Dear Fellow Reader,

Happy Thanksgiving! I wish you a wonderful holiday. May politics stay away from your tables and may your family time be peaceful.

Do you have Thanksgiving traditions? In our family, we always called Thanksgiving a sweatpants holiday. We don’t dress up – it is a casual comfortable day. Our big joke is that later on Thanksgiving, you can hear the Santa feet coming up from the basement. Yes, the Friday after Thanksgiving may mean shopping to some but to me it means getting out the Christmas decorations and going to town getting the house ready. I love it. At first… I will say that by December 25, I am usually ready to take it all down. But that Friday after Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times.

While you are relaxing Thanksgiving weekend, which I would think means you are reading, I have a new book for you. It is the fourth in the series but I think it works even if you haven’t read the prior books in the series. Last year I reviewed a previous book in the series, The Fatal Folio. (https://cecooney.com/2023/10/24/the-fatal-folio-by-elizabeth-penney/) I enjoyed that book so I was happy to read the next book in the series.

Madrigals and Mayhem takes us to Christmas time in Cambridge England with Molly Kimball and her first English Christmas. Molly has moved to England to help run her family’s bookshop, Thomas Marlowe – Manuscripts and Folios. Molly is anxious to meet her new business neighbor, Charlotte Pemberly. Charlotte has inherited the toyshop, Perberly’s Emporium from her grandfather, Arthur. She hopes to make it the success that her grandfather made it. But Charlotte didn’t expect to inherit the shop and those that expected to inherit (Althea Winter and her family) are not pleased.

As the book opens, Charlotte is taking Molly and her friend and tea shop owner, Daisy on a tour of her toy shop. They find Barnaby, Molly’s grandfather’s step-grandson, on the floor in the back of the store. He is sick and it appears he has been poisoned with tea cakes from Daisy’s store but the cakes have blue frosting a color of frosting Daisy doesn’t use. After Barnaby is taken away in an ambulance, Molly explains that her grandfather had married Althea Winter but had come to his senses and broken up with her. Right after the breakup, her grandfather got sick and Althea and her family moved back into his house to take care of him. They would only let Molly see him occasionally and never without one of them being in the room. Then when he died, they discovered that Molly had inherited everything and they were furious and instated legal action. They lost in court but they were trying to find a rare Madame Alexander doll that was very valuable. Molly’s Grandfather hid the doll and so far, no one has been able to find it.

It doesn’t take long for Molly to recognize that Charlotte was the intended victim of the poisoner. When Molly goes on a tour of the Pemberly’s home, she determines that Arthur was indeed murdered. To find out what happened, Molly and her boyfriend, Kieran go undercover by participating in a madrigal dinner that is directed by Althea and her daughter, Dorcas.

Molly has her hands full trying to find the missing doll, helping Molly clear her name, and working through her first family Christmas with her English family.

I enjoyed the story. I found the character of Charlotte a bit cold from time to time. The plot might be a bit unbelievable, but I liked it. I would read another book in the series. I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Thanks for reading!