{"id":6128,"date":"2024-11-21T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6128"},"modified":"2024-11-21T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T15:00:00","slug":"elizabeth-penney-madrigals-and-mayhem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/elizabeth-penney-madrigals-and-mayhem\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabeth Penney: Madrigals and Mayhem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cambridge Bookshop #4<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In Madrigals and Mayhem,<\/em> the fourth Cambridge Bookshop book by Elizabeth Penney, Molly Kimball is an American ex-pat who has made her home on Magpie Lane in Cambridge, England, with her Aunt Violet and her bookshop. Her mother also lives there and helps out at the bookshop as well. Molly has established herself with a bit of a reputation for solving mysteries in town. Friends and family are well aware that if they run into trouble, Molly will be more than willing to jump in to try and help prove their innocence. While the local authorities are not thrilled to have her poke around, they will not turn down a good lead or ignore any clues she offers to them. Madrigals and Mayhem<\/em> focuses on Molly\u2019s first English Christmas, and meeting her new neighbor and owner of a toy store, Charlotte Pemberly.<\/p>\n

The toy store, Pemberly\u2019s Emporium, used to be a regular feature of the town but when Charlotte\u2019s grandfather Arthur couldn\u2019t run it anymore, it had closed. Now, after his passing, Charlotte is taking over and reopening the shop to keep the legacy going. Turns out that Charlotte was also the sole heir of her grandfather\u2019s estate, which did not make her popular with his wife, Althea, and her family from her previous marriages. Legal turmoil had delayed Charlotte’s reopening of the emporium, but the end result was that the will was upheld and she remains the only heir. But that hasn\u2019t stopped her step-grandmother and company from feeling they were owed something. If they can\u2019t have the whole estate, they instead seem to be targeting a valuable Madame Alexander doll that has gone missing. Needless to say, tensions are quite high with this family from the moment Molly meets Charlotte. Finding Althea\u2019s son passed out in the Emporium, poisoned by tea cakes, Molly finds herself on the case once again. There are plenty of opportunities to snoop around Althea\u2019s family both at the local collage as well as being cast in a play Althea and her sister are directing. Althea rules with an iron fist and nasty attitude wherever she goes. Luckily, Molly has a strong and close knit group of family and friends who always have her back and are always ready to help her as she digs for the truth.<\/p>\n

For those who have read the previous three Cambridge Bookshop books this is a wonderful addition to the story of Molly Kimball. First time readers will not be confused as to setting or characters as Elizabeth Penney introduces them in a clear manner. However, there are lots of intersecting relationships and histories that readers would enjoy more if they had some buildup from the previous books. Elizabeth Penney layers puzzles, motives, and clues in a way that has readers determined to reach the end to see the resolution. Elizabeth Penney\u2019s descriptions paint a cozy image of an English town and draws readers in. It\u2019s always nice when a book such as Madrigals and Mayhem<\/em> provides readers with not only a mystery, but also with a lovely escape to an English Christmas.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 – Carla Schantz<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cambridge Bookshop #4 In Madrigals and Mayhem, the fourth Cambridge Bookshop book by Elizabeth Penney, Molly Kimball is an American ex-pat who has made her home on Magpie Lane in Cambridge, England, with her Aunt Violet and her bookshop. Her mother also lives there and helps out at the bookshop as well. Molly has established … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1936,949,398,391,1937,1935,100],"class_list":["post-6128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-cambridge-bookshop","tag-carla-schantz","tag-christmas","tag-elizabeth-penney","tag-madame-alexander-dolls","tag-madrigals-and-mayhem","tag-minotaur-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6128"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6130,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6128\/revisions\/6130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}