Customer Reviews

Shrouds of Holly : a Special Pennyfoot Hotel Mystery / Kate Kingsbury

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

 

 

Cecily Sinclair Baxter returns in Shrouds of Holly to solve another murder. Her previous Pennyfoot Hotel Mysteries are No Clue at the Inn and Slay Bells.

It's Christmas and Cecily and her employees are decorating the Pennyfoot ballroom for a festive Christmas reception. With a staff shortage (primarily due to illness) Baxter, Cecily's husband, has reluctantly accompanied Samuel, the stable manager, to collect fresh boughs of holly to complete the decorations.

While Mrs. Chubb, the Pennyfoot housekeeper, was out collecting eggs, the sleigh returned with a dead body (Gavin Hargrove) but minus Baxter and Samuel.

Samuel turns up with a head injury and his only memory is of bending over Baxter's body. Is Baxter badly injured or is he dead? The only thing known for sure is that he has disappeared.

With Baxter missing, the stable manager injured and a dead body outside her establishment, Cecily is determined to investigate. It's important to find the murderer but it's more important to find her husband.

The deceased Gavin Hargrove seems to have had some enemies. He owed money to a London syndicate for gambling debts. His fiancée doesn't seem very upset over his death. What's that about? And his brother is dependent on Gavin's goodwill. With Gavin dead, he inherits his father's wealth.

It's going to be a difficult task to find the murderer since the police think they know who killed Gavin but Cecily is not giving up. Her husband's life may depend on it.

Kingsbury's historical Christmas novels are set in England and are delightful cozy mysteries. I love the laid back feel of the books. They are satisfying plots that keep you turning the page.

FYI: Kate Kingsbury is Doreen Robert's pen name.

Armchair Interviews says: For a good Christmas murder, Shrouds of Holly is a winner.

Kate Kingsbury is one of my very favorite cozy mystery authors. Shrouds of Holly finds Baxter and Samuel out in the woods looking for holly to help finish the decorating for the Christmas parties to take place at the Pennyfoot. They fail to return, but the horse and cart return with a dead body in it. Samuel finally shows up but the search for poor Baxter leads to alot of sinister activity with the family of the deceased.

I always get caught up in her writing and the characters are so familiar and entertaining. If you love the English countryside with some mystery thrown in and entertaining and lovable characters - you'll love this charming Christmas read.

Nice series to read during the holidays. No deep thinking necessary. A bit repetitive, but likeable central charactors. Perhaps sometime the author will change the familiar setting and see how the heroine solves a mystery away from her home.

Have read and loved EVERY ONE of the series....am hoping there will be more. I felt like I lived there and knew each character personally and became attached to them. The stories moved fasr with no lulls and never any repeat situations from story to story.

In Badgers End, England Pennyfoot Hotel proprietor Cecily Sinclair Baxter praises Madeline Pengrath for decorating the ballroom for the upcoming Christmas holiday. To complete the décor, Cecily's husband and stable master Samuel went to the nearby woods to gather holly.

However one of the horses returns too quickly without either man. Instead inside the trap to contain the holly is a dead stranger; Mr. Baxter and Samuel failed to come home. Cecily sends for Constable Northcott. However, when he makes no progress on the case, a frustrated, worried and determined Cecily begins her own inquiry into what happened to her spouse and stable master, and who killed the man in the trap.

SHROUDS OF HOLLY is a delightful Edwardian whodunit starring an intrepid heroine who turns investigator out of fear for her husband as she believes the constable fails to understand time is running out. Fans of the series will enjoy this fun to read historical holiday cozy as the latest Pennyfoot Hotel mystery (see SLAY BELLS and NO CLUE AT THE INN) cleverly uses stereotypes of Pre WWI English to round out the entertaining amateur sleuth mystery.

Harriet Klausner

From the decorations and the maids scurrying through the ballroom to the orchestra tuning up and the guests arriving. Her settings really put you there. But then isn't that the idea. ;-) The mystery doesn't disappoint either. Enjoy!

This was my first book by this author. While her style of writing flows and is easily read I found most of the characters very flat. Fortescue was the most entertaining personality. I would prefer to get to know the characters at the beginning of the book instead of in the last 50 pages. The story went right into the light mystery which seemed awfully repetitive. Honestly I just wanted to get to the last page and get onto something else.

While the writing style was ok, though not exactly my style, the plot fell apart when examined closely. SPOILERS *** For example, why was the victim's ex fiance living alone in a house with the victim's cousin? That's not really how they did things back then and even in modern times would be strange - and back then servants did not count as chaperones. And why did the author make the gardener so ridiculously creepy? In fact she made everyone who lived in the mansion act ridiculously suspicious, which once you know who the actual killer was makes no sense. Overkill on the plot distraction, in my opinion, which is all it was. And most of all, why would the murderer attack Baxter and companion in the first place, when they found the body, when obviously he had left the body there to be found! If they had found the incriminating jewelry, ok, then attack them, but as far as I could tell they weren't exactly combing the woods for evidence in the middle of a snow storm were they? And the gypsies rescued him but wouldn't let him leave on a sprained ankle because they didn't want to be suspected? Ok? Doesn't make much sense to me. The whole plot hinges on everyone involved acting ridiculously and I just couldn't get into the story because it was all sooooo contrived.

Truly one of the worse "murder" mysteries I have ever read. The setting in England is bogus to say the best and the author has no idea of the era or location of her book. This is so sadly written by an American without a clue about England, the era of the book and I was so disappointed in the plot. I am not English (for Americans who wish to complain) but this is laughable. The author should think about setting her novels in America where she may have a hope of being believed.