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Secrets of the Castleton Manor Library #4
A Deadly Chapter
Christmas is no humbug affair in Lighthouse Bay, Massachusetts. The merry festivities are well underway in the quaint seaside village, and the halls of the posh Castleton Manor literary retreat are decked out in full Victorian décor. This year, the manor is hosting the Charles Dickens Society's annual gala, compete with parlor games and dramatic readings of A Christmas Carol, and culminating in a costume ball. Faith Newberry, Castleton's private librarian and archivist, loves being part of the holiday hustle and bustle while catering to the eccentric guests' bookish whims.
When a thief nicks some valuable antique jewelry from one of the suites, Faith is more than happy to leave the investigating to the Lighthouse Bay police. But then the obnoxious president of the society, Charles Huffam, is found dead as a doornail beneath the village's 50-foot Christmas tree, and Faith's personal Scrooge, her boss Marlene Russell, is suspected of the crime. Faith has no choice but to make the unkind man's death her business.
Marlene's not the only person who has a bit of undigested beef with Huffam. The murder weapon was a length of chain which had been brandished by the seemingly mild-mannered gentleman playing Marley's ghost during the reading. And what about the overbearing woman whose romantic advances Huffam spurned, and her daughter, for whom Huffam had more than a passing fancy? Even Brooke Milner, Faith's friend and fellow Candle House Book Club member, might have wanted to see a stake of holly driven through Huffam's dark heart.
Faith will need all the help she can get from her friends, and especially from her fearless feline, Watson, to unmask the assailant - or is that wassailant? - before Castleton Manor's surplus population is decreased by yet one more.
When a thief nicks some valuable antique jewelry from one of the suites, Faith is more than happy to leave the investigating to the Lighthouse Bay police. But then the obnoxious president of the society, Charles Huffam, is found dead as a doornail beneath the village's 50-foot Christmas tree, and Faith's personal Scrooge, her boss Marlene Russell, is suspected of the crime. Faith has no choice but to make the unkind man's death her business.
Marlene's not the only person who has a bit of undigested beef with Huffam. The murder weapon was a length of chain which had been brandished by the seemingly mild-mannered gentleman playing Marley's ghost during the reading. And what about the overbearing woman whose romantic advances Huffam spurned, and her daughter, for whom Huffam had more than a passing fancy? Even Brooke Milner, Faith's friend and fellow Candle House Book Club member, might have wanted to see a stake of holly driven through Huffam's dark heart.
Faith will need all the help she can get from her friends, and especially from her fearless feline, Watson, to unmask the assailant - or is that wassailant? - before Castleton Manor's surplus population is decreased by yet one more.
209 pages, Hardcover
Published December 1, 2018
8 people are currently reading
219 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
December 22, 2021
This is a cozy mystery, and this is the fourth book in the Secrets of the Castleton Manor Library series. The main character is Faith and her cat Watson. This book take place while the library is hosting a Charles Dickens Society literary retreat. During the retreat there is things starts to get stolen and there is a murder. I have to say I love this series and the parts where the cat "Watson" is telling us what he is thinking and how he feels is so cute. I think my very favorite character is Watson. I cannot wait to read book five in this series.
November 10, 2018
The Christmas season brings the Charles Dickens Society to Castleton Manor for a retreat. It's all things Dickens all the time. Unfortunately one of the main presenters is rude, annoying and handsy. Manor Librarian Faith Newberry puts up with Charles' stupid come-on comments and bad disposition for the sake of her job....but she is a bit surprised that nobody seems to like the man, even the members of the society. The week starts off festive but goes downhill when society members start reporting thefts from their rooms. Then it gets worse.....a murder. How much Dickensian drama can one retreat handle?
I enjoy this series.....the characters, the setting, the pets, and the plots. Despite the books being written by several authors, the sweet vibe of this cozy mystery series is present in all the stories I have read so far. The background plots are varied (each retreat has a different theme) and very entertaining. All in all, this series delivers a nice cozy mystery experience each time. The books are sold on a monthly membership basis by Annie's Attic. Luckily, most of the books have been donated to my local library! :) Yay!
