Ask Me No Questions

A Lady Dunbridge Mystery

By: Shelley Noble

Narrated by: Erin Bennett

Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

"Witty, racy, and full of gorgeous period detail, Ask Me No Questions is the perfect book for all of us who miss Downtown Abbey." (Tasha Alexander, New York Times best-selling author)

From New York Times best-selling author Shelley Noble, Ask Me No Questions is the first in the Lady Dunbridge Mystery series featuring a widow turned sleuth in turn-of-the-20th century New York City.

A modern woman in 1907, Lady Dunbridge is not about to let a little thing like the death of her husband ruin her social life. She's ready to take the dazzling world of Gilded Age Manhattan by storm. From the decadence of high society balls to the underbelly of Belmont horse racing, romance, murder, and scandals abound. Someone simply must do something. And Lady Dunbridge is happy to oblige.

©2018 Shelley Freydont (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Witty, racy, and full of gorgeous period detail, Ask Me No Questions is the perfect book for all of us who miss Downtown Abbey.” (Tasha Alexander, New York Times best-selling author)

Well done mystery in High Society New York!

High Society, check. Horse Races, check. Murder, check. Many suspects, check. Witty banter, check. Ask Me No Questions by Shelley Noble follows the young and recent Dowager Countess Philimina Dunbridge, known to her friends as Phil or Lady Dunbridge by others, who crosses the pond to visit her dearest friend Beverly, Bev, Reynolds in High Society Manhattan, New York in the early 1900's. Upon stepping off the boat Lady Dunbridge is thrown into a murder case involving her closest companions. Lady Dunbridge, with the help of her Lady's Maid Lily and her Butler Preswick, work to solve the mystery of the murder along with some shady activities happening at the Horse Race Track that Bev's husband owns. With a large cast of characters to investigate who might have committed the crime, while also maintaining the proper proprieties of her station and title, can the Lady Dunbridge solve this murder before she herself, or her companions, are put in danger?

I struggled with this book on and off for a little while, but it was mostly with keeping the characters straight in my head. I was listening to this as an audiobook so it wasn't like I could go back and forth to see who was who. There was quite a lists of characters in this book that made things a little complicated to follow, but at the same time, for me at least, it made it more difficult to figure out the whodunit. Other than that I really enjoyed the book. It had well placed humor and banter, high society atmosphere, nicely developed characters, and a complex plot. I do have to say Shelley Noble doesn't spend a lot of time describing her characters or going into much of their past, but she has a good talent of describing her characters through their actions and words as the story progresses. Erin Bennett as a narrator does a wonderful job and has a great voice, but I did find the speed of the reading was a little slow and had to speed it up to get a normal feeling reading/listening speed going. Erin also does a fantastic job though with changing her voice and narration style to give the different characters their own personalities.

If you are a fan of things like Downton Abbey or Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, then I feel this book will be right up your alley. It's a fun read as you have Lady Dunbridge brought up in England High Society, but the events happen in New York High Society. They have some similarities, but also their differences and it was fun seeing the two worlds blending together. I look forward to seeing what happens with this dynamic trio in future books!

Intriguing but complex, unlikable characters

The plot of this book is interesting enough, but it was a little challenging to remember all the characters and twists, and one big clue was way too obvious IMO. A few things felt like errors. At one point the wrong name is used (possibly the narrator's error). And why would the crowd face right (a point that is stressed) to watch the start of a clockwise horse race?

Most importantly, though, I just didn't like any of the major characters. The two primary ones are self-absorbed, selfish, unfeeling women, more concerned with missing a ball and the color of a gown than with a death.

It was all too obvious that this book was intended to begin a series, which I usually welcome. Unfortunately, I don't care to spend any more time with these characters.

Great fun

This is great fun; a mystery set in 1907 New York City. The main character is a young widowed English countess. She was unhappily married for 10 years and goes to New York after his death to visit an old school friend. There is murder and intrigue. I hope there will be more. The Reader was very good except when attempting English accents but no one is perfect.

Pride in a female detective but

Slow going and a lot of characters. Good ending because I was confused with this real whodunnit boy.

