Death at Beresford Hall

The Adam and Eve Mystery Series, Book 4

By: Emma Davies

Narrated by: Mira Dovreni

Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's Summary

Francesca Eve, chef, caterer, and baker extraordinaire, has never desired the limelight. But when she’s accepted onto the country’s favorite cooking competition, she can’t help but wonder–what would it be like to win? The one thing she’d never imagined, though, was sharing the kitchen with a killer....

When Francesca Eve arrives for the Christmas special of the country’s most popular baking competition, she knows she’s out of her depth. For not only is she there undercover, reluctantly investigating strange threats to Miranda Appleby, the famous presenter-come-chef, but she swiftly gets roped into competing herself when another contestant can’t cut the mustard and quits. 

Cooking may be bread and butter to Fran, but under the bright lights her cranberry sauce won’t set and her mince pies burn. When the real reason she’s there ends in total failure and Miranda is found with a cake slice through the heart—"lights, camera, cook" becomes "lights, camera, murder"....

Miranda may have looked like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, but looks can be deceiving.... From her harassed PA to the rakish producer and even the disappointed contestants, everyone on set seemingly had reason enough to want to bump her off. But who would be nuts enough to cook Miranda’s goose in such an obvious way?

As the police arrive to take over the investigation, Fran can’t help but continue her own lines of enquiry. She’s come to know the crew and contestants and can’t believe that any one of them would be guilty. But Fran must harden her heart to her new friends and focus her mind.

Someone may have thought Miranda was justifiably given her just desserts, but what Fran uncovers takes things to a whole new tier. Can Fran uncover the truth before another death occurs, and before the spirit of Christmas (cake) is ruined forever?

An utterly gripping cozy crime mystery set at a Christmas cooking competition. This is perfect for fans of Faith Martin, M.C. Beaton, and The Thursday Murder Club.

©2022 Emma Davies (P)2022 Bookouture, an imprint of Storyfire Ltd.

Enjoyable but…

This still made me smile with the brilliant characters but found it less enjoyable than previous books.

Good Read ( audible )

Another enjoyable outing for ‘ Adam and Eve ‘ ….
Didn’t figure it out myself ! and it kept me interested.

Brilliant

I love this series. Clever stories, great characters and really well performed. Can’t wait for the next one

Disappointing

When this series started I thought it had potential as undemanding but reasonably entertaining cosy crime fodder. However, despite the best efforts of the narrator, the writing was irritatingly poor: bad syntax, words used incorrectly or repeated too often - it needed another good thorough edit. There is zero character development across the books. And then the use of that lazy misogynist plot device involving the punishment of reluctant mothers was the final straw… Good narrator though!

The Great British Bake Off Whodunit!

This was a lot of fun, I enjoyed the story, I love these characters, the chemistry between them is wonderful. Adam and Fran are great, with the addition of the Detective it really is fun, although not as many laugh out moments as the first two books which is a shame.

Mira Dovreni is absolutely fantastic as the narrator her performance as always is a joy to listen to!

The setup is interesting and I like the concept of the story. However I'm not going to lie I felt the cause of death itself was a bit dull and underwhelming and didn't do the book justice, I feel Emma could of really had fun with an elaborate death on the set. Also frustratingly there were a few other bits that felt a bit disjointed. I had the same feeling with the last book... The first two books were solid mysteries, don't get me wrong this is a good story but I know Emma Davies can do so much better.

I love the first book and relistened to it a number of times, the humour and banter was fantastic with Adams behaviour and comments and the story.

This one is good but feels lacking, which really saddens me to say. I am pleased about the relationship between Adam, Fran and the Detective, it's grown and is lovely to see, and I love the undercover element this is brilliant!