A Murder at the Mansion – Annie & Fletcher, The Novel Detectives, Are Back!
Ellie Alexander is back with her latest in the Novel Detective series, A Murder at the Mansion, book number three.
Now, for those of you who may not be overly familiar with this one, we meet Annie Murray in the Secret Bookcase Mystery series, which has six books that revolve around a bookstore owner in the quaint town of Redwood Grove.
Discovering she has a bit of a knack for solving murders, she opens The Novel Detectives, a private detective agency, where she partners with her equally clever friend Fletcher.
And it is that detective agency that becomes the foundation of Ellie Alexander’s newest series of books, giving us the same familiar characters, in the same town and setting.
I’ve already read the first book, didn’t catch the second, but have dipped back in for the third, so let me tell you all about it…
Bernadette Garst Goes Missing
We join Annie and Fletcher, who have now firmly established themselves as the go-to PI’s in Redwood Grove, on their way to the Garst mansion at the invitation of Dr. Caldwell.
Dr. Caldwell is the lead detective in the town, as well as Annie’s former criminology professor, and has regularly used the Novel Detective’s services when the police department is short on resources.
It turns out that Bernadette Garst, an older billionaire heiress, has gone missing from her home and, despite being a bit of a recluse, has not been seen since dinner the day before.
Garst, by all accounts, is not only the matriarch of the family but the person who controls the purse strings, which has led to just the teeniest bit of friction with her son, Dansby, her daughter, Vivienne, and her grandson, Preston.
Alongside them are Paula, the dog trainer, who takes care of the beloved poodle Dorothy Barker, Finlay, the pool guy, and Gabe, the family lawyer.
With all six at the house the day Bernadette went missing, Annie and Fletcher know that the answers to the disappearance lie somewhere in the Garst mansion.
But with hundreds, if not thousands, of acres surrounding the estate, narrowing down where to begin proves no easy task.
As Annie and Fletcher start to piece together timelines and tensions within the household, their search takes a darker turn when they stumble upon a body on the grounds.
Suddenly, what first appeared to be a missing persons case becomes something far more sinister, and the pair realize that finding Bernadette may mean unraveling a murder before the killer strikes again.
A Perfectly Lovely Cozy Mystery
A Murder at the Mansion is what I would consider to be a perfectly lovely cozy mystery. We have a pool of suspects, timelines, alibis, and two highly competent investigators who thankfully avoid all the usual bumbling tropes.
Annie, as usual, is an engaging lead, but Ellie Alexander does a great job of giving the supporting cast, particularly Fletcher, enough depth and personality to feel like more than just background.
Their partnership feels natural and balanced, and I found myself just as interested in Fletcher as I am in Annie, which is always a good sign in a series like this.
That said, I would really like a book in the series from his perspective, after all, they are partners, so maybe he could occasionally be front and center, with Annie taking on the supporting role. Just a thought…
There is also a satisfying sense that these characters have lives beyond the central mystery, like Annie’s relationship with Liam, the bookstore, and their routines, which add depth to the story and make Redwood Grove feel like a place you’d happily return to.
And, of course, we have the mystery itself. It is well plotted, easy to follow, and without giving anything away, you can guess along before everything is wrapped up with a nice big bow.
Fourth Book On The Way
Ellie Alexander must be working around the clock because before this book even hits the shelves, she is already working on books four and five in the series.
A Murder at Midnight is due out in October 2026 and follows a well-known ghost hunter who arrives at the historic English estate to film an episode of his hit TV show, Sleeping with Spirits.
But the excitement quickly turns chilling when a member of the crew is discovered dead, and Annie and Fletcher must cut through the ghostly theatrics to uncover the truth and track down a killer before fear and speculation spiral out of control.
Then we have book five in the series, A Fatal Frost, which is scheduled to be published in January 2027. I don’t have any plot details for that one yet, but suffice to say that Annie & Fletcher will be back to solve another unusual murder!
That means you have plenty of time to catch up on the first three books, and if you want to go back even further, start with the Secret Bookcase Mystery series, more specifically, the first one – The Body in the Bookstore, where we meet Annie Murray for the first time.