I like the fact that guests and staff can bring their pets to the manor. Each book has different authors and retreat guests and their various pets. :) I know an upscale retreat resort would in reality never, ever allow pets, especially in a library.....but it makes for a sweet cozy mystery. :) I love Faith's cat Watson....he has an abundance of cattitude. :)
The hardcover books are high quality and attractive. The cover art is colorful, engaging and cute (as is common with cozy mysteries). The series would look quite nice displayed on bookshelves. But I'm content to borrow them from my local library as I only read mysteries once.
Another enjoyable cozy experience. Moving on...I picked up the next book in the series (An Autographed Mystery) at the library today! Can't wait to find out what Faith and Watson are getting into next! :)
I enjoy this series.....the characters, the setting, the pets, and the plots. Despite the books being written by several authors, the sweet vibe of this cozy mystery series is present in all the stories I have read so far. The background plots are varied (each retreat has a different theme) and very entertaining. All in all, this series delivers a nice cozy mystery experience each time. The books are sold on a monthly membership basis by Annie's Attic. Luckily, most of the books have been donated to my local library! :) Yay!
I like the fact that guests and staff can bring their pets to the manor. Each book has different authors and retreat guests and their various pets. :) I know an upscale retreat resort would in reality never, ever allow pets, especially in a library.....but it makes for a sweet cozy mystery. :) I love Faith's cat Watson....he has an abundance of cattitude. :)
The hardcover books are high quality and attractive. The cover art is colorful, engaging and cute (as is common with cozy mysteries). The series would look quite nice displayed on bookshelves. But I'm content to borrow them from my local library as I only read mysteries once.
Another enjoyable cozy experience. Moving on...I picked up the next book in the series (An Autographed Mystery) at the library today! Can't wait to find out what Faith and Watson are getting into next! :)
April 11, 2020
⭐⭐⭐⭐💫
What's better than Christmas in a manor in a small quaint little town? A mystery at the Castleton Manor in Lighthouse Bay. Faith and her sidekick Watson (a stumpy tail tuxedo cat) are enjoying their time at Castleton Manor. Faith is the librarian with Watson as her ever faithful and vigilant companion.
During the Charles Dickens Society literary retreat guests are burglarized, a murder takes place and Faith's life is threatened. This doesn't stop her from digging into the mystery and bringing a happy ending to her first Christmas at the manor.
What's better than Christmas in a manor in a small quaint little town? A mystery at the Castleton Manor in Lighthouse Bay. Faith and her sidekick Watson (a stumpy tail tuxedo cat) are enjoying their time at Castleton Manor. Faith is the librarian with Watson as her ever faithful and vigilant companion.
During the Charles Dickens Society literary retreat guests are burglarized, a murder takes place and Faith's life is threatened. This doesn't stop her from digging into the mystery and bringing a happy ending to her first Christmas at the manor.
May 27, 2021
This is the fourth book in this series and I am enjoying getting to know all of the regular characters at Castleton Manor. May favorite, by far, is Watson the cat. I love the snippets from his point of view. This one actually had me laughing out loud because I could just imagine a cat thinking that way. There were lots of suspects and the villain wasn't too obvious so I enjoyed trying to figure out who it was. I do find the endings on this series to be a tad rushed, but I did enjoy the way this one ended.
January 10, 2025
The denial of the main character as to what is going on with Wolfe is amusing to say the least. Having always been the oblivious to hitting on behaviour, it does make me giggle.
I was actually pretty shocked at the outcome of the mystery, and it held my attention quite well.
I was actually pretty shocked at the outcome of the mystery, and it held my attention quite well.
June 2, 2020
Book #2 of my #30BookSummer Challenge!
I enjoyed this holiday romp in Castleton Manor! This story clipped along at a good pace. The theme of the guests was fun and just a tad of a Hallmark Christmas movie feel. Though, honestly... why Faith stays working at this Manor is beyond me!
I enjoyed this holiday romp in Castleton Manor! This story clipped along at a good pace. The theme of the guests was fun and just a tad of a Hallmark Christmas movie feel. Though, honestly... why Faith stays working at this Manor is beyond me!
