| Title | : | Murder in the Manor (A Lacey Doyle Cozy Mystery #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 236 |
| Publication | : | First published October 15, 2019 |
Lacey Doyle, 39 years old and freshly divorced, needs a drastic change. She needs to quit her job, leave her horrendous boss and New York City, and walk away from the fast life. Making good on her childhood promise to herself, she decides to walk away from it all, and to relive a beloved childhood vacation in the quaint English seaside town of Wilfordshire.
Wilfordshire is exactly as Lacey remembers it, with its ageless architecture, cobblestone streets, and with nature at its doorstep. Lacey doesn’t want to go back home—and spontaneously, she decides to stay, and to give her childhood dream a try: she will open her own antique shop.
Lacey finally feels that her life is taking a step in the right direction—until her new star customer turns up dead.
As the newcomer in town, all eyes are on Lacey, and it’s up to her to clear her own name.
With a business to run, a next-door neighbor turned nemesis, a flirty baker across the street, and a crime to solve – is this new life all that Lacey thought it would be?
Murder in the Manor (A Lacey Doyle Cozy Mystery #1) Reviews
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Lacey, 39 Jahre alt und frisch geschieden, krempelt ihr Leben um. Sie kündigt ihren Job, zieht von New York in ein kleines englischen Küstenstädtchen, das sie von ihrer Kindheit kennt. Dort kauft sie einen leerstehenden Laden und eröffnet ein Antiquitätengeschäft. Sie findet Freunde, einen Hund und hat natürlich einen gut aussehenden Nachbarn.
Es wirkt alles etwas unglaubwürdig, denn das Auswandern, das Beantragen des Visums, Wohnung finden, ganz spontan ein Geschäft eröffnen... alles gelingt sofort, problemlos, und dabei ist nichts davon geplant gewesen. Das läuft mir ein bisschen zu glatt, selbst für einen Cosy-Crime. :)
Die Krimihandlung hat mir recht gut gefallen, mit der Auflösung hatte ich allerdings ein paar Probleme.
Was mich aber wirklich gestört hat, ist die Sprecherin des Hörbuchs. Ich habe das Buch gehört, vorgelesen von Veronica Summer. Es wurde nicht oder falsch betont, kurz, abgehackt, lieblos vorgelesen. Das hat keinen Spaß gemacht.
Vielleicht lese ich das Buch noch einmal selbst. Mag sein, dass es dann ganz anders bei mir ankommt.
Ich werde den zweiten Band sicher auch lesen, denn eigentlich mochte ich die Geschichte, auch wenn es noch ein bisschen Luft nach oben gibt. Aber es scheint ein Geheimnis um Laceys Vater zu geben, und das hat mich doch neugierig gemacht auf die Fortsetzung. :) -
Look, I don't have a problem with cozy mysteries skirting reality a little, but this is bonkers. This is the most poorly researched book I think I've ever read -- like, I'm impressed by how incredibly wrong it managed to be on such a huge variety of topics, including but not limited to: immigration to the UK, what a town is (shires are counties, yo), stove models, antique clocks, dog adoption, small businesses, pastry, Americanisms, the English legal system in entirety, what kind of salary literally anyone makes at any job anywhere, and how long any given task would take to complete (getting a work visa, cleaning a years-empty abandoned seaside cottage, opening a business, packing up and transporting AN ENTIRE ESTATE'S WORTH OF ANTIQUES, etc.). It's mind boggling.
The characters are rice paper thin, the writing is slapdash, the dialogue sounds like subpar Hallmark movie fanfiction, and the plot is nonsensical and totally dependent on ridiculous leaps of "logic" that are such a stretch, they could qualify as yoga poses.
I wanted to like this book. I finished this book. I don't get a thrill out of being a super critical jerk. There's the seed of a good story here, but this execution is more than bungling, it's straight up sloppy. -
Warning: Contains Spoilers
Saccharine and absolutely ridiculous. The plot was so incredibly stupid and contrived, I DNF'd this at 40%. Below are a few events from the book, but read until you get to the kicker.
• Lacy signs her divorce papers one morning, leaves from work without going home, and flies to England that same afternoon. Apparently, she keeps her passport pretty handy.
