Cozy Mystery Review: The Fatal Folio | Elizabeth Penney

I’ve been enjoying the blend of intrigue, curiosity, mystery, and comfort that cozy mysteries provide and I’m constantly up for trying new series or standalones. After reading The Fatal Folio—book three in Elizabeth Penney’s Cambridge Bookshop Series—I think I’ve found my new favorite! I was easily able to jump right into the newest mystery, though I will surely go back and read the first two because I loved the writing, setting, characters, and style that Penney brought to this wonderful mystery.

In The Fatal Folio, a former librarian finds herself in the middle of a mysterious case involving a stolen historical manuscript, a mysterious pen name, and murder.

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About the Book | The Fatal Folio

Cozy mystery series often involve quite a bit of world building, since the same characters and settings may appear in several mysteries, so I like to keep notes for myself on who’s who and where’s where and share my notes here. If you are up to date on the characters and setting, feel free to skip these sections straight to my review!

Setting

The mystery in The Fatal Folio takes place in Cambridge, England and begins on Guy Fawkes Night. Hazelhurst House is the ancestral manor where Kieran Scott’s parents, Lady Asha and Lord Graham. They have contracted the main character Molly to catalogue their extensive library, including the original manuscript for The Fatal Folio written by their ancestor Selwyn Scott.

Other relevant locations include Magpie Lane, which is where Molly’s family bookshop Thomas Marlowe is, as well as other businesses including Magpie Pub, Holly & Ivy Inn, Spinning Your Wheels (owned by Kieran), and Tea & Crumpets (owned by Daisy). Several events (including the murder) take place at St. Aelred’s, which is a college in Cambridge.

Characters

Molly Kimball is the main character and has moved with her mother—poet Nina Marlowe—from Vermont to Cambridge to help her Aunt Violet with her bookshop, Thomas Marlowe. Kieran Scott owns the bike shop next door and is Molly’s boyfriend. Kieran is also part of an aristorat lineage going back centuries. Lady Asha is Kieran’s mother and is paying Molly to catalogue the library at Hazelhurst House. Lord Graham is Kieran’s father. Oliver Scott is Kieran’s cousin and a professor of literature at a local college, St. Aelred.

Selwyn Scott is the pen name used by the author of The Fatal Folio.  Samuel and Frances Scott were siblings and ancestors of Kieran who lived in the early 1800s when the book was published. Agatha and Alistair Scott were their parents. Molly theorizes that one of the four Scotts from that time period must be the writer behind the pen name Selwyn Scott.

George Flowers is a handyman, book enthusiast, and friend of Aunt Violet. Daisy Watson is a friend of Molly’s and owner of a teashop near the bookshop. Tim Ellis works at Kieran’s bike shop and is also friends with Molly and is dating Daisy. Richard Dubold is another bookseller in the area.

Sophia Verona is another professor at the same college as Oliver and the two are both up for a full professorship position. Dr. Cutler is in charge of the professorship review committee. Thad Devines is a student of Oliver’s claiming that he was graded unfairly, and jeopardizing Oliver’s promotion. Thad is also the murder victim. Wesley Wright is a student who lived next door to Thad and is also his cousin. Amy O’Donnell and Josh Blake are other students who live on the floor below Wesley and Thad. Amy and Thad used to date, and she is now in a relationship with Josh.

Detective Inspector Sean Ryan is the officer assigned to the case, and dating Molly’s mother, Nina. Sergeant Gita Adhikari is also assigned to the case with DI Ryan. Constable Johnson and Constable Malago are the officers who respond to the stolen manuscript. Sir Jonathan Yeats is a former MI6 agent, bookseller, and special investigator who is investigating the stolen manuscript.

Plot

Molly Kimball is happy since she left her Vermont librarian position to move with her mother to Cambridge and help at her family’s ancestral bookshop. Not only has she made great friends in Cambridge, Molly has met her current boyfriend Kieran Scott. Kieran owns the bike shop next door and also happens to be from an aristocratic family who have a 500-year-old library at their manor. Kieran’s parents have contracted Molly to help them catalog their library—a dream assignment for someone like Molly!

To make things even better, Kieran shows her the original manuscript of The Fatal Folio, a gothic novel published in 1842 by Selwyn Scott. Selwyn is an ancestor of Kieran’s but the name was a pen name—no one has ever discovered which of the Scott’s were the actual author of the famous novel. Kieran and his parents gladly accept Molly’s help to try and uncover who the original author of the famous book was. Meanwhile, Kieran’s cousin Oliver stops over upset about a complaint a student named Thad Devines has made against him that may impact his review for promotion to full professor at St. Aelred.

