Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for a fair and honest review!

I throughly enjoyed the audiobook production of this regency-era cozy murder mystery. The story is about the death of a vicar’s wife in a small English village and the air of mystery and suspicion that takes over the town. The magistrate’s wife, Emma Knightley can’t help herself as she begins to investigate the crime. 

 The cast of characters was great - our main character Emma was a smart, witty character who has a good head on her shoulders and I loved seeing her work out the puzzle of this small town murder. 

Polly Lane does a great job narrating this book. The pacing is well done and I was entertained throughout and never found myself guessing at which character we were hearing from - Lane uses a different tone and even accent work for each character which made it easy to follow. The only quibble I have was that the voice she uses for George Knightley, our heroine’s husband, was really monotone. He is often described as witty and there are these lovely banter-filled exchanges between he and Emma, but they’re read in such a dry and flat way that it just fell short for me. Otherwise, I really loved how Lane was able to distinguish the different voices. 

The plot kept me guessing right until the end and I only started to unravel the true identity of the murder when I was at about 80%, so I enjoyed a mystery that didn’t seem obvious right away! 

I would recommend this book to any audiobook lovers who enjoy Bridgerton, regency romances, and Agatha Christie mystery novels.