• Lacey makes no inquiries or arrangements for transportation or accommodations for when she arrives.
• Despite hotels all being full, Lacey lucks into a lovely, two-story seaside cottage "like something from a fairy tale" right after arriving for less than $20 per night.
• Lacey meets a gorgeous man the day after her arrival (and divorce) who just so happens to be straight and single, and they experience instalove/instalust. He has green eyes, of course, because cliched romantic heroes always have rare green eyes, even though only 2% of the actual population has them.
• Also on her second day, Lacey walks by an empty store, walks in, and decides to rent it to open an antiques shop. She has no prior experience as a business owner, but thinks she'll be fine because her father owned an antiques shop when she was 7 years old, before he abruptly abandoned his family.
• Despite having arrived in a foreign country on a visitor's visa, Lacey is somehow able to get the paperwork for a foreigner to not only stay longer than intended, but all the necessary paperwork and permits to open a freaking business in a matter of days.
• Lacey walks into a clothing boutique and within just a few minutes is able to find the perfect outfit, buy said outfit in multiple colors, and meet her soon-to-be arch enemy, the boutique owner.
• Lacey becomes instant friends with her new neighbor. This is fortunate, since within the first week of opening her new business, Lacey will be too upset to work and her elderly neighbor will, of course, run the shop for her.
• Lacey buys a used car one morning and is immediately off to London in it. The car purchase warrants an entire sentence... don't we all wish buying a car only took a few minutes and was this simple?
• Lacey goes back and forth to London with her new bestie/neighbor to buy merchandise for her new store and stocks the entire store so it's so beautiful that is looks like it belongs on the "center page spread of an interior design magazine."
• Lacey opens her antiques store for business and begins making sales right away.
• A stray collie - beautiful and "highly intelligent" - wanders into Lacey shop and after finding the owners are deceased, she of course adopts it.
• Lacey is approached by the owner of the estate around which the village was founded to evaluate the manor's antiques. Lacey agrees to do this even though she has no experience evaluating antiques.
• Lacey discovers a dead body.
• Lacey decides to play Nancy Drew to find the murderer.
Ready for the kicker? All of the above events OCCUR IN A SINGLE WEEK. Yep, divorce, flight to England, cottage rental, instalove, renting a store, changing visa, filing paperwork to open a business in a foreign country, getting all the paperwork approved, finding a best friend, buying a used car, cleaning and stocking the entire store, opening a store, adopting a dog, finding a dead body.... ONE WEEK.
It's often irritating when simpletons decide to play detective (because they're so much better at solving crimes than the authorities), but this was beyond ridiculous. I am truly mind-boggled that not only did people finish reading this, but that it has such high reviews. -
I read it completely, but got tired of it way before the end !
The beginning is rather nice : a woman left by her husband because she doesn't want children, she moves to England to a coastal village she remembers visiting as a child, rents a house, opens an antique shop - she can afford it, of course... And of course, the baker just in front of her shop is a tall, dark, green-eyed handsome guy who immediately likes her and is absolutely flawless.
But then the murder happens and everything turns sour : it's a cozy mystery, so I don't especially expect much in the character construction department, but the characters in there ? Lacey had stupid reactions, made stupid decisions. People who hated her one minute suddenly become her BFFs when you turn the page. A rich lady dies so - of course - her sons and daughter, those greedy bas... hem, I mean heirs, fight over the inheritance. And let's not talk about the bitch shop owner next door.
I disliked all these people, I disliked reading about them, Lacey's "friends" are so cliché, the others characters are so cliché, their actions are so cliché, the plot is not really interesting. What interested me most is what happened to Lacey's father, but am I willing to read the next book ? Nah. I won't lose sleep over it and thankfully, this book was a freebie.
PS : Lacey in the first book turns into "Ella Rose" in the others ? Nah, I'm not even tempted to find out why. -
Um...wow. I found this one for free on Google Play (surely some mistake, since it's $20+ on Audible) and wanted to test out the GP audio app, and I feel like I've accidentally fallen into a very dirty part of the publishing pool (see my conclusion).