Excellent story

The story keeps you interested. Always guessing who did the murders and why. Great ending

Well done!

Fun book! Enjoyed it immensely! Great one for cozy mystery fans. Can't wait to read the next one.

Should be 1/3 shorter

While the story is fairly interesting, it is drawn out far too much. The repetition in the first half of the book is killer. Took me forever to finish due to slow slow pace.

Excellent plot premise but...

This could have been a great book! Excellent plot premise. However, it is way too long, with too much repetition where the heroine is thinking/talking to herself, repeated same things over again, way too verbose. Also, narration is passable, except sometimes the accents are not always consistent for the British vs American characters? With a better editor, this could have been a really enjoyable book. As it is, I had a really hard time to finish because it went on and on, without adding to plot or suspense, until near the end. Almost gave up and returned the book. As it was bought on sale, I didn't return it, but it wouldn't be worth a full credit.

A Creative Mystery

In 1907, at the age of 27, after two years of living in mourning for a husband she hated, in Ask Me No Questions by Shelley Noble, Philomena, Dowager Countess of Dunbridge, has arrived in New York for a fresh start. Along with Preswick, her butler, and Lily, the multilingual and highly capable ladies maid Phil acquired on her ship to America, Phil is pleased to be greeted by her childhood friend, Beverly Reynolds. But then Bev runs off, and they hear a gunshot. Pushing her way through the crowd, Phil finds Bev standing over a motor car in which Bev’s husband, Reggie, lies dead in the lap of his chorus girl mistress.

The police try to get to the bottom of the case, but it soon seems to be more complex than they originally expect. What initially seemed to be about a wife and a mistress adds drama when the driver of the motor car disappears, and the horse favored to win the Belmont, Devil’s Thunder, owned by Reggie, faces challenges in the upcoming race. Phil decides to try her hand at detection.

Ask Me No Questions has some truly exciting and perplexing moments as the mystery unfolds in bits and pieces. I appreciate historical cozy mysteries, and the turn of the 20th century is particularly interesting. It has enough contemporary inventions, such as motor cars, indoor plumbing, and indoor lighting (it’s unclear if this is gas or electric) to make this era relatable, yet taking place 100 years ago, the book has a different sense of time, culture, and propriety. For example, a recent window was still expected to spend up to two years in mourning, set apart from society. Women’s roles were highly segregated from those of men, and the men who run Reggie’s horse racing establishment refuse to trust Bev as their new boss, as they can’t see a woman as their manager.

The book has interesting characters that drew my attention, including the main characters of Phil and Bev, with Phil’s ladies’ maid, Lily, and butler, Preswick. They each have a distinct character to them that we come to appreciate. We also get to know Miss Mildred Potts, a.k.a Mimi LePonte, the “Flora Dora girl” the mistress of Reggie Reynolds, and she is not portrayed as terrible a villain as one might expect in the woman cheating on the book’s heroine. In addition, Detective Sergeant John Atkins strives to maintain integrity in the NYPD despite the loss of the attempts to clean up corruption by former Police Commissioner and now- President Theodore Roosevelt.

Erin Bennett performs the audio edition of this book. I was impressed that despite my having followed her career, I didn’t even recognize her as the narrator because she uses a different style of narrative to go with this historical fiction. Bennett does an excellent job making the book seem realistic and exciting.

I purchased Ask Me No Questions from Audible without having read the reviews on Amazon in addition to the Audible website. So when I started to listen to this book, I visited the Amazon site and was disturbed to see the book described as R- rated, which almost made me return the audiobook. But I’m glad that I kept listening because the book did not require the more mature rating, with no sex scenes or graphic violence. There was some discussion between the two widows of the sexual shortcomings of their late husbands, but even that existed of innuendos and not graphic descriptions of sex. I really enjoyed this book, both for its historical details, the fascinating plot, and the creative characters. I highly enjoyed listening to this book. I give it five stars!

Great new series

A strong sense of historical time and place, extremely appealing well-rounded characters, and lots of intrigue. There's action on every page, but it's also beautifully written. Romance, political shenanigans, and a great mystery. This author added to my do not miss list. If you love Phryne Fisher and Amory Ames, this is highly recommended.