley for an honest review.

Such a fun little cosy mystery! The characters were entertaining and made me smile. Loved the plot twists and the story was definitely one I would purchase if I hadn’t had the chance to review prior to release date. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy for review. What a wonderful cosy story! I throughly enjoyed this!

If you’re in the mood for a cosy murder mystery, with plenty of humour and likeable characters, then Murder by Candlelight is a good choice! The book transports us to the Cotswold, where reluctant ‘author’ Arbie and his sort-of-friend Val are asked to help a local woman who is worried that her home, the Old Forge, is haunted. Soon, ghosts aren’t the problem – murder is…

I liked the characters in this book. Arbie is great fun, as is his friend Val, and their interactions together were very entertaining. I also warmed to the cast of characters around them, many of which were also fun to read about – though I did feel Arbie said ‘old bean’ a bit too much!

I found the story a bit slow to get going, as it took a while for the titular murder to take place. The solution, when it came, felt well-constructed and easy to follow – I just felt that the middle chunk of the book dragged a little, and I started to lose interest. However, it really picks up again towards the end, when the solution is revealed (it was clearly explained and felt cleverly constructed – often the solutions can feel a bit of a letdown, but not this one!). I enjoyed reading about Arbie, Val and the local police force trying to piece together the clues to work out who the culprit was. Together with the great characters, this made Murder by Candlelight a book that’s well worth a read.

First book in a new cozy crime series featuring amateur sleuth duo Arbie & Val, set in the golden age between the wars.
Brilliantly funny with hilarious characters and tongue in cheek humour.
A definite page turner as you want to find whodunnit.
A mix between Agatha Christie and PG Wodehouse.
A totally spiffing read.
Thanks @FaithMartin_Nov, @hqstories & @netgalley for the eARC

I have recently discovered Faith Martin's DI Hiliary Greene series, so I was quite excited when I saw Murder by Candlelight on Netgalley. Unfortunately, Murder by Candlelight didn't blow me away. It wasn't the cosy Murder mystery I've come to love from Martin. I did see glimpses of Martins' usual humour, and the story had potential but I just found it lacklustre and repetitive.

Thank you for gifting me a free ebook for my honest review. I hope others enjoy it more than I did.

The story set out in a small village of Maybury has all the characteristics of a vintage cozy. The well to do family not aristocrats but wealth from hard work, then the residents all the usual characters, each adding a necessary piquancy to the whole story.

Two murders one the classic locked room scenario, one a supposed overdose baffle the local constabulary but with judicious thinking through, the young local author Arbie solves it methodically and presents it to the Inspector on a platter.

Ideal holiday read, charming background and setting and excellent characterization.

Thank you NetGalley and HQ Digital for a complimentary copy of this novel.
Amy Phelps, the Lady of the Old Forge house has been mysteriously found dead in her locked room. With both her door and window locked from the inside, her murder is indeed very puzzling. Who would want Lady Phelps dead and for what reason? In comes Arbie Swift, author of The Gentleman’s Guide to Ghost Hunting; and Val, friend to Arbie and the Vicar’s daughter. Both get embroiled as unlikely amateur detectives to find out who wanted to kill Amy Phelps and why. But with a handful of suspects and a second murder on their hands, Arbie and Val are running out of time. Will they be able to solve the mysterious locked room death of Amy Phelps?

The beginning of this novel was a bit of a slow burn, but it started to pick up half way through. A very smart and well-crafted fictional, locked-room murder mystery!!! Available January 4, 2024

3.5 ⭐️A cosy Murder mystery set in a 1920’s Cotswold village, Arbie is a character you could imagine being played by Ian Carmichael if you’ve ever watched any of the old Ealing films.

Slightly Woosterish but with more going on in the old noggin than that suggests, Arbie and his friend Val investigate the possible haunting of Miss Amy Phelps, a spinster of the parish. It all seems a bit of a lark until Miss Phelps is found dead under classic locked room mystery circumstances.