It's not just the story--that in itself is worthy of much headbanging, and indeed has been thoroughly dissected by other reviewers. Lacey gets divorced, immediately flies to England to see the seaside town where she had happy memories with her Dad, and within like two days is fitted out with a cozy cottage, an antiques business, A RESIDENT VISA (my husband is American and I don't even want to get started on how difficult it is to immigrate into the UK but Lacey just makes a phone call and voilà!), a dog (useful for the plot) and an attractive man who has the hots for her AND can cook. She then gets involved in a fairly bonkers plot whereby an old lady immediately trusts her to auction the contents of her manor (which is full of priceless Victorian ottomans, the author apparently unaware that the bottom has fallen out of the antiques market unless it is rusty shabby chic junk) and is then found dead, to the benefit of some entirely obvious suspects.
No, what REALLY got me about this audiobook was the narrator's delivery. Please, please, go listen to a sample and then try to imagine listening to that for nearly eight hours. And I actually did, because I kind of wanted to see how bad it got. Toward the end the narrator started fluffing lines and doing re-tries, which is fine (happens in audio narration) but she didn't bother to edit them out and the author apparently didn't bother to check. At one point the narrator went back a few pages and inserted an earlier bit . . . and her attempts at accents (especially English, and the book is set in England) were indescribable. I found myself constantly wondering what nationality "Mary Sarah" is, but one thing I'm pretty sure about is that "Mary Sarah" is no more a real person than "Fiona Grace".* I did actually think at one point that this might be AI narration, but a computer would have done a better job.
*Update: she does appear to be a real narrator with an acting background, and has narrated a lot of books. So the audiobook quality remains a mystery.
The conclusion I'm rapidly coming to is that "Fiona Grace" is a write-for-hire hack (or several hacks) that someone is packaging up to fool cozy mystery readers into buying the books. There's a website and all . . . the books only started appearing in 2019 and suddenly there are a whole load of them, translated into several languages as well, and in audio to boot. You won't find a picture of the author anywhere. Review and ratings patterns are a bit suspect. It all points to a pulp fiction factory--not illegal or unusual in itself, but pretty irritating for indie authors who care about delivering a good book to readers. Avoid. -
The best thing about this book is the dog. The main part of the storyline as set in the UK isn't particularly credible, the people are two dimensional, and the plot is thin at best. I can't judge the opening chapters set in New York, having no experience of the place. I presume the author is American, since the author's about information doesn't say, but the spelling and language indicates a US background, which probably explains the plot weakness, as I cannot imagine many British authors writing such an implausible story set in the UK. The lead character seems to have two names, depending on which version of the book you read, books 2 onward being firmly in the Lacey Doyle camp, except for the write up on book 2 at the end of book 1 where Lacey is referred to as Ella. (This series is also referred to as the Ella Rose series on the author's website.) Continuity isn't just relevant on screens, it also matters in print, and such details will spoil a book/series. I've also flagged up a raft of errors via the Kindle report an error option for review, in the hope the author may pick them up and improve things. All I can honestly say is that I read this as an Amazon freebie but would not pay for it or its sequels.
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Do not bother with this one. Really bad, and bad modelling and advice for anyone who is alive. She gives over paying alimony without a whimper, takes a leave on her job with no notice when there's a good chance her boss will fire her; flies to England with no luggage. Negotiates up the price of a rental cottage, and leases the premises of a business with no visa entitling her to work in England. In less than 24 hours. That was when I stopped reading.
Dear reader, read all contracts before signing. Don't pay alimony to your ex and then jeopardize your job. Don't fly to a foreign country and jump into things when you are grieving.
