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In 1944, British bomber pilot Hugo Langley parachuted from his stricken plane into the verdant fields of German-occupied Tuscany. Badly wounded, he found refuge in a ruined monastery and in the arms of Sofia Bartoli. But the love that kindled between them was shaken by an irreversible betrayal. Nearly 30 years later, Hugo's estranged daughter, Joanna, has returned home to the English countryside to arrange her father's funeral. Among his personal effects is an unopened letter addressed to Sofia. In it is a startling revelation.
This first installment of a cozy mystery series transports listeners back to the bygone era of 1923 Britain, where unflappable flapper and fledgling journalist Daisy Dalrymple daringly embarks on her first writing assignment, and promptly stumbles across a corpse.
Bill Vokes has played Santa at the children's Christmas show for years. But with the show just hours away, he vanishes with no explanation. The whole village is baffled. Did something bad happen to loveable Bill, upstanding citizen, churchgoer, life and soul of the party and the holiday season? Jack and Sarah are on the case - and soon discover there are secrets about this Santa that no one could have imagined.
Evan Evans is a young police constable who has traded in the violence of city life for idyllic Llanfair, a Welsh village tucked far away from trouble. Nestled among the Snowdonia mountain range, Llanfair looks to Constable Evans like a town forgotten by time, but he quickly learns that even the bucolic countryside has its share of eccentric - and deadly - characters.
Maisie Dobbs isn't just any young housemaid. Through her own natural intelligence - and the patronage of her benevolent employers - she works her way into college at Cambridge. After the War I and her service as a nurse, Maisie hangs out her shingle back at home: M. DOBBS, TRADE AND PERSONAL INVESTIGATIONS. But her very first assignment soon reveals a much deeper, darker web of secrets, which will force Maisie to revisit the horrors of the Great War and the love she left behind.
At the end of her first unsuccessful season out in society, Lady Georgiana has all but given up on attracting a suitable man - until she receives an invitation to a masked Halloween ball at Broxley Manor. Georgie is uncertain why she was invited, until she learns that the royal family intends to marry her off to a foreign prince, one reputed to be mad.
In 1944, British bomber pilot Hugo Langley parachuted from his stricken plane into the verdant fields of German-occupied Tuscany. Badly wounded, he found refuge in a ruined monastery and in the arms of Sofia Bartoli. But the love that kindled between them was shaken by an irreversible betrayal. Nearly 30 years later, Hugo's estranged daughter, Joanna, has returned home to the English countryside to arrange her father's funeral. Among his personal effects is an unopened letter addressed to Sofia. In it is a startling revelation.
This first installment of a cozy mystery series transports listeners back to the bygone era of 1923 Britain, where unflappable flapper and fledgling journalist Daisy Dalrymple daringly embarks on her first writing assignment, and promptly stumbles across a corpse.
Bill Vokes has played Santa at the children's Christmas show for years. But with the show just hours away, he vanishes with no explanation. The whole village is baffled. Did something bad happen to loveable Bill, upstanding citizen, churchgoer, life and soul of the party and the holiday season? Jack and Sarah are on the case - and soon discover there are secrets about this Santa that no one could have imagined.
Evan Evans is a young police constable who has traded in the violence of city life for idyllic Llanfair, a Welsh village tucked far away from trouble. Nestled among the Snowdonia mountain range, Llanfair looks to Constable Evans like a town forgotten by time, but he quickly learns that even the bucolic countryside has its share of eccentric - and deadly - characters.
Maisie Dobbs isn't just any young housemaid. Through her own natural intelligence - and the patronage of her benevolent employers - she works her way into college at Cambridge. After the War I and her service as a nurse, Maisie hangs out her shingle back at home: M. DOBBS, TRADE AND PERSONAL INVESTIGATIONS. But her very first assignment soon reveals a much deeper, darker web of secrets, which will force Maisie to revisit the horrors of the Great War and the love she left behind.
At the end of her first unsuccessful season out in society, Lady Georgiana has all but given up on attracting a suitable man - until she receives an invitation to a masked Halloween ball at Broxley Manor. Georgie is uncertain why she was invited, until she learns that the royal family intends to marry her off to a foreign prince, one reputed to be mad.
It's Christmas 1909, and for once Lady Hardcastle - respectable gentlewoman, amateur spy - and her lady's maid, Florence Armstrong, are setting sleuthing aside. They are invited to the festivities up at The Grange, as guests of Sir Hector and Lady Farley-Stroud. But barely have corks been popped and parlour games played when a mysterious crime comes to light.
In the small village of Kilbane, County Cork, Ireland, Natalie's Bistro has always been warm and welcoming. Nowadays 22-year-old Siobhan O'Sullivan runs the family bistro named for her mother, along with her five siblings, after the death of their parents in a car crash almost a year ago. It's been a rough year for the O'Sullivans, but it's about to get rougher. One morning, as they're opening the bistro, they discover a man seated at a table with a pair of hot pink barber scissors protruding from his chest.
When amiable old village eccentric Quentin Andrews dies, the good folk of Cherringham are astonished at the crowd that turns up to his funeral. But even more astonished are the beneficiaries of his will: Quentin has left a veritable fortune to whomever is the first to solve an intricate "Cherringham crossword". That puzzle is only the first of many that Jack and Sarah will uncover as they follow the treasure hunt for clues and learn the truth about who Quentin Andrews really was... and the biggest mystery of them al... was he - in fact - murdered?
As the city prepares to celebrate Queen Victoria's golden jubilee, Veronica Speedwell is marking a milestone of her own. After burying her spinster aunt, the orphaned Veronica is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry - and the occasional romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as she is fending off admirers, Veronica wields her butterfly net and a hatpin with equal aplomb, and with her last connection to England gone, she intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.
The year is 1920: Flying in the face of convention, legendary American adventuress Beryl Helliwell never fails to surprise and shock. The last thing her adoring public would expect is that she craves some peace and quiet. The humdrum hamlet of Walmsley Parva in the English countryside seems just the ticket. And, honestly, until America comes to its senses and repeals Prohibition, Beryl has no intention of returning stateside and subjecting herself to bathtub gin.
Business is going well at Gemma Rose’s quaint English teashop, and she's delighted about her first big catering job at a local village funeral...until the day ends with a second body and one of the Old Biddies accused of murder! Now, the resourceful tearoom sleuth must find out which delicious pudding contained the deadly arsenic - and who might have wanted the wealthy widow dead....
From Rhys Bowen, the author of In Farleigh Field, comes the next Molly Murphy mystery: The Ghost of Christmas Past.
Semi-retired private detective Molly Murphy Sullivan is suffering from depression after a miscarriage following her adventure in San Francisco during the earthquake of 1906. She and her husband, Daniel, are invited for Christmas at a mansion on the Hudson, and they gratefully accept, expecting a peaceful and relaxing holiday season. Not long after they arrive, however, they start to feel the tension in the house's atmosphere. Then they learn that the host couple's young daughter wandered out into the snow ten years ago and was never seen again.
Molly can identify with the mother's pain at never knowing what happened to her child and wants to help, but there is so little to go on. No ransom note. No body ever found. But Molly slowly begins to suspect that the occupants of the house know more than they are letting on. Then, on Christmas Eve, there is a knock at the door and a young girl stands there. "I'm Charlotte," she says. "I've come home."
I must start by admitting there is a very special place in my heart for the historical mystery novels of author Janet Quin-Harkin writing using the pen name of Rhys Bowen. First there was her Constable Evan Evans series beginning in 1999 followed by her Molly Murphy series beginning in 2001of which this novel is the 17th then followed by Her Royal Spyness series with the 12th novel to be published next summer and finally this year's possible standalone WWII novel In Farleigh Field. The lady is 76 years old and she continues to prolifically write wonderful historical mystery novels.
The Molly Murphy series starts with Molly being a very young private detective in Great Britain. The early novels were light and fun, but then she moves to the US and gets married to policeman Daniel Sullivan and has a son. Then she and her family are caught in the San Francisco earthquake in a harrowing experience. The Ghost of Christmas Past finds Molly and their two year old son in New York with her husband just returning from a brief assignment with the federal government in Washington DC to hopefully his police captains job in New York. The year is likely 1908, but the novel does not make the year clear. Molly is deeply depressed grieving a miscarriage and it is the Christmas season. The Sullivan family along with their Irish governess are invited to spend the holiday with a wealthy family outside NYC. This novel is not so much about Christmas as about a complex web of criminal issues related to the family they are visiting for the holiday. Molly Murphy Sullivan quickly adapts to her detective self and works toward resolving the issues helping her overcome her grieving.
Rhys Bowen packs a lot of action and complexity into this shorter than usual 7 hour audio novel. As always with this series British voice over actress Nicola Barber narrates superbly. All of Bowen's series have different narrators and all are great, but Her Royal Spyness narrator Katherine Kellgren is my favorite.
Each novel and each short story in her series are standalone, but to fully appreciate one of her series read the novels in order.
14 of 14 people found this review helpful
Rhys Bowen writes a more upbeat story with this book than some of her other recent works. Some of her other Molly Murphy mysteries are too upsetting and disturbing. This one has the vibrant Molly and her family and friends without too much angst. It was more enjoyable to read.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
the story is only 7 hours long. I it was good and the narration was excellent . but I feel cheated. I like a more in-depth mystery and antagonist development.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
always enjoy these stories about Molly and her adventures...and the narration is excellent! Also adds to the enjoyment..Looking forward to the book..
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2 of 2 people found this review helpful
A cute, satisfying, entertaining chapter in the life of Molly Murphy.
Looking forward to more.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Loved it! Perfect Christmas read that focuses more on the a satisfying mystery rather than the Sullivans. Please keep more Molly Murphy series booking coming.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
What made the experience of listening to The Ghost of Christmas Past the most enjoyable?
I enjoy her characters and their ongoing stories. Great setting for story and description of New York City area in late 1800’s early 1900’s. The reader did a great job making the story a pleasant hearing experience.
Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?
Plot kept me guessing until end. Like layers of an onion peeling away one detail at a time until the final reveal.
What does Nicola Barber bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
I listened to the story while driving so the narration is important to keep me interested. Her voice and inflections in reading add an element to the story that I would not get by just reading.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
No I enjoyed the book overall.
Much better then the first books, she works more with her husband. The books keep getting better.
Great author - Great narrator - Great series
The story was engaging and fun to listen to.
Can't wait for the next book.
Not the typical modern mystery. No bad language or sex or violence (graphic content). I don't want to be more specific on the 'cleanliness' of the content or else I risk spoiling the book.