Death by Misadventure - Lady Emily Ashton Mysteries #18

 

Death by Misadventure is the 18th Lady Emily cozy mystery by Tasha Alexander. Released 24th Sept 2024 by Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 320 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links.

The author is prolific and adept. She does a more than capable job setting the scene and time period with both the dialogue and by wrapping the fiction skillfully around a framework of actual historical occurrences. The mystery itself is cleverly constructed and full of fair play clues which invite readers to figure out "whodunnit" alongside the story, with a closed pool of suspects, a remote chalet in the Alps, and lots of interesting historical trivia about Ludwig II of Bavaria who is a major element of the story told in dual timelines.

The plot is driven on parallel storytelling, with one main subplot set in Ludwig's Bavaria and the other in the "current" timeline (Late Victorian period).

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 8 hours, 31 minutes and is capably narrated by series narrator Bianca Amato.  She has a distinct South African accent, but it's not obtrusive or indeed obvious at all after the first few minutes of narration. She has a pleasantly modulated voice and she's adept at giving all the characters distinct and distinguishable voices. Most of the characters have distinct and varied accents, and she navigates them well.

It's partly an homage to Christie, but Ms. Alexander's writing stands perfectly well on its own merits. Heartily recommended to fans of the series; potentially also recommended for fans of the canonical works. Although the setup, mystery, denouement, and resolution are self-contained, there's a significant amount of development in earlier books which will partially spoil the characters and their relationships if read out of order. With 18 books extant in the series, it would make a great choice for a binge read, especially for fans of golden age and historical mysteries. 

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.