I stopped reading because I couldn't care less about this flimsy, underdeveloped character. And I hate that since its a cozy mystery it will probably turn up roses for her. -
Terrible - Could Not Finish - 0 Stars
The mistakes in this title are cringe worthy. In the first couple of pages, Lacey receives divorce papers, ’The words David Doyle vs Lacey Doyle stared up at her.’. A few paragraphs on, ’I’ll have to change my name ... Return to my maiden name. Lacey Fay Bishop was no more. Erased. That name belonged to David Bishop‘s wife ... She’d become Lacey Fay Doyle once again.’ And as evidenced by other readers’ reviews, this is just the beginning. Enough said. -
A most intriguing mystery
I loved reading your book, Murder in the Manor, and would love to follow up with the next two in your series but feel manipulated by the the not so subtle increase in cost for each subsequent book. I cannot afford to continue reading at the higher price, much as I would love to. Thank you and I'm sorry. -
I got his ebook free from Barnes and Noble. It is worth exactly what I paid for it. This is a truly awful book. 1/2 stars, maybe. Lacey Doyle has been served with divorce papers from her husband who left her because, at age 39 and 15 years of marriage, she does not want to have children. She is an associate at a design firm where she is worked mercilessly by her demanding boss. So, she is depressed and is reassessing her life. Her last happy memory is a family vacation to England when she was 7, just before her dad left the family never to be heard of again. On a whim she drops her job, her life in New York, boards a plane without luggage, and off she goes to the seaside town she has romanticized from childhood. That’s the best part of the book. It is all downhill from there. The author wants you to believe that she finds a quaint place to live, applies for and receives a work visa after impulsively renting a store space. She travels around England buying antiques to fill the store. She develops an instant relationship with the hunky bakery owner. She makes an enemy of the boutique owner next door. She gets hired to assess the value of all the contents of a wealthy woman’s manor home. The woman tells Lacey that she trusts her because (dramatic pause) - she looks just like her dad. Before the old lady can tell her how she knows Lacey’s dad, she is murdered. Instantly the mean cop and everyone in town thinks Lacey did it, so she turns sleuth to save herself. She hosts an auction in spite of the woman’s horrible adult children. ALL this apparently happens in a matter of weeks. There is no sense that time has passed. After all, mister hunky baker doesn’t even kiss her until the last chapter. Unbelievable is all I can say. I am supposed to be enticed to find out more about her dad in coming books. Not bloody likely.
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I listened to the audio book. The narration is comical. Not sure if she was trying to be sexy or mysterious or what.
Premise was good. I hope her style and technic improve in future books. -
The Mystery of the Detective's Identity
Fiona Grace has written a wonderful cosy, but the name of the sleuth is in question. From Grace come two almost identical stories with the same title but differently named detectives: Ella Rose and Lacey Doyle. I read the story that revolved around Lacey Doyle, but I'm "cut and pasting" my comments to both just on the off-chance that one day the two versions are combined. I don't want my pleasure with this book to go unrecorded!
The Review
While I read the Lacey Doyle story, I see there are more comments written about the Ella Rose one. Some of those reviews seem a shade harsh and I wonder if there were major revisions made between the two versions. Regardless, the story I read was one of those types that makes you wish you had lived the life of the character. Her husband serves her with divorce papers and she realizes that she needs a change of scenery and immediately takes time off from her unsatisfying job and leaves New York for a seaside town she had vacationed in with her parents years before. Despite having not planned, she manages to snag the last accommodation available during Easter break. A further piece of luck drops an antique business into her lap and she's set up for a new life. Freed from all the trappings of her previous situation, everything looks golden until her first major client is murdered and she becomes the suspect. The rest of the novel is rather unsurprising but is told in a delightful way and wraps up at the end of the book leaving the reader free to decide whether or not to continue with the series. I love a stand-alone especially in this era of self-publishing where story arcs are common. There is a plot that will be continued in the next book (presumably) but it is a subplot and not essential to complete the story. The subplot is, however, fascinating and I will be continuing this series just to see its eventual resolution. -
Very enjoyable, clean and engaging novel. I love the dog. Recommended for “slowin’ up” kinda times since my life doesn’t seem to have a hand brake. The plot is exciting with twists but no sex, profanity, or gore and not a cliffhanger. Yeah!!
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I don't read that many cosy mystery books. This is my first by the author. I noted a few editing errors and some plot weaknesses but overall a good read.
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The first book in The Lacey Doyle Mystery series takes us to a seaside village in England. I enjoyed this book as I am always on the hunt for a good cozy mystery series. Fiona Grace does a wonderful job creating vivid atmosphere and interesting characters finding themselves in "unique" situations.
