The Case of the Canterfell Codicil
(Anty Boisjoly Mysteries, #1)
by P.J. Fitzsimmons
“She was wearing a dressing gown that appeared to be composed of many different layers or, perhaps, many different dressing gowns, and she looked like an unmade bed.”
I got this from Netgalley a bit ago and saved it for British Cozy Mystery book bingo. I really enjoyed it, the dry humor, the little barbs here and there, the quips, very entertaining. And although this is a novel written in 2020, it did very much sound like a Wodehouse novel, and thematically it was not unlike a Poirot novel. Thoroughly entertaining from start to finish.
Once I settled in to the story, the characters introduced themselves; main character Anthony “Anty” Boisjoly is a well-to-do gentleman and after finishing his schooling at Eton and Oxford, he’s content to…well, just be. In my head, my mental image of Anty was a younger Hugh Laurie during his Blackadder days. I loved Anty, from the games he makes up (I’m going to play quite right, m’lord some time!) to his rather plucky manner of interrogating suspects.
In the book, Anty receives an urgent telegram from old school chum Fairfax (known by his nickname of Fiddles) begging him to look into the mysterious death of his uncle, Sebastian. Arriving at Fiddles’s family manse in Fray, Anty finds a locked room mystery – who killed uncle Sebastian and how? The door was locked from the outside and the lock was tampered with, so how was the murderer able to get in? The rest of the family hide important secrets, hampering Anty’s investigation and after a second locked room murder, Anty dutifully investigates, to the anger of Inspector Ivor but nevertheless prevails and solves the crime.
From start to finish, this was delightful; humorous, lighthearted and challenging. enjoyed every minute. On my way to pick up book 2!
Published October 30th 2020 by Indefensible Publishing
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