A Murder at the Mansion is book 3 of the Novel Detectives Mystery series by Ellie Alexander. If you are a fan of the author’s previous series, A Secret Bookcase Mystery, then you’ll be happy to know that this is a spinoff of the series, in which Annie and Fletcher open a private investigator business above Annie’s bookshop.
Annie and Fletcher are hired by a prominent local family to investigate the disappearance of the family matriarch, when Annie stumbles across a body in one of the buildings on the estate. Soon Annie and Fletcher are in a race against the clock to find the missing woman in the hopes that she is still alive.
This is the first book I have read in this series, and I only read one book in the previous related series, but I was still happy to return to the town of Redwood Grove and revisit the characters that live there.
What I find refreshing about this series is that, unlike many cozy mysteries, Annie and Fletcher have a good working relationship with the local police force, and they work together to solve the case. So many cozy mysteries have the main characters at odds with the police, and it gets annoying after a while, which made it a nice change in this book.
The main suspects in this book are the missing woman’s family members, many of whom have secrets to hide and all of whom seem viable suspects, even her teenage grandson. There were enough suspects to keep me guessing as to the real motive for the woman’s disappearance and the death of her lawyer.
I really enjoyed A Murder at the Mansion, and hope to read more of this series and the previous series, as I really like the characters and the way they relate to each other. I think any fan of cozy mysteries will enjoy this series.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
A Murder at the Mansion will be available on July 21 2026.
Life, Tea, and Everything 