Lacey is an a recently divorced American who takes a impromptu trip to merry old England to "get away from it all" and soon finds herself caught up in the charm of the coastal village, Wilfordshire. She decides to plant new roots and make the trip permanent running an antique shop and it's not too soon until a dead body pops up and she is the prime suspect. Oh no, what will happen?!
This book has all the necessary components of a great cozy. A good start to a series I will continue to read with a likable cast. I really like the idea of Lacey the American pulling up roots and starting over in a new country. She's smart and not a flake which is much appreciated.
The only caveat I have is the audiobook narration. The narrator is British which is fantastic because who doesn't love a British accent? However, the narrator made no distinction between the British characters accents and Lacey's American accent. It throws you off a little if you listen to the audiobook. I kept forgetting that Lacey is American. -
The Mystery of the Detective's Identity
Fiona Grace has written a wonderful cosy, but the name of the sleuth is in question. From Grace come two almost identical stories with the same title but differently named detectives: Ella Rose and Lacey Doyle. I read the story that revolved around Lacey Doyle, but I'm "cut and pasting" my comments to both just on the off-chance that one day the two versions are combined. I don't want my pleasure with this book to go unrecorded!
The Review
While I read the Lacey Doyle story, I see there are more comments written about the Ella Rose one. Some of those reviews seem a shade harsh and I wonder if there were major revisions made between the two versions. Regardless, the story I read was one of those types that makes you wish you had lived the life of the character. Her husband serves her with divorce papers and she realizes that she needs a change of scenery and immediately takes time off from her unsatisfying job and leaves New York for a seaside town she had vacationed in with her parents years before. Despite having not planned, she manages to snag the last accommodation available during Easter break. A further piece of luck drops an antique business into her lap and she's set up for a new life. Freed from all the trappings of her previous situation, everything looks golden until her first major client is murdered and she becomes the suspect. The rest of the novel is rather unsurprising but is told in a delightful way and wraps up at the end of the book leaving the reader free to decide whether or not to continue with the series. I love a stand-alone especially in this era of self-publishing where story arcs are common. There is a plot that will be continued in the next book (presumably) but it is a subplot and not essential to complete the story. The subplot is, however, fascinating and I will be continuing this series just to see its eventual resolution. -
Book 1. On a whim Lacey decides to go to a place in England where her family had gone when she young. That is when dad left and her and her sis never saw him again. She just got the divorce papers signed from her obnoxious hubby. Her mom and younger sister thought she was going Looney when she told them that she was in England ( they and her lived in New York) she then some nice people. She was trying to find somewhere to stay. But everyone was booked for Easter. A man Ivan at a bar told her about a cottage she could rent but he said it needs major fixing she took it and she loved it. She went to look at different shops. In one shop she found a handsome man Tom and he seemed taken by her and she him. Then she found an abandoned shop the door was unlocked so she went inside. Her memories took over as she smelled a scent that her father had in his Antique Shop. A man Steven was scrutinising her for being there but she told him about her dad. Then he felt sympathetic to her and told her the tenants left without any of the money they should have him. As it turned out she rented the shop for it to be a Antique and Auction. Her family really thought she was bonkers then. Anyway a woman Taryin a boutique shop owner was very harsh to Lacey while she got some new clothes to wear for her shop openings. Lacey thought she sure looked like her an evil twin. Well anyways some woman Iris came to her shop and asked her to price some aniques she had and she mentioned her father. Lacey was stunned that the woman knew him. Now the woman is dead. She the only suspect so the residents decided to make her not wanted in their town. I really like this book. So I will be reading more
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After receiving notice that her divorce is final, Lacey Doyle is ready to make major changes in her life. For one thing, she hates her boss and quits her job. She then decides New York City is no longer the place she wants to be. She takes the first plane to England to the small down she visited with her father when she was a child.
The small town of Wilfordshire is right where Lacey wants to be. On a whim, she buys an antique shop and settles into her new life. Being a newcomer in a small town isn’t easy and people aren’t very welcoming. They are even less welcoming when her new customer ends up dead. All eyes and fingers point to Lacey as the culprit.
