Faith, Fiction, Friends: "Murder by Candlelight" by Faith Martin

Thursday, January 18, 2024

"Murder by Candlelight" by Faith Martin

I’m a fam of the Faith Martin mysteries. I really liked the Ryder and Loveday mysteries (and keeping hoping for another), and I’ve been reading the DI Hillary Greene mysteries, with six or seven to go before I reach the end.

Murder by Candlelight is the first in a planned new series, and it’s different from the other series in at least three ways. It’s not a police procedural, and is considerably closer to the cozy mysteries of Agatha Christie. Second, it’s not set in Oxford or the Oxford area; instead, it’s the fictional town of Maybury-in-the-Marsh in the Cotswolds, a small town not unlike Miss Marple’s St. Mary Mead. And third, it’s not a contemporary story but a historical mystery, set in 1924.

I’m still trying to make up my mind about it.

Arbuthnot Lancelot Swift, mercifully known as Arbie, has published an unexpected bestseller, The Gentlemen’s Guide to Ghost-Hunting. It was done as something of a lark with his friend in publishing, and it was so successful that the publisher wants a second book. Arbie lives with his eccentric uncle, who reared him after the death of his parents. Martin should do more with this character of Uncle; he’s an absolute stitch in the story.

Faith Martin

Mrs. Phelps, one of the town’s best-known (and wealthiest) matrons, asks Arbie to investigate what seems to be a series of hauntings at her large home, Old Forge. He’s reluctant, as reluctant as he was to write a book in the first place and as reluctant as he is to do a sequel. But a school years friend, one of the vicar’s daughters named Valentina Olivia Charlotte Coulton-James, is keen to join him and rather bullies him into determining whether (she bullied him when they were school chums as well).

A few days later, Mrs. Phelps dies in her locked bedroom. What looks like a natural death is found to be cyanide poisoning. As the police investigate, Arbie and Val decide they owe to Mrs. Phelps to investigate as well. And it will be Arbie who eventually solves the crime.

The story has all the elements of a fun book and the start of an entertaining series – creative characters, a good story line, a locked room puzzle, and vivid minor characters (like that uncle). But I struggled with it, and I’m not sure why. But this is a Faith Martin story, and for now I’ll give the benefit of the doubt and describe my reaction as my own problem. And I’m looking forward to the next installment with Arbie, Val, and Arbie’s wonderful uncle.

In addition to the DI Hillary Greene novels, Martin (a pen name for Jacquie Walton) has also published the Ryder and Loveday novels as well as the Jenny Sterling mysteries. Under the name Joyce Cato, she has published several non-series detective stories. Both Cato and Martin are also pen names for Walton. (Walton has another pen name as well – Maxine Barry, under which she wrote 14 romance novels.) A native of Oxford, she lives in a village in Oxfordshire.