Dire darkness descends upon Castle Linley in A Haunting at Linley by award-winning author Michelle Cox. Lord Linley is dead, black blankets and sashes cover windows, mirrors, and all sources of light. Mourning overtakes all—well, almost all.
Henrietta and her husband, Inspector Clive Howard, return to England and the estate. They come to offer comfort, but quickly discover the family needs much more help than anticipated.
Lord Linley’s death is only the first.
Another death follows, and it’s clearly murder. The killer remains a threat among the estate’s residents and guests, who witness yet more extraordinary and concerning activities.
Henrietta and Clive find Lady Linley beside herself with grief. Her son Wallace shows patience with his mother but has his hands full with his own emotions and the practical concerns of the estate. A fast-evolving financial crisis due to pending taxes and other complications demands immediate action. After all, Wallace is now Lord Linley.
Henrietta and Clive help where they can. Wallace decides to quickly put the estate, or at the very least parts of the estate, up for sale. He presses on despite great resistance from his mother and other people involved.
A local realtor arrives to show the home to a potential buyer, but the sale is called off when the agent is found poisoned. Everyone at the estate becomes suspects. A local inspector begins questioning them, but, with Clive’s own background as an inspector and the investigations he and Henrietta have conducted, the duo grow concerned that the local police may be inept. To solve the murder, they have to open their own investigation.
The family, guests, and staff at Castle Linley all have their own distinct and compelling motives to uncover.
As Clive and Henrietta explore different possibilities and question the suspects, they run into personal danger. The haunting of the castle adds a further eerie dimension to the facts of the case, as Lady Linley is certain the culprit must be the spirit of a maid who had been hanged.
In the meantime, other family members outside England are left to manage crises of their own. Elsie and Gunther are living peacefully on a farm in Omaha, meeting life’s struggles head on. Then Elsie is stunned to find Oldrich Exely at their door one day. He has an idea for a specific course of action Elsie must take to change her life, and he is determined to make her comply. Julia struggles with terrible marital issues. Melody is plunged into mischief and can’t find her way out. The historical setting of the 1930’s is well presented across this variety of locales.
The award-winning duo of Henrietta and Inspector Howard continues with a complex new puzzler in this seventh book of the series.
A Haunting at Linley maintains the cozy, suspenseful plotting. It’s filled with interesting clues that invites readers to try to solve the mystery alongside the investigators.
Each character remains consistent in personality throughout the series and is fascinating to follow and analyze as their character continue to develop throughout each book. An abundant array of suspects are on display for the reader to scrutinize their actions, motivations, and secrets. As the suspense builds on every page, the apparent paranormal incidents will keep you wondering who or what has taken up A Haunting at Linley.
Brooding Château du Freudeneck, just outside Strasbourg, France has villains in the drawing rooms, stolen art hidden in the cellars, and bats in the belfry – all the best elements for a 19th-century Gothic mystery.
