A Christmas Case

The Posie Parker Mystery Series

De: L.B. Hathaway

Narrado por: Clare Wille

Snow falls, ghost stories are told by the roaring castle fire. It’s a cozy Christmas for sure, but a murderer hides, even here....

A stand-alone Posie Parker novella, perfect for Agatha Christie fans!

Yorkshire, Christmas Eve, 1923.

Posie Parker, London’s premier female Private Detective, and Chief Inspector Lovelace of Scotland Yard have been invited to spend Christmas at Rebburn Abbey, ancestral home of the Earl and Countess of Cardigeon. It’s Christmas Eve and Rufus Cardigeon holds court, as each house guest is invited to share a personal mystery, but what unfolds turns out to be less a cozy cornucopia of fireside Christmas cheer than a series of curiously interlinked and unsettling mysteries. But then, who promised that any of the tales had to be cozy?

Prepare for tales of unexplained murders, long-concealed mysteries, strange visitors in the night, and a secret in Posie’s own past, about her parents, which haunts her to this very day.

But something is afoot. Several of the guests are acting shiftily, and when a sparkling Christmas gift under the tree is revealed to be a ticking time bomb, designed to cause multiple murders and mayhem, Posie and Lovelace have to locate the perpetrator, fast. Who would want to cause such untold misery, and why?

Could it be, even at Rebburn Abbey on Christmas Eve, that the past can overshadow the present? Does the presence of evil lurk here? And what is wrong with the usually effervescent Dolly, Countess Cardigeon? Can the spirit of Christmas, or anything else, pull her from whatever ails her?

A delightfully twisty and stylish Christmas golden-age style mystery novella that fans of Agatha Christie will adore.

©2017 L.B. Hathaway (P)2023 L.B. Hathaway

Important to the ongoing story

Even tho this is a novella, if you follow Posie Parker, this is an important book. In it, Posie reveals a lot about her young past. At this small Christmas soiree, there are are several different mysteries going on at the same time. Some solved, some not yet solved. Well done.

Mystery Maven

Wonderful novella. Unique stories that actually filled in some items, if you follow the series, and provided a solution and a doozy of a new “puzzle”? Now the wait for the next Audible entry. Highly recommend and enjoy!

Suspenseful, atmospheric, & tightly plotted with lovely narration

Normally, I take a hard pass on novellas, short stories, and the like, especially if they are part of a full-length book series. Writing well in short form is a challenging & series-related short offerings have a way of seeming like previously cut (from the longer books) scenes that have been cobbled together.
Probably because they often are. :)
This is NOT the case here, however. In fact, it’s so well-done, it seems like a very satisfying, robust mystery. Specifically, the personal details revealed about Posie’s childhood/background I—at least—found very absorbing & escapist. The parallel thread about her friend, Dolly (Dollie?) has some suspend-your-disbelief aspects (I can’t elaborate without going into spoilers), but I chose to do just that, probably because the narrator’s voice is so beautiful & melodic &, of course, my previously stated reasons.
It’s a perfect read (or listen, rather) if you want a bit of Christmas atmosphere served up with mystery, murder (off screen), and family relationships.

Love love love this series

As sure as bread is bread this is a great one!!! I love this series so much!!! Sorry this did not come out before Murder and the Mermaid.

Wow

Some of the past for Posie comes alight but there is still a lot to go. Plus a mystery is conveniently solved and an eerie death is not. Love this series

Her mother

1 audible credit for such a short story. I knew it was short when purchasing but wanted to listen in order.