Later that evening, Molly, Kieran, and two of their friends head out to enjoy the Guy Fawkes Night festivities with Oliver, but just as they arrive they stumble over a body dressed in black and wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, and witness another person dressed the same way running away from the body. When they go to help the person, they discover it is Thad Devines and he has been stabbed to death.

Oliver certainly had a motive, but he’s not the only one who might have wanted Thad dead. As Molly begins to look into the murder herself and works to track down the author of the manuscript, things go from bad to worse as someone steals the original manuscript of The Fatal Folio. Molly begins to wonder if the two crimes could be connected, and she’ll put her excellent research and detective skills to work to find out!

Review | The Fatal Folio

On the spectrum of cozy mysteries from the cute, kitschy style that balances the mystery with other events in the series to the other end of the genre which focuses heavily on the mystery and detective work, The Fatal Folio fell towards the latter end of the spectrum. These are my favorite type of cozy mysteries, because they have the charming settings and people of other cozy mysteries, but focus much more on the mystery itself.

The book opens right at Hazelhurst House, where Molly is working to catalog the extensive library. As she and her boyfriend Kieran discuss the upcoming Guy Fawkes Night celebrations, he brings up the original manuscript of The Fatal Folio, a gothic novel about a book who adapts to the reader and eventually takes their life. The manuscript was written by an ancestor of Kieran’s, which is why he has the original handwritten manuscript.

Like Molly, I was instantly intrigued by the mystery of the writer who went by the penname Selwyn Scott. There were four possible family members who were alive at the time the manuscript was published, and Molly is excited by the idea of putting her research skills to use to help uncover the person behind the novel. I enjoyed that this mystery not only continued throughout the book, but also that researching it tied nicely to the other mystery.

Even more delightful, Elizabeth Penney includes excerpts from the novel throughout the book, as Molly reads it while undergoing her research. This book-within-a-book format is something I love, particularly when it comes to mysteries like this one about a gothic novel. I found that the excerpts from the book not only intrigued me, but added that spooky, dark, Halloween feel to the book that I loved, especially with the book taking place around Guy Fawkes Day!

The murder of Thad is the perfect type of cozy mystery murder. Though Thad is stabbed, the murder itself is not described in any great detail. Thad as a character had made quite a few enemies and that meant that while Oliver looked quite suspicious, there were about four other viable suspects. The way the mystery unfolds, all five suspects remain a possibility through the very end of the mystery when Molly finds a way to bring the murderer forward.

One key to the murder seems to be the theft of the original manuscript, The Fatal Folio. While Molly and the police consider these as separate cases at first, there’s something suspicious about them occurring so close in time and involving the same general suspect pool for each. In addition, the murder suspects are all students or professors of literature focusing on gothic literature, and the manuscript is stolen during an event sponsored by the college’s Gothic Institute. When a special task force is put together looking into both, Molly’s suspicion that the two crimes are connected seems to be confirmed.

The book focuses more on the mystery suspects than the characters from Molly’s life, and I liked that about it. Appearances and input from the people in Molly’s life are kept to relevant ties to the mystery at hand. I felt I got enough of an impression of Kieran, his family, and Molly’s family to understand their importance in her life, but I liked that Penney didn’t feel obligated to continue to develop those characters in a non-organic way, when they weren’t related to the central mystery. With the focus on the two crimes and the mystery of the authorship itself, I was completely invested in the case and didn’t want to put the book aside. This is a hallmark of a good mystery, to me!

The conclusions to all three related mysteries came together nicely, and the mystery itself was well-crafted. I liked that none of the suspects could be completely cleared until the end, because it kept me guessing about who was behind the crimes, how they were related, and what the motive might be.

I absolutely fell in love with this series and can’t wait to go back to read the first two, and to continue on with whatever mystery comes to Molly next!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my copy. Opinions are my own.

About the Author | Elizabeth Penney

Elizabeth Penney is the Edgar Award-nominated author of the APRON SHOP SERIES and the CAMBRIDGE BOOKSHOP SERIES for St. Martin’s Press. Elements that often appear in her novels include vintage summer cottages, past/present mysteries, and the arts.

Elizabeth’s writing credits include over thirty mysteries and women’s fiction novels, short stories, and hundreds of business articles. A former consultant and nonprofit executive, she holds a BS and an MBA. She’s also written screenplays with her musician husband. Raised in Maine, Elizabeth spent her early years in England and France. Her ancestors were artisans from Barga, in Tuscany.

She loves walking in the woods, kayaking on quiet ponds, trying new recipes, and feeding family and friends. Oh, and trying to grow things in the frozen North.

Visit her author site to learn more about Elizabeth and her writing!