{"id":6423,"date":"2025-05-21T07:38:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T14:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6423"},"modified":"2025-05-21T07:38:34","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T14:38:34","slug":"elizabeth-penney-bodies-and-battlements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/elizabeth-penney-bodies-and-battlements\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabeth Penney: Bodies and Battlements"},"content":{"rendered":"

New series<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Bodies and Battlements<\/em> is the first Ravensea Castle mystery by Elizabeth Penney. Readers are taken to the Yorkshire Coast in Robinhood\u2019s Bay, where Ravensea castle stands near the shore. The Asquith family has lived in the castle for generations, and with bills piling up Ravensea Castle is undergoing a dramatic transformation to a B&B location. Nora, full title Eleanor Sibilla Asquith, is spear heading the effort with the blessing of her father and contention from her siblings. She runs her own little apothecary, but the funds just aren\u2019t enough for the upkeep of the castle. Despite the lack of support from her siblings and the push back and protests from some new locals, Nora manages to get Ravensea all up to code, ready to run as an official B&B, and get her first guests registered. She just hopes that their resident ghost, Sir Percival, stays inactive long enough to not scare anyone off.<\/p>\n

Eager to make the first guests\u2019 stay a success, Nora pulls out all the stops. Her father dresses in traditional attire, ready to greet guests as lord of the castle. Their chief cook, Janet, prepares feasts and Nora even has a cocktail hour where they serve her brother\u2019s mead. She is shocked when her sister appears as well, taking a break from the fast-paced life of an actress, and offers to help run things. The guests arrive with one extra, however, that isn\u2019t on the list: Hilda Dibble, a local who loudly fought against the charge against the conversion of Ravensea Castle. Despite their contentious past, Nora is more than willing put on a brave face and take the higher path. Rather than chase her off the property, which she would have every right to do, Nora invites her in to join the real guests for cocktails and socializing. Luckily, something puts Hilda off and she leaves before Nora has to bother entertaining her. Which suits her just fine as Nora would much rather speak with their real guests, especially the charming Finlay Cole.<\/p>\n

Everything seems to be going without a hitch, until Nora comes across Hilda Dibble again. This time she\u2019s considerably less argumentative, since she\u2019s been murdered. While Nora isn\u2019t exactly equipped to handle this kind of situation, it turns out Finlay Cole is actually Detective Inspector Finlay Cole. Taking charge of the situation, he promptly begins to investigate with the local authorities. Unfortunately, the investigation looks unfavorably on her family and the B&B might be dead in the water before it even got a chance to take off. Nora and her sister can\u2019t risk leaving things to the authorities, and take to the streets to try and figure out who could have murdered Hilda. Little did she know that that list was actually quite long, and that Hilda was not at all who she presented herself to be around their little village.<\/p>\n

I recommend Bodies and Battlements<\/em> for anyone who enjoys a cozy in an English setting. Elizabeth Penny makes it easy for readers to submerge themselves into the setting of Ravensea Castle. The descriptions of the castle and its grounds pull readers into the setting. It’s also tricky to write in believable supernatural elements into a cozy, but I found Sir Percival to be a very endearing addition to the story. Often the main characters interact and speak with the ghosts, but Elizabeth Penny made their interactions more indirect, which I enjoyed. It seemed like at every turn new information comes to light to deepen the circumstances surrounding Hilda\u2019s death, and the poor Asquith family is trapped right in the middle of things. Nora\u2019s steady nature and determination to make the best of things is endearing and compels readers to follow along with her adventure. I look forward to seeing what Nora makes of Ravensea castle and what adventures await her and her family and friends.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 – Carla Schantz<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New series Bodies and Battlements is the first Ravensea Castle mystery by Elizabeth Penney. Readers are taken to the Yorkshire Coast in Robinhood\u2019s Bay, where Ravensea castle stands near the shore. The Asquith family has lived in the castle for generations, and with bills piling up Ravensea Castle is undergoing a dramatic transformation to a … 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":[67,4],"tags":[1057,2112,2110,949,328,391,100,2111,2113],"class_list":["post-6423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-in-series","category-reviews","tag-amateur-sleuth","tag-bed-and-breakfast","tag-bodies-and-battlements","tag-carla-schantz","tag-cozy","tag-elizabeth-penney","tag-minotaur-books","tag-ravensea-castle","tag-yorkshire-coast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6423","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=6423"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6425,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6423\/revisions\/6425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}