William B. Taylor

Americans in England.
I quite enjoyed the first in this series, Cove Point Manor, where Alex inherits a huge mansion and eventually marries Maggie, who had been managing the estate. The second book, however, had a different narrator, whose American version of an upper-crust English accent irritated me. She mispronounced many English towns and I would have preferred her to use her native accent when not reading conversation. I have listened to her own accent in other audiobooks and I find it much more restful to listen to than the accent she used for this narration.

My second quibble is that the author seems to have an abhorrence of pronouns and keeps repeating nouns and names instead of using 'it' or 's/he'. This also happened in the first book and made me cringe every time.
So, the above annoyances did take their toll and I was glad when I had finished.

The story itself revolved around genetic proof that an aristocratic family had a new heir...and a decidedly dodgy history. It was tough to follow the complicated family relationships on audio, even though I listened to that part twice. It didn't seem that the current day family members of this aristocratic family were much better than their ancestors either.
It's quite a romp; around London, into museums and in and out of wealthy houses, along with a touch of the paranormal. Whilst I personally wouldn't recommend it, it may well appeal to fans of cosy mysteries.… (more)

Better than winning the lottery!
Wouldn't it be wonderful to inherit an amazing historical house and the money to maintain it? Cove Point Manor sounded fabulous and it had even been kept in good condition since it was last lived in, by a maintenance firm. Unfortunately I found the way in which Alex's inheritance found its way to him, a little too coincidental, but OK, I can ignore that.

Then, of course, once you receive this amazing inheritance, you suddenly attract all the scrounging friends and relatives, after their share. Brenda and Connie were no exception and they drove me nuts, as no doubt they were intended to do. Alex was amazingly tolerant, I'm sure I'd have lost my rag much sooner.

The narration by Bill Nevitt was well done, especially as there were many unnecessary repetitions of names, which always irritates me. I so wished the author would make more use of the words 'he' and 'she'. Mr Nevitt did a good job of both male and female characters and read at a comfortably steady pace.

The paranormal part of the story was quite entertaining, with Alex's Great (Great?) Grandmother lurking in mirrors and taking a dislike to the uninvited guests. I did get confused by all the Great Greats and never really got a hold of the Farnsworth family tree. Maybe this was printed in the readable version? I could certainly have done with a copy.

A little bit of an unconvincing ending for me, but all in all, an entertaining cosy mystery that wasn't scary or violent.… (more)

cosy-mystery, romance, ghosts, happy-ending, surprise-inheritance, greed

Let me get my complaints out of the way first: this is a book of FICTION and should not be held to legalities, and I would like to know what fool decided that it should be included under horror.
Now that I've gotten that out of my system, let me begin to praise this very interesting book. There is no problem knowing the good guys from the awful ones. An ordinary guy from Toronto finds out that he is the inheritor of a fabulous old mansion on Long Island, New York along with a sizeable amount of money. He goes there intending to stay a few weeks to try to figure out what comes next, but certainly wasn't expecting to be followed by a pair of greedy leeches. The ghost of his GGgrandmother who died in the house takes exception to these women and really stirs things up!
I won the audio and firmly believe that it is the audio performance of Bill Nevitt that made the real difference in enjoyment!… (more)