Published May 2025
★★
An animal trainer, a foreign castle, and a murder. What can go wrong?
I've been on the hunt for a cozy mystery series set in a castle or mansion or similar for some time now—none of this "I inherited a quaint little cottage without running water, how sweet!" business; I want "I inherited a rambling old manor with so many rooms that I will still be finding new ones in the eleventh book!" So here we are.
In Mystery at Monrovia Castle, Rebecca is finding her feet again after simultaneously losing her job and her long-term relationship. A job in a fictional European country seems just the ticket—especially when she sees the compensation package. And for my castle-y purposes, this worked reasonably well: Big chunks of the book are wish fulfillment for Rebecca, who is given first-class tickets (or rather: first-class plus) and a fancy suite and luxurious chef-provided meals.
As a mystery series it's not really for me. I figured out the whodunnit a little more than halfway through (when someone doesn't like dogs in this sort of book, they're always the bad guy), and Rebecca's sleuthing—not to mention the various tricks she teaches various animals—stretched my limited ability to suspend disbelief. (Also...the occasional French sprinkled throughout the book is truly atrocious. I'm reminded of What Happens in Berlin, in which the German "yes" is misspelled. And here the French "yes" is misspelled! Along with about half the other French words in the book. Now I just need a book where the Spanish "yes" is misspelled, and I'll have a trifecta...)
It's still fun, and a very fast read—I wasn't really the audience for it and probably won't come back to the rest of the series, but it's not a bad one for those looking for a quick cozy series that isn't too deep and lets the reader pretend they're swanning around in a castle with a duke-ish romance on the horizon.
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