To save her reputation, business and her freedom, Lacey is determined to find the real killer.
This is the first book in a series. It’s fast-paced with interesting characters. The premise of someone just leaving their worries behind and starting over in a new country is a bit unrealistic, but I like escapism in my reading. So, I liked that someone could do something most of us have wanted to do at one point or another. Lacey does it all quite successfully.
The characters are well written and I’m looking forward to seeing them more developed in future books. The potential of a romance for Lacey is there, but the mystery is the important part of the book. There are several suspects and I was kept guessing until the end. I wasn’t completely shocked as the killer was one of the suspects on my list. I just didn’t know the hows and whys of it all.
I listened to this cozy mystery on audio. I’m hoping to listen to the next one on audio as well. The narrator did a good job, but the lead character is American so it was a bit jarring to have a British narrator. However, I did get used to it and liked the emotion she used in her narration.
Good start to the series. -
3.5
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I felt as if I was transported to a seaside town in England - the story was great, the characters kept me engaged and the real murder was almost a surprise, I bounced back and forth between 'who done it'. Well done.
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Lacey is newly divorced and needs a drastic change and decides to pack up and go back to the England village she and her sister traveled to with htheor dad before he passed. But Wilfordshire is same, it also in many ways different. Because she’s the newcomers all eyes are on her when she’s contacted by an older women who wants her to appraise some items in her home. But the next morning, the client is found dead and everyone thinks she did it. Not only that with her staying in England and buying a her own antique shop, she had to deal with the neighbor now nemesis, a cute and flirty baker across the street and trying to solve the murder of her client. I definitely had by eye on a few people, but realized as each layer was exposed I was thinking the completely different persona.
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Um cozy mystery bem clássico (um grande mistério envolvendo um assassinato, boas doses de romance, alguns toques de humor), sem elementos muito surpreendentes, mas que atinge o objetivo de ser uma leitura rápida e agradável, um bom passatempo. Esse é o primeiro de uma série de livros e realmente gostei dos personagens, então pretendo continuar acompanhando as aventuras de Lacey Doyle.
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Mrs Grace had a great idea, but unfortunately the execution of the story is a bit lacking.
Lacey Doyle, an American goes on an impromptu trip to the United Kingdom after her divorce is through. So far so good.
The story has all the ingredients one needs for a good whodunit: the niggling mother, the unsupportive selfish sister, the self-centered ex-husband, the nasty chef, the nice guy across the street, supportive new neighbors, nice landscape... food, a dog... the body...it is all there but it does not blend.
Mrs Grace wants too much. She starts with one idea... skedaddles to the next and the ways her figures behave are not really logical or consequential. She does a lot of 'tell' where the book could do with some nice 'show'.
It is a pity. Because this book could be so much more entertaining. -
Murder in the Manor (A Lacey Doyle Cozy Mystery, Book 1) by Fiona Grace
After her divorce Lacey Doyle feels she needs a big change. She quits her job, leaves new York and heads to Wilfordshire, England. She decides to take on a new business and begins to make friends. Then a Murder occurs and Lacey is determined to find out who committed the crime and if there is any connection to her.
A fast paced cozy murder mystery with a classic who-done-it feel. Lacey is very likable, she has some family "issues" but she is ready to tackle them. She also makes friends with a man who may become more than just a friend. Despite the murder, her move can be exactly what she needs. Overall I found
Murder in the Manor enjoyable and feel those who love a good murder mystery will like it as well. I look forward to to reading the next two books in this series. -
Lacey Doyle goes from a personal assistant to a rich, unlikable lady and a recent divorcee to England transplant. She goes to Wilfordshire England where she has memories of her father right before he left them. She decides that she loved the town and leases a building and starts an Antique Store like her father had had. She is quickly deep in a murder and the prime suspect. Tom the pastry chef across the street has become quite taken with her and helps prove her innocence.
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Lacey Doyle receives divorce papers and leaves New York and all behind to start fresh in Wilfordshire England where she opens an antique store. Unfortunately she finds herself having to clear her name of murder. This book is rather fast paced, has the right blend of characters and place, the right blend of emotions. It was just hard to put down and I hope to read the next book in the series.