August 22, 2020
This 4th book in the Castleton Manor Library series was a disappointment in several respects. (I listened to the Annie’s audiobook.) Each book is written by one of a group of women authors, which has made for continuity problems from one book to another with not only some of the details and events in the books, but also the traits of some of the characters. As written by Jan Fields, the main character Faith, the librarian, made so many stupid choices in this book, is totally spineless in allowing the retreat manager (written very harshly by Fields) to treat her—and other employees—unreasonably and even abusively, and her absolute denial that the handsome owner of the retreat could possibly have any personal interest in her just got very, VERY old. And the device of using Faith’s cat, Watson, (particularly in this book) as the actual detective was so overdone that one is left wondering why there was any need for Faith at all. But by far, the biggest disappointment with this book was the change of narrators from Ann Richardson to Christa Lewis. The narrator really makes or breaks an audiobook and Christa Lewis is terrible. Her pedantic pace and huge pauses (and I mean HUGE) are maddening to the extreme. I set the reading rate to 1.5x to be able to tolerate her reading, and still there were pauses long enough to sound choppy. I have enjoyed the series up to this point, but I’m not sure I can hang in there with the unevenness the book-to-book change of authors causes and the prospect of more Christa Lewis narrating.
August 28, 2018
Another good installment in The Secrets of Castleton Manor Library series published by Annie's Attic. A light, very pleasant, and lightning fast read. Faith is a great protagonist, smart and determined. Good supporting characters, but I do wish Marlene were less imperious and obnoxious. Perhaps in future volumes......
July 11, 2018
Unexpected ending. I really liked this one, but the ending was really rushed. The scenery and fun scenes with the cat are what keep me coming back for more, to be honest.
December 7, 2021
I saved this one of the series for a light Christmas read, and thoroughly enjoyed it.
At first, the series had begun to feel repetitive. The manor invites an organization with a niche genre into conducting a retreat or conference at their library, and someone in the organization ends up murdered. In this particular volume, it's a Charles Dickens society function. Others in the series involved a Sherlock Holmes group, a cookbook group, and a suspense readers' group, reading such authors as Agatha Christie.
But, as the details of this particular book settled, I found that I did enjoy reading about the characters and chasing down the clues unique to this book.
I also enjoyed the Charles Dickens quotes, although I can imagine someone saying that Jan Fields laid them on too thickly.
At one point in time, I had considered the murderer, but somehow I'd gotten distracted with other suspects, so I can't fairly say I figured it out.
As in many of these type of books, the sleuth stupidly wandered off alone with a murder suspect. More than once.
"That's the way it is with truly bad men. They believe everyone else is also bad." I've noticed this to be true, too. Not just the extremely evil people, but more ordinary people with a more ordinary failing. They tend to believe that others share that same fault, and often that reveals their own hearts.
"How do I live with that kind of guilt?"
"By realizing that it's not your fault. You don't control ..."
"She chooses her own reactions, not me."
I liked that interaction because it exposed and disposed of false guilt. I've decided that exposing false guilt to be false is a little like the end of a Scooby Doo episode, where the monster is unmasked to be someone we don't really have to fear, or even pay much attention to.
And it's also important to note that people do choose their own reactions. We don't choose the reactions for them (or believe me, I'd choose differently for some people sometimes.)
This scenario also reminded me of one lady I don't know personally, who keeps "fainting" whenever she argues with her family member, resulting in an ambulance ride to the hospital. She's someone that the hospital staff can't seem to effectively tell to knock it off, that they need to spend their time and attention on people who really are having emergencies.
At first, the series had begun to feel repetitive. The manor invites an organization with a niche genre into conducting a retreat or conference at their library, and someone in the organization ends up murdered. In this particular volume, it's a Charles Dickens society function. Others in the series involved a Sherlock Holmes group, a cookbook group, and a suspense readers' group, reading such authors as Agatha Christie.
But, as the details of this particular book settled, I found that I did enjoy reading about the characters and chasing down the clues unique to this book.
I also enjoyed the Charles Dickens quotes, although I can imagine someone saying that Jan Fields laid them on too thickly.
