Ten Lords A-Leaping: A Mystery by C.C. BenisonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I received a copy of the book through NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased and honest review.
The title does sound a bit Christmas-sy and the lead character is called Father Tom Christmas -- Father Christmas, geddit?
Father Christmas is a widower who is trying to raise funds for his church in Thornford Regis. It was believed that a skydiving show would encourage people to give generously to the church for Tom decided to jump out of a plane along with a few others. However, during his landing, he managed to twist his ankle and is unable to walk properly.
Because of his injury, he has been invited, along with his young daughter, to stay at Eggscombe Park which is an estate that is owned by one of the Leaping Lords (a group of expert skydivers). It is during his stay that one of the members of the Morborne family -- Oliver, the 7th Marquess of Morborne to be exact -- is found dead within the Labyrinth in the estate.
Oliver was clearly strangled and the most important thing now is to find the person or persons who killed him. The reactions of the members of the family are not as expected which makes the suspect list rather long. Oliver did not appear to be a very nice man and his half-siblings do not get along with him at all. Then there are people who may not have liked the way he did business. Plus, Oliver appears to have been selling important heirlooms and replacing them with fakes.
Ten Lords A-Leaping is a good mystery that has some interesting twists and turns. Plus, there is no lack of possible suspects as the poor victim was not exactly a beloved man. However, the first half of the book goes rather slow (emphasis on s-l-o-w). It does pick up pace somewhere in the middle and the story proceeds nicely from there.
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