Book: A Mystery at Hughes Manor by M.J.Wehrli
Reviewed by Anonymous
Rating: 3.75/5
🔎 ARC Review 🩸
"She wouldn't look him in the eyes, instead focusing on her clasped hands before her, but the expression on her face told him that he was really in for it -- he could practically hear the verbal bullets clicking into her chamber."
A Mystery at Hughes Manor by M. J. Wehrli
In this Paranormal Mystery, we journey back to the Victorian Age, where suspicions of the unknown, like Vampir and Shapeshifters run amok. Thaddeus Coombs has just made his way back to London from his journeys in Eastern Europe. What he found - would shock London's high society - and he plans to write that story. As a dinner party of his old classmates get commences, not only his career is at jeopardy. It may be his life. It may be all their lives.
This was a really fun read for this time of the year! It had plenty of suspense, spookiness, and murder!
I liked the dialogue from the characters and could well imagine their accents as I was reading along. There were different personalities and people from different segments of society which I enjoyed.
It felt like a steady build throughout the story and didn't end up whipping through the ending too fast. It was enjoyable to sit in the scary pieces and just watch everyone's reactions and their ways to get themselves out of harm's way.
I did think it took quite awhile, nay too long, to get around to the dinner party itself. I think the background story could've been established in perhaps 20 pages. It was either rehashed or we were meeting people or doing things that didn't seem drastically relevant to the story from the get-go and from looking back on it.
I would've preferred more time on the dinner party introduction scene. We meet SO many people - just under 20. It was really hard to know who was who and keep track of the different groupings throughout the remainder of the book. So, if I could change one thing, it'd be to swap out about 20 pages from the beginning to the dinner party and really give us more about the participants.
For a debut, I think this is a great start! There was good tension, the cast of characters was nicely put together, and this delivers paranormal spook wonderfully!
If you like murder whodunits, are looking for a spooky Halloween read, or like books with isolated locations (think The Decagon Murders), you may like this book.
Triggers: Death, Violence, Gore, Infidelity, Self-Harm
Why did I pick up this book? Another cool find from Threads! I'm liking the energy of paranormal mysteries, especially during October and was stoked to pick this one up! Thanks to MJ for letting me ARC read this one!
Format: Digital
2026 Read Number: 207