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The Ruby Locket

The Belrose Abbey Mystery Series, Book 1

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The Ruby Locket

By: Anita Higman, Hillary McMullen
Narrated by: Michelle Babb
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Summary

When Anne's mother agrees to marry a wealthy, mysterious man, she expects a nice mansion in the hills. But their new home, Belrose Abbey, is more like a castle - imposing, cold, and full of shadows. The more Anne explores the corridors and vacant rooms and dusty crannies, the more she discovers about the abbey's master - her soon-to-be stepfather - Ivan Helsburg. As her mother's wedding draws closer, Anne begins to harbor a creeping suspicion that all is not well at Belrose Abbey.

©2016 Anita Higman (P)2017 Anita Higman Cosy Detective Mystery Women Sleuths Women's Fiction Fiction Suspense
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A dark Gothic novella which is fun and quick to read, the Ruby Locket tells of the experiences of Anna and her mother when they move to Melrose Abbey. Dauphine, the mother, had been desolate following her husband's death just eight months before, until she met the suave and wealthy Ivan and accepted his marriage proposal one week later. Mother and daughter move to the Abbey expecting a large house in the country but instead find something more akin to a castle staffed by loyal retainers, and that they are virtual prisoners. Told mostly in the first person from Anna's point of view some chapters are also related from the mother's perspective giving a slightly more rounded view of the happenings. Despite this, the characters of the main protagonists remain insubstantial, just slightly more solid shadows in a blissfully of them.

There is a decidedly chilly atmosphere, one of danger (and stupidity!) permeating the whole story, with the desire for the reader to call out something like "look behind you", pantomime style. And, !like a pantomime, it is ridiculously enjoyable. This feeling of shuddering well-being is enhanced by Michelle Babb's narration, always clear, well paced and with separate voices for each of the protagonists. Her reading definitely enhances the enjoyment of the story.

Overall, an enjoyable, silly read, atmospheric from the beginning and perfect for something light and easy to fill a boring evening. If you like chilly thrills unrelated to real life, this is the book for you.

A woman in a wedding dress

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Michelle Babb works wonders in the telling of any story, with individual voices for each character, making them easily recognisable.
I would have like for the author to have brought much more menace into the tale. The missing tension made the book far less remarkable than it might otherwise have been.

Missing Tension

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Great story line. One of those stories that anyone would love to read. Would definitely recommend 5*

Great

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Listener received this title free

The Ruby Locket is part 1 (of 2) of the Belrose series, and stars teenager Anne and her mother Dauphine, who have been invited to live in the eponymous abbey where Dauphine is due to marry the owner onsite in the next few days. Straight away we have almost haunting-like moments where they see and hear strange occurrences in the surrounding woodlands to set the tone. The story tries to evoke an almost Poe feeling of dread at times, and the author (among other horror and mystery writers) are name dropped throughout the story.

The abbey is a great place in that it has a lot of secrets, and I do like the exploration of such. I'd have enjoyed to see even more, but hope that is what part 2 will reveal. My favourite moments were the dark journeys through Belrose and the evidence of past misdeeds which have occurred. The author wrote these really well, and the feeling of isolation helps to set in both in these moments and around the abbey grounds. There is something hiding in the woods, a supposed staff member is seen stealing, another is rude and odd, and the husband-to-be also has a deserving level of suspicion about him whilst also having what appears to be a loving and romantic side which is further explored as the characters dig deeper.

The cast of characters is smaller than I expected, but this does fit the shorter length of the story. If you disregard the nameless background people I can recall about 8 people who are given names. The book is easy to follow, and at no point did I misplace any of the characters or forget who they were.

I only have 2 criticisms. The first are a scant few sentences. At one point we get "gilded in gold", but the word gilded means to be coated in gold, so it's essentially like saying "covered in gold in gold". I also didn't enjoy the ending that much. Trying to be vague to not spoil it I think the reveal of the nastiness near the end was too swift of a personality change in the characters, and the motives involved. There are great moments leading up to it though.

The narrator was Michelle Babb, whom I have listened to before this story. Their narration is great, and they perform a lovely range of emotions for the characters and their predicaments. The audio recording/editing quality itself was also very nice to the experience.
I enjoyed this, I look forward to re-entering Belrose Abbey again in part 2.

Disclaimer: Book was given to me, though I was not requested to write any review. I choose to do this however as thanks to them.

Enjoyable mystery

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This was a different read for me but as always the narrator is excellent. There were plenty of suspicious characters and goings on in this Abbey to keep you interested. Twists and turns that keep you on your toes. I would recommend this book and I have already downloaded book 2!

Gothic mystery

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