Customer Reviews

Mistletoe and Mayhem (A Special Pennyfoot Hotel Myst)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Cecily Sinclair Baxter loves just about everything involving Christmas - decorating the Pennyfoot, celebrating with family and friends, caroling, giving gifts, even her friend Phoebe's disastrous pantomimes. The one thing she doesn't like is that the Pennyfoot seems like a magnet for murder during the Christmas season. Cecily hopes this Christmas will be murder-free but her hopes are quickly dashed when a member of her staff is murdered. Even worse, more murders quickly follow and Cecily fears a serial killer is loose at the Pennyfoot. Cecily vows to stop the killer before Christmas is totally ruined.

Like Cecily, I love Christmas and part of my holiday ritual is reading the latest Christmas Pennyfoot Hotel mystery. "Mistletoe and Mayhem" is a delightful addition to that holiday tradition. All of the favorite characters are there: Cecily and her husband Baxter, Madeline Prestwick and her husband Kevin, Phoebe Fortescue and her husband Frederick, as well as the household staff - Gertie, Pansy, Mrs. Chubb, Michel, and Samuel. Visiting them feels like visiting old friends. While this is a cozy mystery, this entry is a tad "bloodier" (for lack of a better word because it's not really bloody or gory at all) than other entries in the series and the body count is higher than usual. The mystery is well written and plotted and there are more than a few surprises along the way (without giving anything away I loved the subplot involving one of the guests!) Readers will have a good time trying to figure out who the killer is and author Kate Kingsbury provides plenty of suspects. Kingsbury also gives lots of hint as to who the killer is but the identity of the killer may still surprise many readers as will the (sad) reason behind the murders.

Kingsbury says in her introduction to "Mistletoe and Mayhem" that she isn't sure there would be more Pennyfoot books and accordingly she wraps up several ongoing storylines from the series (mostly the romantic storylines) but ends the book on a bit of a cliffhanger. Fortunately, on her website and Facebook Kingsbury says she is writing another Pennyfoot book (yay!) and it will be interesting to see how she resolves the cliffhanger. In the meantime, enjoy this year's trip to the Pennyfoot.

It is the holiday season at the Pennyfoot Hotel in Badgern's End, England and this year the manager hopes to finally break the Christmas curse. Every year during the holiday season, proprietor Cecily Sinclair Baxter is involved in a murder case usually at the hotel. Cecily's husband Baxter prays for a quieter time because he worries about his wife investigating a homicide and has something on his mind that he needs to tell his spouse.

Alas, their hopes are dashed when the body of Charlie the footman is found in what looked initially as if an accident occurred when a gargoyle fell from the roof bashing in his head. However, they quickly realize a murder was committed. When Ellie the maid goes missing, another maid Pansy and stable hand Samuel find her body. Soon afterward, more homicides occur. Cecily investigates with the intention of uncovering the deadly culprit but she is ignorant to the fact the killer is observing her movements very closely.

The latest annual Special Pennyfoot Hotel Myst Series amateur sleuth (see Decked with Folly and Ringing in Murder) is a terrific holiday cozy that contains more than one mystery. Besides the murders, readers will want to know what is disturbing Baxter that he needs to inform Cecily of. The characters who many appeared in previous tales bring continuity to the Pennyfoot saga. Village life in Edwardian England provides a sense of time and place as Kate Kingsbury writes another entertaining yuletide whodunit.

Harriet Klausner

I have enjoyed all of the Pennyfoot Hotel series, especially the Christmas series.

The new book, Mistletoe and Mayhem, did not disappoint me at all. Kate Kingsbury

knows how to keep her readers attention at all times. It's nice to feel like you

are there at the Pennyfoot Hotel, she writes her books so well that you feel like

you are staying there and involved with the characters.

Thanks again for another GREAT book !!!!

Don't pass this one up - if you have never read the Pennyfoot Hotel books, I do

suggest you start at the beginning of the series as characters grow with each book

and you become entwined in their lives making each book that follows much easier

and nicer to read.

Mar


[...]

Wonderful cozy.
I took this book with me while on vacation in Aruba.
It was the perfect fit for me.
I was in a hot paradise, reading
a cozy wintry mystery.
The Pennyfoot series always delivers the goods.
I adore Cecily and Baxter,
the owners of the Inn in England.
Plus,the maids add a touch of humor to the mix.
Trouble is never far behind the girls.
Of course there is always a murder(s) to solve.
An enjoyable book to add to your TBR pile.

I read the book with so much pleasure. I like this series a lot and will give the other Pennufoot series a go as well. I hope that one day they will be translated intio my naitve tondgue, Dutch as I am sure many people here would love to read this. So if the editor is planning on translating... feel free to call me, as I am a translator...

The characters and the setting are interesting enough; however, the body count in proportion to the concern and lack of official criminal investigation is far beyond the suspension of disbelief. I can't imagine in either a real or fictional context that the guests of Pennyfoot Hotel would not have evacuated the premises following the discovery of a 4th murder. The attitude of the proprietor Cecily Baxter and her longsuffering husband, along with prominent employees, is simply too blase and too indifferent to danger to be credible.

I suppose mystery writers like Agatha Christie were masters of creating suspense and multiple homicides within a confined locale and shortened period of time, but the body count, in this instance, includes too high a ratio when compared to the numbers of characters introduced in this book. Additionally, the kidnapping of a clairvoyant's infant only compounded the lack of reasonableness. The disappearance served only as an unnecessary distraction.

The story was quaint enough, but in the end, it did not stimulate this reviewer to read any past or future writings of Ms. kingsbury.

I wouldn't necessarily rate this up there with some of Anne Perry's Victorian "Who Done Its," but it is enjoyable. I kind of guessed who it was before it was revealed, but not too soon. It was enjoyable, not too taxing. I don't love it enough to keep it and read it again next year around Christmas, but I do like it enough to pass on to someone else who enjoys these types of stories.

Kate Kingsbury has done it again. Another great Pennyfoot
novel with characters we have gotten to know personally.
An intriguing plot.

Another in a series of "Edwardian" mysteries set at the fictional Pennyfoot Hotel, Mistletoe and Mayhem fell well short of the mark. I don't know what bothered me the most about this book...whether it was the continual jumping about from character to character POV or whether it was the general lack of connect that I felt for any of the identifying players. The entire concept of "Christmas time" was lost from the beginning while the pile of bodies, lack of police interest regarding murder and the complete obtuseness of all the people involved was unbelievable to say the least.
With the history of this "hotel", not a single guest would ever set foot in the place. Cecily's poor husband Baxter is relegated to bit player, totally marginalized, while not a hint of romance exists between supposed man and wife. The lower class of servants and workers are stereotypes to say the least while Cecily's choice of "friends" is more than questionable. Just once I would like an author to have some characters who act with common sense. The addition of the "kidnapping" was just the last straw.
For a holiday themed mystery, it did not work for me. The only person in the entire book I gave a hang about was poor Baxter...and if I were him, I would have walked out on the lot of 'em long ago.

This used to be a regular cozy mystery series and I was sorry when the publisher decided to offer only an annual Christmas mystery. I wouldn't want to stay there since every Christmas there is at least one new dead body, but I look forward to the annual installment!