At one point in time, I had considered the murderer, but somehow I'd gotten distracted with other suspects, so I can't fairly say I figured it out.
As in many of these type of books, the sleuth stupidly wandered off alone with a murder suspect. More than once.
"That's the way it is with truly bad men. They believe everyone else is also bad." I've noticed this to be true, too. Not just the extremely evil people, but more ordinary people with a more ordinary failing. They tend to believe that others share that same fault, and often that reveals their own hearts.
"How do I live with that kind of guilt?"
"By realizing that it's not your fault. You don't control ..."
"She chooses her own reactions, not me."
I liked that interaction because it exposed and disposed of false guilt. I've decided that exposing false guilt to be false is a little like the end of a Scooby Doo episode, where the monster is unmasked to be someone we don't really have to fear, or even pay much attention to.
And it's also important to note that people do choose their own reactions. We don't choose the reactions for them (or believe me, I'd choose differently for some people sometimes.)
This scenario also reminded me of one lady I don't know personally, who keeps "fainting" whenever she argues with her family member, resulting in an ambulance ride to the hospital. She's someone that the hospital staff can't seem to effectively tell to knock it off, that they need to spend their time and attention on people who really are having emergencies.
September 1, 2022
A friend (CC) gifted me a number of the books in this series. I have been using them as a distraction from worries recently. This particular one has a Christmas theme, however, the series has had a history of skipping holidays--we'd hear about a Halloween party but then the next book would skip past any mention of Halloween. So even though Faith plans to go home for Christmas, I suspect we won't see a Christmas celebration but that the next book will resume when Faith returns to her job after Christmas.
This retreat is a Charles Dickens Society themed event--complete with readings of "A Christmas Carol" and quite a few Dickens quotes. I wasn't bothered by the Dickens quotes though I didn't recognize many of them. I can see where some readers might think they were laid on a bit thick.
I don't know if the story/information about the actress who played Miss Havisham in a movie is true or not.
I did think Faith acted unwisely a few times--going off alone (without anyone else even knowing she was meeting with the person) with someone who was a suspect. I didn't guess who the murderer was before it was revealed. That's often my norm, so your experience may differ. I don't think I'd even considered the person it turned out to be.
This retreat is a Charles Dickens Society themed event--complete with readings of "A Christmas Carol" and quite a few Dickens quotes. I wasn't bothered by the Dickens quotes though I didn't recognize many of them. I can see where some readers might think they were laid on a bit thick.
I don't know if the story/information about the actress who played Miss Havisham in a movie is true or not.
I did think Faith acted unwisely a few times--going off alone (without anyone else even knowing she was meeting with the person) with someone who was a suspect. I didn't guess who the murderer was before it was revealed. That's often my norm, so your experience may differ. I don't think I'd even considered the person it turned out to be.
August 23, 2020
I love this series and A Deadly Chapter is a wonderful addition to the series! It has everything I love about cozy mysteries : likable interesting characters, an intriguing mystery, friendship, and a potential romance! Faith Newberry is the librarian at Castleton Manor, a literary retreat and a private residence of the Jaxon family. It is just before Christmas and the Charles Dickens Society are visiting for the week. One of the unpopular members ends up dead, and the some of the staff and members of the society are suspects including Faith's boss who wants this matter cleared up. It kept me guessing until the very end! The interesting thing about this series is that there are multiple authors but it is so well done, it is seamless and you don't even notice.. The audiobook was well done and very enjoyable! I can't wait for the next book!
February 5, 2025
2.5⭐
One series written by different authors and now a different narrator... 😒 What are ya doing to me 😫 There's just an element that's different from book to book that makes sense with the various authors. Not sure I like it...
This book did not hit. I loved the others, but I don't know if it was the narrator or what, but I just kept getting annoyed. 😂
True that these authors have people walking over the FMC too often, but thankfully not to the point of me disliking her or losing interest in the series. But this book... 👀 I rolled by eyes TOO often.
For example:
Plot reveal: victim blackmailed people
10 minutes later
FMC: wait, could he have blackmailed his way into leadership??
