Who Done It?

I am a fan of Downton Abbey and Sherlock Holmes so while this particular book wasn’t really in my chick lit genre wheelhouse, I thought I’d give it a try. Rules of Murder by Julianna Deering is an engaging mystery. With lots of back and forth conversation (I found it very reminiscent of the kind of dialogue in Gilmore Girls and lots of plot twists and turns, you think you have things figured out but are continuously surprised to find a different outcome.

Drew Farthering enjoys a good mystery. When there is a murder at his estate home in England during a party, he and his best friend, Nick decide they are going to try and solve the mystery following the rules of a popular mystery novelist. Together, with the help of a plucky young American woman visiting her uncle, Drew and Nick try and put the pieces together in the puzzle of who murdered the guest. As the questions and bodies pile up, the three detectives question the truth of who is behind all of the mayhem.

It looks like this may just possibly the the first book in a series with the Drew Farthering Mystery title, it could be an engaging series. I was a little put off at first because there is no reference to the decade in which this book is set (I concluded 1930s since the only mention of the year was that of a car) and until I realized the book was set in England, I thought the dialogue was a strange cadence but once I concluded those two things, I was drawn into the mystery. After all, I thought I knew who committed the murders. But, in the end, I was wrong and I love it when books throw me for a loop like that.

Overall, I would give the book four out of five stars.

*****Bethany House Publishing provided me with a complimentary eCopy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. I was not compensated in any way for either a positive or a negative review.