Amy Myers (1) (1938–)

Amy Myers has done it again. As she did in her very first Marsh & Daughter mystery, The Wickenham Murders, Myers keeps you guessing who the murderer could be.

As with all of the novels so far, in Murder and the Golden Goblet, a murder from the past seems connected to one in the here and now. In 1961, Lance Venyon went out sailing and fell overboard. Lance's widow, Mary, never believed that her husband, a former spy and an experienced sailor, could have suffered an accident in calm waters. Now show more herself deceased, widow Mary had passed on her suspicions to her daughter. Was Lance Venyon's death an accident, as everyone else believed? Or murder?

And what connection does the late Lance Venyon have to the recent murder of an Estonian-born art student, a young man who came to the village asking for the whereabouts of the self-same Lance Venyon?

Add to the equation that the adventurous Venyon was involved in exposing art fraud and that Venyon, in connection with his best friend, Jago Priest, claimed to be on the trail of a golden goblet associated with Sir Gawain of Arthurian legend. As Peter and Georgia Marsh investigate the elusive Lance, they find him to have been a ladies' man and a charmer and they find reasons for murder aplenty.

The suspense takes a few pages to build, but once it starts you won't want to stop reading. Art forgers, adultery, and family honor all play a part in this mystery novel full of surprises. You'll never see the end coming. show less

I simply adored Amy Myers’ series featuring father and daughter Peter and Georgia Marsh, who solve cold cases that are decades old. I gobbled up all eight books in this series, and the final book in this series, [book:Murder in Abbot's Folly|12378468], came five long years ago! How I’ve longed for another one!

I could never really warm to Myers’ classic car sleuth Jack Colby, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to see Myers embarking on a new series. Chef — not cook! — Nell Drury show more has managed to make her way in the world from a costermonger’s daughter in London’s East End to a French-trained chef working for a marquis, a definite rarity for a woman in 1925. I loved the sensible Nell, her determination and her inner goodness. Myers has always known how to weave a wonderful mystery, and she hasn’t lost her touch. I didn’t even guess at the perpetrator until Scotland Yard Inspector Alexander Melbray announced it at the novel’s end. I loved this novel so much, and I can’t wait for the sequels!

And Ms. Myers, please, please reconsider bringing back Peter and Georgia. We miss them!

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Severn House in exchange for an honest review. show less

Murder in the Mist could be Amy Myers' best book so far in the series. In it, Peter and Georgia Marsh stumble onto a mystery by pure chance. The pair get lost driving through the Kentish countryside and sense "a fingerprint of time" at a stream adjacent to an abandoned cottage. The Marshes discover that the cottage had been used by a Bloomsbury-style collection of writers and artists known as the Fernbourne Five. One of them, poet Alwyn Field, hung himself at the spot in 1949. But the show more Marshes begin to suspect that murder, not suicide, led to Field's untimely end.

The novel recreates the bohemian lifestyle of artists before World War II, and the novel will keep you guessing to the end as to who killed Alwyn Field. Myers resists the temptation to turn Georgia and her father into paragons of virtue. Georgia is terribly human, making mistakes and saying things without thinking at times. Her father Peter can be brusque and unreasonable. While Murder in the Mist is still definitely a cozy, I admire that Myers adds that bit of realism to Peter and Georgia Marsh.

As always happens when the father-daughter duo investigate, secrets from the past lead to murders very much in the present. The book always plays fair with the clues; even so, the resolution will come as a great surprise.

Longtime fans of the series will be pleased with advances in the relationship between commitment-shy Georgia and her publisher and lover Luke Frost.

Kudos to Myers for providing another delicious British cozy. I devoured the book in two days' time. I'm going to immediately embark on the next one in the series, Murder Takes the Stage.

Merged review:

Murder in the Mist could be Amy Myers' best book so far in the series. In it, Peter and Georgia Marsh stumble onto a mystery by pure chance. The pair get lost driving through the Kentish countryside and sense "a fingerprint of time" at a stream adjacent to an abandoned cottage. The Marshes discover that the cottage had been used by a Bloomsbury-style collection of writers and artists known as the Fernbourne Five. One of them, poet Alwyn Field, hung himself at the spot in 1949. But the Marshes begin to suspect that murder, not suicide, led to Field's untimely end.

The novel recreates the bohemian lifestyle of artists before World War II, and the novel will keep you guessing to the end as to who killed Alwyn Field. Myers resists the temptation to turn Georgia and her father into paragons of virtue. Georgia is terribly human, making mistakes and saying things without thinking at times. Her father Peter can be brusque and unreasonable. While Murder in the Mist is still definitely a cozy, I admire that Myers adds that bit of realism to Peter and Georgia Marsh.

As always happens when the father-daughter duo investigate, secrets from the past lead to murders very much in the present. The book always plays fair with the clues; even so, the resolution will come as a great surprise.

Longtime fans of the series will be pleased with advances in the relationship between commitment-shy Georgia and her publisher and lover Luke Frost.

Kudos to Myers for providing another delicious British cozy. I devoured the book in two days' time. I'm going to immediately embark on the next one in the series, Murder Takes the Stage. show less

‘’Friday Street likes to keep itself to itself.’’

I find that the beginning of summer is always an appropriate time to read a British Cozy Mystery. Now, my relationship with cozy mysteries has been stormier than the European affairs during the last few years. Once they became ‘’fashionable’’, they lost all credibility in my book. They became worse than the worst soap - opera and I intended to stay away from them once and for all. However, I saw this one on NetGalley and I was show more attracted by the cover and the title. Friday has some quite negative connotations in Britain and when I read the blurb, I was sold. I’m now happy to report that it was a successful choice.

Georgia and Peter, her father, occupy themselves with cold cases. Peter is a retired policeman and Georgia writes books based on their experiences in the field. A murder of a successful musician that took place 40 years ago is linked to a recent death, both of them connected to a haunting tune that is heard in the village when an injustice seeks resolution. Swinging ‘60s? Check! A father-daughter duo? Check! A village community with terrible secrets and legends along with its very own haunted tune? Check! What could go wrong? Fortunately, nothing went wrong and Murder in Friday Street managed to revive my comatose interest in British Cozy.

This is the 2nd book in the series but I didn’t notice it at all. What I did notice was how successfully depicted the atmosphere of the village was. A village that fights desperately to hide its secrets. ‘’We don’t talk about it, so it doesn’t exist.’’ That’s the logic. However, there is a piece of music that screams of malice and impending death and the very essence of this place is full of superstitions and mystery. Friday was the day when the convicted would start their journey to the execution, the way of the Gallows. In addition, Friday is considered unlucky and laden with misfortune and sadness. Take Good Friday for example. Therefore, despite the quaint scenery, there is something that still haunts the residents. A hideous crime and secrets that beg to come to surface.

Peter and Georgia are very sympathetic characters, I loved Georgia and I especially enjoyed the structure of her character. She doesn't come across as a know-it-all, even though she has some moment of utter stubbornness. She does have her own secrets and wounds as does her father and this makes them all the more realistic and approachable. The mystery itself is very interesting and despite the significant number of suspects, each character is well developed. I never felt ‘’lost in the mystery’’.

I have a strange rule. I never grant more than 3 stars to a Cozy Mystery. This one was good enough to make me break my rule, so I guess this counts for something. I enjoyed it so much and I will definitely try to continue with the series. Amy Myers has done a wonderful job.

Many thanks to Endeavour Media and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com show less