🧐
Stop.
Let's not do this whole the obvious thing is not obvious to the lead character. 🙄🙄
One series written by different authors and now a different narrator... 😒 What are ya doing to me 😫 There's just an element that's different from book to book that makes sense with the various authors. Not sure I like it...
This book did not hit. I loved the others, but I don't know if it was the narrator or what, but I just kept getting annoyed. 😂
True that these authors have people walking over the FMC too often, but thankfully not to the point of me disliking her or losing interest in the series. But this book... 👀 I rolled by eyes TOO often.
For example:
Plot reveal: victim blackmailed people
10 minutes later
FMC: wait, could he have blackmailed his way into leadership??
🧐
Stop.
Let's not do this whole the obvious thing is not obvious to the lead character. 🙄🙄
May 5, 2025
Faith Newberry is the librarian at the Castleton Manor. The manor is hosting the Charles Dickens Society’s annual gala. Things start to go awry with a jewel theft from one of rooms, and it goes downhill from there, with the murder of one of the participants. There is a bit of romantic tension between Faith and her boss, Wolfe Jaxon, whose family owns the manor. This well-written cozy is the perfect tale for Christmas. The characters are well developed, the plot is intriguing, and the whole package is quite entertaining.
July 19, 2019
Beautiful cover to start with. A nice mystery that I didn't figure out. Unfortunately the dialogue between Faith and her friends was cheesy awkward and not natural. This book was so expensive and the writing came across a little low budget. The Charles Dickens theme nor the Christmas theme were portrayed with any creativity. No beautiful descriptive writing to speak of! I would pick up another Castleton Manor Library book but not from Jan Fields.
July 23, 2023
Another Cristmas cozy mystery down! I am not a fan of Christmas in July so when this was the next book up in the series, I was not thrilled. Christmas stories are for cold weather reading. I will not read a series out of order, so I gave it a started. Christmas is almost a second thought in the story line other than a Dickens Society visiting the manor. You get caught up the story and the person you least expect is the killer. A quiet enjoyable read.
January 5, 2026
This series is always easy to read and cozy. The mystery aspect is interesting enough, but isn't super intricate. The main character, Faith and the small town of Lighthouse Bay are both likable and keep you wanting to read the story. Also who doesn't love a helpful, but mischievous tuxedo cat sidekick! I can only give the book 3 stars though because I have read other mysteries that really hook me in and this one just didn't have quite the same affect.
July 17, 2024
This is an amazing mystery and I didn't see the end coming. It blew me away! There are lots of twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat and successfully misdirected me. This mystery is Charles Dickens and A Christmas Carol themed. There was enough Christmas in it to keep me happy. I can't wait to start the next book in the series!
August 19, 2019
Faith Newberry is the librarian at Castleton Manor, a hotel and spa resort. The annual Charles Dickens Society retreat is disrupted by a series of thefts and then a murder. Faith and her bob-tailed Tuxedo cat, Watson, set out to solve the crime. Light reading, but fun.
December 12, 2020
I enjoyed this Dickens Society murder plot and the Victorian themes in this one. Wish the ball had been more fleshed out and things were drawn out a little longer, but other than that a solid addition to the series. Fun.
December 17, 2022
A nice little cozy mystery. Have not read the others in the series but it stood alone well without over explaining characters/events in that way that is annoying when you have read the series. I would read more.
February 21, 2019
my least favorite in the Castleton Manor Library series
October 12, 2019
I did not enjoy this book as the narration was so choppy and robot like that it was hard to listen to.
August 18, 2020
Fun read. Watson, the cat, is always a favorite!
December 21, 2020
5 stars for enjoyability! Loved this cozy mystery and will definitely be reading more in this series!
August 26, 2022
A quick little murder mystery. Looking forward to reading the next one!
June 25, 2023
I am enjoying this series about the Secrets of the Castleton Manor Library. Each book has the same main characters and setting but different mysteries.
December 15, 2023
Good mystery with several suspects. Enjoyed.
December 20, 2024
A fantastic Christmas mystery! So many lovely holiday elements and twists and turns that kept me guessing.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews