A review by jmarryott23
Murder at Spindle Manor by Morgan Stang

mysterious medium-paced

3.0

I love the Agatha Christie whodunnit type of stories where everyone is stuck together. What I didn’t realize until reading this book as that I do not like supernatural elements to be incorporated into this type of story. We do not know the ground rules associated with this world, so when the answer to a mystery is that a spider is in the attic or that someone is a projection, we have no choice but to go along with it. There were too many red herrings for me to really care what they were. Additionally, the classic “detective solves case with everyone present” trope was too drawn out with too many asides taking over. It was almost literally the entire second half of the book. 

I enjoyed the book a bit for what it was, but my mixed response might just be because I was in the wrong headspace or just wasn’t feeling this type of genre. I realize this book has a relatively small number of reviews, so I’m not trying to diss the author. It just didn’t all work for me personally, but I recommend it for people find this genre exciting. Ditto for the clever idea of skipping Chapter 13 because of the bad luck with the number.