Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Boldwood Books, and author Anita Davison for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

Murder at Midwinter Manor is the third book in Anita Davison’s Miss Merrill and Aunt Violet series. I didn’t feel you had to have read the first two to get the gist of this one. Set during the First World War, this “cozy mystery” is a fun read. It has Agatha Christie overtones and kept me guessing until the end.

Hannah Merrill and her Aunt Violet arrive at Midwinter Manor for the Christmas celebration. This is the stately home that belongs to Hannah’s sister, Iris, her brother-in-law Mycroft, and their family. With wartime rationing going on, everyone is contributing something to the festivities which will also be attended by Hannah and Iris’ parents, Hannah’s clandestine fiancee Darius, and various other extended family members and friends.

Iris’ niece Minnie has recently become engaged and now has possession of the Calhoun ruby, a family heirloom that’s passed down from mother to daughter. It’s quite an ungainly gem, but her mother Norah seems to prize it above all else. On the same snowy night, Minnie’s future father-in-law is murdered and the ruby goes missing.

With a fairly insular house, the culprit or culprits must have been one of the people in the house that night. The local police seem intent on creating a narrative and finding evidence to support it, rather than investigating with an open mind. Hannah, Aunt Violet, and Darius work together to investigate on their own while trying not to draw attention to what they are doing.

Even without the background of the last two books, I thoroughly enjoyed the characters of Hannah and Violet. They are intelligent, independent women at a time when women still weren’t expected to be. Hannah is debating if she wants her life to change by becoming Darius’ wife while all this goes on in the background. She is exposed to the different marriages that exist in her universe: her parents, her sister, the Ellis’ and more. There’s a good bit of introspection against the backdrop of the mystery.

The characters are all well-crafted. There are a number of red herrings out there to lead readers in certain directions with regard to who might have done it. People appear to be deceptive but sometimes have a good reason for it. Everyone is fighting their own battles, some as the result of the war. I thought Davison depicted the effects of PTSD or “shell shock” as it was called back then very well and with much sensitivity.

I enjoyed Murder at Midwinter Manor quite a bit and look forward to reading other books in the series. The characters are realistic and endearing and the setting is well crafted. The setting during the war is handled with sensitivity while making the mystery enjoyable.

Next book in the series: