Murder at an English Séance
Beryl & Edwina Mystery #8
By Jessica Ellicott
ISBN 9781496740168
Author’s website: jessicaellicott.com
Brought to you by OBS Reviewer Jeanie
Synopsis:
American adventuress Beryl Halliwell and prim and proper Brit Edwina Davenport team up once again as enquiry agents to investigate a suspicious psychic in this historical English village mystery set just after World War I.
Hidden beneath her British reserve, Edwina has a secret: she’s finished her novel and is bravely mailing the manuscript to a publisher. Beryl also has a secret: as thanks for solving a case, the American adventuress has been gifted an airplane. After swooping over the fields and hedgerows of Walmsley Parva, livestock scattering beneath her, she flamboyantly lands the plane on the village green, prompting a startled Edwina to consider a stiff gin fizz.
Beryl’s aircraft is not the only disruption of village peace. Miss Dinsdale, a psychic medium, has started holding séances. After the church organist resigns to serve as musical accompaniment for the séances, the vicar’s wife hires the enquiry agents to expose the medium as a charlatan. Beryl is confident she can spot the fraud, having learned from Harry Houdini himself some tricks of the trade. The dubious Miss Dinsdale claims her spirit guide is an Egyptian princess whose mummy resides in a sarcophagus in the room. But the only body in the sarcophagus belongs to a murdered villager impaled with a dagger.
As the sleuths begin to investigate, Beryl discovers her plane has been sabotaged and wonders if there’s a connection. Whether in the air or on terra firma, Beryl and Edwina must go round a circle of suspects to divine the culprit . . . (from Amazon)
Review:
Edwina and Beryl’s new mystery is set in their small English village of Walmsley Parma. Both the mysteries and the historical aspects of life after the worldwide epidemic and WWI fascinated me. Personal enquiry agents Edwina and Beryl have a new case, and it is a doozy! It includes a psychic medium, an amazing gift to Beryl and Edwina, and how the local vicar and residents of this close-knit village react to the medium, Maude, and her brother, Arthur.
Edwina met Maude the day she courageously went to mail her manuscript. She worked long and hard on her novel, and doesn’t want her housemates and closest friends to know she sent it to a publisher. The postmistress is a notorious gossip, so she fervently hopes for Prudence’s silence. When she stopped for a cup of tea, Maude had arrived moments earlier and invited Edwina to sit with her. She revealed that she is a psychic, and Edwina responded politely but made no commitment to attend a séance.
Edwina was walking home when an airplane flew overhead, loud enough that everyone looked to see who was flying it. Beryl! Out of gratitude for saving a client’s company, he purchased an airplane for them! He knew Beryl loved to fly. Personal airplanes were not enclosed, so he even purchased special helmets for them. Edwina was horrified and wouldn’t talk about it. She knew that every time Beryl would fly somewhere, she would worry until Beryl returned safely. Beryl didn’t think Edwina would be this upset! I think I would be with Edwina on it, Golden Age of Aviation or not!
Murial, the vicar’s wife, hired Edwina and Beryl. At church the night before, Hazel, the organist, announced that she was playing the piano for Maude at her séances. The vicar was very upset, having already advised parishioners to stay away from séances. He gave Hazel a choice of playing at church, or playing for Maude. Fascinated by séances, she chose to play for Maude, and told him she would leave the church. Murial wanted them to prove the “psychic” was a fraud so Hazel would return.
A couple days later, Hazel was dead. She had been stabbed and stuffed inside the sarcophagus that was used to hold the “mummy” of Maude’s “spirit guide”, the Egyptian priestess Rosanna.
Beryl and Edwina were not hired to find who killed Hazel, but the constable, for the first time, welcomed their assistance. Arthur and Maude went to see Charles, the only local attorney and Edwina’s long-time close friend. They wanted to know when Hazel’s will would be read, as she told them they would inherit her estate, but he had not prepared her will.
This was an extremely busy novel! Charles was called out of town to pick up the newly orphaned two-year-old son of his cousin, Polly. He had been named little Georgie’s guardian and knew nothing about children; the busy boy exhausted him. Edwina and Beryl invited Charles and Georgie to stay with them and they would help with the toddler.
Edwina and Beryl lived very different lives since meeting at their finishing school years ago. Edwina lived in the family home and helped her mother until she passed away, and still resides there. Beryl, considered the “American Adventuress”, has been all over the world. Archaeological digs, motorcar racing, even spying during the war are but a few of her feats. Beryl brought excitement to Edwina’s life since moving in less than a year ago. Beryl has been trying to get her dear friend to relax and enjoy life.
I enjoyed this captivating mystery immensely! The ladies searched diligently for suspects and asked questions. There were several possibilities, but all except one had a solid alibi. When the killer was identified, I was surprised as I had not seen a motive there. Edwina and Beryl made their discovery purely by accident, and I was so proud of them! I highly recommend this British cozy mystery, and am so looking forward to visiting Beryl and Edwina again!
