📚 About the book
Bookshop owner Flora Steele and writer Jack Carrington fell in love solving mysteries. Now they’re taking their first steps as husband and wife… straight into their most perplexing case yet.
Sussex, 1958: A radiant Flora is being twirled across the dancefloor by her dashing new husband, Jack. It’s the perfect wedding in Abbeymead, until a mysterious stranger is found dead just outside the village.
But when Flora finds an envelope tucked into the man’s silver cigarette case, the address is key to discovering the poor chap’s name – Russell Farr. He isn’t known to any of the villagers, so at first all signs point to a tragic accident. That is, until they discover Farr previously worked at the esteemed Cleve College, where Jack is now a writer-in-residence.
The college has made Jack feel uneasy ever since he learned his predecessor drowned in its lake, and now it appears a second suspicious death is connected to it. But who would want two mild-mannered academics dead?
Could it be Jocelyn, the ambitious young teacher with her sights set on the top? Joe, the sly porter living beyond his means? Or perhaps Maurice, the college dean who seems far more interested in power than educating students?
Just when it looks like no amount of studying will crack this case, a chance encounter brings Flora closer to the truth. But when Jack goes missing, it seems someone is determined to teach them both a lesson.
Can Flora and Jack outwit the killer before they graduate to becoming the next victims? Or will their first case as husband and wife be their last?
An absolutely page-turning cosy mystery, packed with unforgettable characters and sensational twists! Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Faith Martin and Joy Ellis.
💙 Flora Steele and Jack Carrington are involved in another murder case, only days before their wedding! Murder at Cleve College begins where we left off the end of previous book: The Library Murders. The preparation of their wedding is on the way, and everyone is on their edges. During the wedding rehearsal at the church, Jack saw a man - a stranger - hesitantly loitering about, but he thought nothing of it. There are more important stuffs on hand than a confused stranger. Few days later Jack and Flora found a corpse of the same man in the ditch, just days before the wedding!
💙 Jack begins his new career at Cleve College not without a little apprehension. Not about his students, but things that had been happening there. First of all, Joe the porter seems to always spying on him. Then, the fellow whom Jack is replacing turned out to be drown in the lake near the college last year. Everything Flora and Jack find out ever since they found the corpse, seems to be related to either Cleve College or an orphanage, now closed, whose headmaster had fallen from its balcony and died years ago. Are they - the accidents - mere accidents? Are Flora and Jack's suspicion baseless?
💙 I loved everything about this book! To me Murder at Cleve College is the best from the series so far. I was hooked even from the first paragraph! The prologue is my favorite, it instantly brought you straight to the moment before a murder took place. After that it's switched to Flora and Jack, to Abbeymead, to everyday life. But only a fleeting moment later, another murder case faced the newlywed couple. I love this structure. Many cozy mysteries these days get to be too cozy, they seem to focus more on the sleuth's personal life than to the murder investigation.
💙 After the first murder, slowly but steadily, Flora and Jack found new facts - bits and pieces - that brought them closer to the truth, the secret dark past. It's an entertaining story packed with action, surprise, and twist, but with a charming touch of the 1950 vibes of English small village of Abbeymead. A delightful read from start to finish.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
📚 Author Bio
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Merryn taught university literature for many years, and it took a while to pluck up the courage to begin writing herself. Bringing the past to life is a passion and her historical fiction includes Regency romances, wartime sagas and timeslip novels, all of which have a mystery at their heart. As the books have grown darker, it was only a matter of time before she plunged into crime with a cosy crime series set in rural Sussex against the fascinating backdrop of the 1950s.
Merryn lives in a beautiful old town in Sussex with her husband. When she’s not writing, she tries to keep fit with adult ballet classes and plenty of walking.
Website: https://merrynallingham.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MerrynWrites
Twitter: https://twitter.com/merrynwrites
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📚 Buying links
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Glad you enjoyed this so much too. I loved it as well -- the danger levels were quite high in this one.
ReplyDeleteYes! I was pretty surprised with the prologue, it's not Allingham's usual style. But I loved it like this. Hopefully she'll maintain the level in the next series.
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