Mystery at the Abbey Hotel by Clare Chase ~ a Review

by Donna Huber

I'm always on the lookout for new-to-me cozy mysteries. I've enjoyed several from Bookouture so I decided to check out Mystery at the Abbey Hotel even though it is book 5 in Clare Chase's Eve Mallow Mystery series.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

April 2021; Bookouture; 978-1800193086
audio, ebook, print (286 pages); cozy mystery

It's been a while since I read a cozy mystery that features a more mature female lead. Eve Mallow is 50 years old but she isn't the eccentric Miss Marple type. She is pretty down-to-earth with an interesting career - she writes obituaries/In Memoria for notable people. I get the impression that the people she has written about lately have been victims of murder and therefore her profession has overlapped with the local police. 

Mystery at the Abbey Hotel uses one of the most recognized tropes in this genre - the bumbling detective. It isn't one of my favorite tropes but DI Palmer is only briefly seen at the beginning of the novel and Eve doesn't have any contact with him outside of the brief interview after the murder had occurred.

I did like Eve and the rest of the village characters whom I assume make regular appearances in the series. I also liked a few of the characters that were involved in the murder investigation but I assume we won't see them again as it didn't seem like any characters from previous mysteries showed up here.

The mystery was good and I was kept guessing up to the very end. 

I'm not sure if I will go back and pick up earlier books in the series but I am looking forward to reading the next one that came out earlier this month.

Buy Mystery at the Abbey Hotel at Amazon

(the ebook is a free read for Kindle Unlimited subscribers)

Donna Huber is an avid reader and natural encourager. She is the founder of Girl Who Reads and the author of how-to marketing book Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour.

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