The characters aren’t deeply evolved and the period isn’t especially evoked but it is escapist fun and might keep you guessing.

With thanks to NetGalley, HQStories and Faith Martin for an arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This book is set in the quiet village of Maybury-in-the-Marsh in the Cotswolds. A village that harbours secrets.
Over at the Old Forge manor house, the lady of the household, wealthy Amy Phelps has been having ghostly experiences, and so calls upon local author Arbuthnot ‘Arbie’ Swift. Arbie has recently written 'The Gentleman’s Guide to Ghost-Hunting' which is a travel book that shows places where alleged hauntings have occured. Amy wants Arbie to conduct a ghost watch overnight at the Old Forge. However, he thinks that Amy isn't a true believer of ghosts, and that she actually suspects one of the household of trying to scare her. Things have escalated, and she is in fear for her life.
Arbie's old friend Val soon muscles in on the action and spends the night at the Old Forge with him, They soon uncover a tale of altered wills, secret love affairs and tragic losses – plus plenty of motives for murder.
This was an easy read, and had many interesting characters, that you are sure to love.

Arbie Swift has recently written a book about dealing with ghosts which surprisingly has suddenly become a best seller. When he meets Miss Amy Phelps, an very wealthy and elderly neighbor, she invites him to dinner with his friend Val Coulton-James, the daughter of the vicar who has joined them, in order to help her with her ghostly problems. It turns out that Amy Phelps is worried that someone is trying to kill her. Arbie and Val agree to come to the house and stay awake during the night to see what's going on. When Amy is found dead in her bed in her locked bedroom, they have a mystery to solve. There are several guests at the house, and some of them are in the list to possibly inherit. It seems that shortly before she died, Amy changed her will so that her niece inherits. However, that means that she might be the next to die.

There is a lot happening in the book, and the reader is kept wondering throughout. This is a great start of a new series. I thank Netgalley and HQ(Harper Collins) for the ARC for me to read ahead of publication.

I quite liked this cosy mystery. Set it a small village in the Cotswalds in the 1920s, the author did develop the setting and the characters very well. You get a real sense in this book that Faith Martin had fun writing it. There's just something in the flow of the story that speaks to enjoyment on behalf of the author.

I felt the two protagonists, Arbie and Val, very engaging and thought they came across as close friends in the story. Arbie's character was exceptional. To have embroiled in a mystery on the preface of his successful ghost hunting book that he didn't want to write was a good element in the story. It made Arbie seem more genuine, gave him more character.

The author presents a locked room mystery for the reader to solve. It's a clever mystery. Well thought our and plotted, with many suspects and a few red herrings. If I were casting a critical eye over this, I would say some sections in the book may have been too lengthy, letting the pace drop too much. But on the whole, I think the pacing was just right, and the characters drove this story forward very well.

When I read this, I thought of Midsomer Murders. It had that feel. Maybe it's the setting. Maybe the characters. But the story had that feel for me, and that made it even more enjoyable.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and to Netgalley for providing a free copy of this book for an honest review. All comments are my own.

Rating: 1.3/5

Oh, dear! Given this author's not insubstantial back catalogue, albeit under a variety of pseudonyms, I really did expect something better than this very disappointing offering. Whilst "Murder by Candlelight" may possibly not be the least enjoyable of the hundred or so books I have read over the past year, it would certainly be on the shortlist.

It isn't simply the fact that the solution to the mystery is horrendously contrived - you can often get away with that kind of thing in the cosy mystery genre. Nor was it even the fact that the mystery itself was pretty uninspiring - a half-decent cosy mystery can still get by on the strength of its engaging narrative or its appealing characters. Sadly, apart from a reasonable opening there is very little to recommend about this book. After the adequately engaging early chapters "Murder by Candlelight" soon becomes quite dull. There is little in the way of intrigue or humour, which are two of the key components in a cosy mystery. Instead, the author seems to rely on rather unappealing caricatures that rapidly become quite tiresome. It is one thing to reflect the language and mannerisms of the 1924 setting, but labouring the point is quite another. Author, Simon Brett, sends up similar characters from this period in his "Blotto & Twinks" series. Those books are also a little overdone, but at least they are punchier and quite quick, short reads, unlike "Murder by Candlelight" which drags on and on.

