Murder by Candlelight

Val & Arbie Mysteries, Book 1

By: Faith Martin

Narrated by: John Hopkins

One suspicious death. Two amateur sleuths. And an utterly impossible crime…

The NUMBER ONE ebook bestseller!

'Amuses and intrigues in equal measure… a splendid start to what promises to be a long-running series’ Daily Mail

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The Cotswolds, 1924. At the Old Forge in the quiet village of Maybury-in-the-Marsh a cry of anguish rings out: lady of the house Amy Phelps has been discovered dead. But with all the windows and doors to her room locked from inside, how – and by whom – was she killed?

Arbuthnot ‘Arbie’ Swift finds himself in the unlikely position of detective. The celebrated author of The Gentleman’s Guide to Ghost-Hunting is staying at the Old Forge to investigate a suspected spectre, but now the more pressing matter of Amy’s murder falls to him too.

With old friend Val, he soon uncovers a sorry tale of altered wills, secret love affairs and tragic losses – and plenty of motives for murder. When events take another sinister turn, Arbie must find the killer, fast. And to do so will mean cracking a most perfectly plotted crime…

Perfect for fans of The Thursday Murder Club, The Appeal and The Marlow Murder Club, don’t miss this stunning new series from the multi-million bestselling author!

©2024 Faith Martin (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

Great Ending

Did not figure out mystery in advance. Loved the ending. Not sure i would want more of that period in time.

Creative and refreshingly funny

Fabulous book and storyline. Brilliantly written and wonderful characters. My only wish, that Val’s voice wasn’t so deep masculine sounding. John Hopkins is a brilliant narrator, but Val’s voice just needs a slightly more feminine tone to it. It made it hard to distinguish that a female was speaking, but that is just me. lol

Narration is pure perfection!

What makes this book is it’s narration! John Hopkins’ narrations are pure perfection. I could listen to him all day long. His voice has so much depth and range and he has an incredible ability to bring a story and the different characters in it to life. The story is enjoyable—pleasant setting, interesting and likable characters and good unfolding of events. The quality of the writing is a bit lacking. There’s a remarkable over-use of adverbs which at times is almost a bit painful and distracts from the story (hesitated regretfully, shrugged eloquently, wondered abruptly, muttered vaguely, reflected unhelpfully and so on). Still, I’ll probably listen to the other title of the series too… the narration is too good to not to.

Loved it!

Another win for Faith Martin, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I hope she has plans for making this a series, because I definitely want more!

A fun, well crafted story!

I loved the light tone of the book! The plot is ingenious & the premise for the involvement of the amateur sleuths is believable within the world of the story and well constructed— a thing as rare as a unicorn. The characters are enjoyable. The narrator did a great job in distinguishing all the characters, especially the male characters. The only flaw in the reading, for me, was the voice for the Val character, which was annoying, but did not spoil the story. I would love to read A Gentleman’s Guide To Ghost Hunting! I hope there are more light-hearted Arbi mysteries by Ms Martin.