Spring, 1921. Lady Eleanor Swift, explorer extraordinaire and accidental sleuth, hasn't had a vacation since she arrived in England a year ago. Being an amateur detective can be a rather tiring business and she is determined to escape any more murder and mysteries. So she books into the Grand Hotel in the fashionable resort of Brighton for some fresh air, fish and chips and, of course, a dip in the ocean.
Eleanor is enjoying her view of the waves and trying to find her bathing suit when calamity strikes: a guest has been found dead at her beautiful hotel. The distraught manager, who can't afford a scandal, asks Eleanor to solve the case as swiftly as possible. Thank goodness she has her partner in crime - Gladstone the bulldog - to help her sniff out the dastardly culprit.
But when Eleanor enters the dead man's room, she receives a shock big enough to make her forget even the finest ice cream sundae. The body is that of her husband, who supposedly died six years ago on the other side of the world. Has he been alive all these years? Why does he have a copy of their wedding photograph with a cryptic message written on the back? If Eleanor can keep herself safe long enough to find her husband's killer, she might discover that everything is not quite as it seems beside the seaside...
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(@Bookouture, 11 March 2021, 276 pages, ebook, #ARC from the publisher via # NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed, #BlogTour 13 March)
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I really enjoyed Murder in the Snow so was looking forward to the latest Lady Eleanor Swift mystery. I don't often read cosy mystery's but found Murder in the Snow to be superior to other's I've read so I had high hopes for Mystery by the Sea. I really enjoyed this book. I got to know Lady Eleanor Swift a lot better. The mystery this time around touches very close to home as the murder victim is her husband who she'd been lead to believe died six years ago. Why did someone kill Hillary? Why did someone lead her to believe he was already dead? Why was Hillary in Brighton? Who killed him and why? I enjoyed Lady Eleanor Swift and Gladstone's investigation and the way the case unfolds. I will read the rest of the series at some point.