One of the biggest let-downs in this book is the amount of wearisome and grating repetition. Obviously, the English language has its limitations and it would be impossible to write a novel without using certain words or phrases more than once. However, an experienced author, should be able to avoid frequent repetition. Or, if the author does have a tendency to rely on the use of certain phrases, the editor should pick up on that and invite the writer to amend certain sections. That does not seem to have happened in this case. There are just shy of two hundred instances of the author starting a spoken sentence with "Oh," and I was sick and tired of reading, "At this" - another of the author's favourite terms - which appears more than seventy times! There are other examples, too, but I won't labour the point any longer - if nothing else, it brings back painful memories for me.

It could be that this book represents the author's equivalent of "a bad day at the office" and it may be something that she is not normally guilty of - but I don't think I will run the risk of finding out.

As ever, I would still like to convey my thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review. It is a pity I was not in a position to pass more favourable comment on this occasion.

The opening line of this book initially grabbed me and the buildup of the story kept me engaged initially. I would say that the killer was my original guess, however it was still a cozy read. I was hoping for something akin to Robert Barnard, but did find the writing somewhat reminiscent of Anthony Horowitz but perhaps not quite as engaging.

In the tranquil village of Maybury-in-the-Marsh in the Cotswolds, the year is 1924, and a cry of anguish pierces the quietude of the Old Forge. Lady of the house, Amy Phelps, is discovered dead. The mystery deepens as all the windows and doors to her room are securely locked from the inside. The questions linger: How was she killed, and by whom?

Arbuthnot 'Arbie' Swift, an unexpected detective in this idyllic setting, is a renowned author of The Gentleman’s Guide to Ghost-Hunting. Initially at the Old Forge to investigate a suspected spectre, Arbie now finds himself drawn into the more urgent matter of Amy's murder.

Teaming up with an old friend, Val, Arbie unravels a tale of altered wills, clandestine love affairs, and heart-wrenching losses, uncovering numerous motives for murder. As events take a darker turn, Arbie must race against time to identify the killer. To succeed, he must navigate through the intricacies of a meticulously planned crime.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if it were in a bookshop. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

A locked room mystery full of red herrings and interesting characters .
The mystery is set in the Cotswolds in the 1920’s and the sleuthing duo are Arbie and Val . Arbie is an author of a book about ghost hunting and Val is the vicars daughter together they make a great pair of detectives.
Amy Phelps has asked for Arbie’s help to find out if her home is haunted .
Shortly after she is found dead in her bed with the door locked , did she die of natural causes or was something more sinister at play?
Val and Arbie get to work to try and get to the bottom of Miss Phelps’ death.
The writing is excellent and the story is very much in the style of an Agatha Christie novel .
An enjoyable story and it kept me guessing right until the end.
Looking forward to the next case for Arbie and Val .
Thanks to NetGalley and HQ.

The was a light hearted entertaining read, the thing I liked best was the mix of characters who were all quirky and had their own characters, fell a bit sluggish in parts could have done with some more drama.

I haven't read any of Faith Martin's books prior but I will certainly be looking her other books up. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this murder mystery which had suspense, red herrings, quirky characters and a duo of would-be detectives. The relationship between Arbie and Val was definitely what makes this story and I literally kicked myself at the end when Arbie unmasked the murderer and their method! I did find the ending a little abrupt however - I was expecting another chapter or two just to tie up some loose ends with the other characters!

**Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read an advanced e-copy of this book. All opinions are my own **