Murder at the Abbey

Murder at the Abbey

by Frances Evesham

When human bones are discovered in the river, Libby and the rest of the historical society are excited to learn they most likely belonged to a 16th century monk from the nearby abbey. They organize on overnight ghost hunt, which results in the attack of a friend. Now, Libby and Max must try to identify the culprit before someone else is injured.

Although this is the eighth book in the series, it is the first one I have read. The story contains a lot of background information, most of which felt as if it were from earlier stories, that continues through most of the book. Much of it felt irrelevant to the story, both while I was reading it and even by the end of the book. Some of the information is repeated multiple times during the first few times and was information I would have rather seen than be told upfront. Some of it was also introduced at awkward times, distracting from the flow of the story. Even many chapters into the book, it was still telling me about previous mysteries that did not feel like they related to the current story. For the information that was relevant to the story, it never felt as if it were introduced in the right place.

Similarly, the dialogue felt unnatural, as if the character was giving information for the reader's benefit, not as if they were speaking to someone they knew, especially Max and Libby, who are married. 

I was about 2/3 of the way through the book before the book finally hooked me. I never reached the "I can't put this down" stage. As for the mystery itself, I wasn't really thrilled with the motive because, if I understood it correctly, it was over 500 years old. It felt like a very long time to hold such a grudge.

However, I did enjoy the characters and may try to go back to the first books in the series to see how they all met. Overall, I would rate this three quills and place it on my bottom shelf.