Hello! Today I’m pleased to welcome you to JuliaPalooza for my stop on the Blog Tour for Murder In The Snow by Verity Bright, which is available now (links below).
About the book
An English Christmas has mince pies, cheerful carols, a twinkling tree… and a murder? Thank goodness Lady Swift is on the scene!
Winter, 1920. Amateur sleuth Lady Eleanor Swift is feeling festive. She is playing host to the entire village at Henley Hall for gifts, games and gingerbread. She’s also purchased perfect presents for each of her household – not forgetting the biggest bone in the butcher’s shop for her partner in crime, Gladstone the bulldog – and is looking forward to celebrating her first English country Christmas.
As snowflakes fall, Eleanor is cheering on contestants in the traditional Christmas fun run in the grounds of the Hall. But tragedy strikes when one of the runners drops dead at the finish line. Dashing Detective Seldon is convinced it’s just a heart attack, but Eleanor isn’t so sure. When she finds a rather distinctive key where the man fell, Eleanor knows she’ll never rest until she finds out the truth about what happened in her own home.
Next the vicar is taken ill with what looks like poison and Eleanor starts to wonder if the two cases are linked. When someone tries to frame her by planting poisoned berries in her own kitchen, she knows speed is of the essence. But the entire village was at Henley Hall for the festivities and Eleanor has enough suspects to stuff a town full of turkeys. Can she nail the true killer and clear her name in time for Christmas?
Murder In The Snow is a thoroughly enjoyable Christmassy cosy murder mystery. It is the fourth in the Lady Eleanor Swift series, although the first one I have read so far. It was perfectly easy to pick this up as a stand alone story and I didn’t feel I was missing too much.
Verity Bright throws us straight into the Christmas festivities at Henley Hall, bringing to life a traditional picture postcard white Christmas, with 1920s food, decorations, activites and games, before murder threatens to ruin the big day. Some of the writing felt to me a little modern for the period, but overall, the narrative is very readable and jolly, with a witty turn of phrase.
Lady Eleanor is a charming leading lady – ably supported by her worth-his-weight-in-gold butler, Clifford, occasionally hindered by Gladstone the bulldog, and often to be found sparring with handsome DCI Seldon – with her own interesting history. With so many people around at the time of the murder, Ellie has quite a selection of suspects and potential motives to consider before solving the mystery as well as dealing with some new information about her own family mystery.
Murder in the Snow is the perfect book to cosy up with during this cold weather, second lockdown and pre-Christmas period. I will definitely be reading the earlier books in the series. Thank you to Bookouture for my copy of the book and my spot on the tour.
If you enjoyed my review, please consider liking and/or sharing and, of course, buying the book: Goodreads | Amazon | Waterstones
About the author
Verity Bright is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing partnership that has spanned a quarter of a century. Starting out writing high-end travel articles and books, they published everything from self-improvement to humour, before embarking on their first historical mystery. They are the authors of the fabulous Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery series, set in the 1920s. Twitter
About the Blog Tour
Please check out the rest of the great posts on the tour for Murder in the Snow:
juliapalooza.com 
Thanks so much for the review, Julia! And hope you get to enjoy a non-lockdown cosy Christmas 🙂
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