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A Dark and Stormy Murder
A Dark and Stormy Murder
A Dark and Stormy Murder
Audiobook7 hours

A Dark and Stormy Murder

Written by Julia Buckley

Narrated by Rebecca Mitchell

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

About this audiobook

Lena London's literary dreams are coming true-as long as she can avoid any real-life villains . . .

Camilla Graham's bestselling suspense novels inspired Lena London to become a writer, so when she lands a job as Camilla's new assistant, she can't believe her luck. Not only will she help her idol craft an enchanting new mystery, she'll get to live rent-free in Camilla's gorgeous Victorian home in the quaint town of Blue Lake, Indiana.

But Lena's fortune soon changes for the worse. First, she lands in the center of small town gossip for befriending the local recluse. Then, she stumbles across one thing that a Camilla Graham novel is never without-a dead body, found on her new boss's lakefront property.

Now Lena must take a page out of one of Camilla's books to hunt down clues in a real crime that seems to be connected to the novelist's mysterious estate-before the killer writes them both out of the story for good . . .
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 9, 2018
ISBN9781977373175
A Dark and Stormy Murder
Author

Julia Buckley

Julia Buckley is a health and fitness journalist and blogger, personal trainer and keen runner. With over a decade's journalistic experience, she has written for Runner's World, Sport, Bodyfit, Trail Running, Fitness for Women and Running Free magazines. Julia has a large online following - find her on social media via her website: www.juliabuckley.co.uk.

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Reviews for A Dark and Stormy Murder

Rating: 3.733766181818182 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

77 ratings12 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The storyline is good. But the Narrating is tedious. Either it is due to editing or it is simply the way she reads she ignores punctuation in some spots and in anothers she does. But it just sounds like a run-on sentence pretty much most of the book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Lena London has just finished grad school, ended a long-time relationship and is looking for work. Her friend Allison connects her with Camilla Graham, whom she knows from her knitters' group, and who just happens to be Lena's all-time favorite author. It seems Ms. Graham is looking for an assistant to help her with her latest suspense novel, The Salzburg Train. Within a week, Lena is ensconced in Graham House, in the leafy small town of Blue Lake, Indiana. Soon after her arrival she finds the body of a young man near Graham House. But, before discovering the body, Lena meets Camilla’s next-door neighbor, a youngish curmudgeon named Sam West. Although Lena and Sam's introduction doesn't bode well for any future friendship, soon they DO become friendlier. Unfortunately, Sam has a past that's haunting him -- people believe (without any real evidence) that he killed his missing wife Victoria. Lena looks into hi eyes and believes he's innocent. Proving it is another matter. I must say A Dark and Stormy Murder is the best mystery I've read in a very long time. The characters are great. The writing is top-notch. The story is just plain fun. I think readers of cozies and other traditional mysteries of the Agatha Christie type will LOVE this book as much as I do. I realize that the ink is barely dry on A Dark and Stormy Murder – it was published just three months ago – but I can’t wait for the next one!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'm not sure if I actually like this book or not... I might try to read the 2nd one just in case.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Lena London is a recent grad-school graduate with no job, no boyfriend, and nothing to look forward to. That is, until her friend Allison calls her and tells her that Lena's idol, writer Camilla Graham, is in her knitting class and needs an assistant. Lena is over the moon, and after a telephone interview with the author, is hired on the spot.But Lena's not going to find it all peaches and cream. She meets a reclusive, rude neighbor, and later on finds a dead body on the beach in front of Camilla's home. Now she's stuck in the middle of a murder investigation and wondering what it is that makes the neighbor so attractive to her. But will she find out before the killer finds her?...I should have known right away about this book when the author (no offense intended) mentioned she loved Mary Stewart books. Mary Stewart, for those who do not know, wrote Gothic mysteries. To wit: a young, innocent woman stumbles into suspense and terror, and there is always a dark, brooding stranger that's hiding secrets but turns out to be 'the one' when All Is Discovered.So...this is just like that. The 'dark, brooding stranger' turns out to be Sam West, who may or may not be married because his wife just...disappeared, and everyone in town (including the hunky Chief of Police) think he's guilty. So of course, Lena decides that romance with Sam would be so much better than the upstanding, cute, loyal, Doug. Why would you even get involved with someone who might still have a wife somewhere? Lena is stupid.Not to mention, Sam was extremely rude to her when they met. That's his personality. If a man has it in him to be nasty to a perfect stranger (regardless of his past) then who's to say he's not going to snap at you at some point in the future? No thanks. I also didn't like Sam at all. Doug seemed so much nicer, and more realistic.Unfortunately, I lost interest in the book right about the time Lena is having breakfast in a crowded cafe and Sam, seeing she's alone, just goes over to her table and sits with her, knowing how the town feels about him. For some reason he doesn't care that she's new in town, and association with him could taint her with the same brush (if these people are that nasty, they would think the worst of her, too).Also, why were people calling everyone else by their first and last names? Did the author need the word count? It got annoying fast. Since there was only one Sam and one Lena, did she think we’d get them confused with other characters? One can only hope Sam’s wife comes back and they move somewhere else, but I don’t think so. I’m honestly sorry I even started this book. There’s two hours of my life I’ll never get back. But the worst part was - this is the first in the series and the author ends on a cliffhanger! Or as I call it, holding the reader hostage. It’s as if authors think they won’t sell the second in the series if they don’t do this. This isn’t a TV show where you can see what happens next week - it’s a freaking book, and you might have to wait a year to see what happens. Then, what’s to stop the author from doing it in the next book? Or the next? Nope. I not only won’t read any more in this series, I won’t read any of the author’s other series, either. Once you pull the 'you-have-to-buy-the-next-book-to-find-out-what-happens' at the end of a book, you’ve lost this reader for good.Luckily, I don’t care enough about the characters to even care. Lena's an immature idiot (throwing nuts at Doug because she's upset?); Sam's boring and too broody, Camilla's only there as a plot point, and the poor cat Lestrade is just there - Lena spends very little time with him, and he has practically no reason to be in the book at all. The only one remotely interesting is Doug, who's halfway intelligent, and Lena’s too dumb to figure it out.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    rabck from dvg; a murder in a small town. Lena gets her dream job, to be an assistant to her favorite murder series author, but she doesn’t expect to trip over a dead body on the beach day one. I did want to know how they found Victoria….but I guess that's in a different book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Lena London's life is about to change....in more ways than one. When Lena brings her car to a halt in front of the large, ominous-looking mansion and home of her idol, novelist Camilla Graham, she still can't believe her good fortune. Lena has devoured every one of Camilla Graham's books since she was a young girl, and now she will have the privilege of living in her house as her personal assistant and ghost writer, thanks to her friend Allison who got her the interview that landed her the job. This apprenticeship is a dream come true for Lena, but as she gets started in her new role she finds that all is not well in the sleepy, blissful town of Blue Lake, IN. Nothing notable ever really happens in Blue Lake she's been told, but in less than a day since Lena's arrival a dead body is discovered on Camilla's property, and she learns that their neighbor next door, Sam West, is suspected of killing his missing wife. And while walking Camilla's feisty German Shepherds, Heathcliff and Rochester, in an attempt to acquaint herself with her new surroundings and neighbors, she meets several surly male residents and a few pleasant women in town who seem cordial and welcoming enough. But Lena's on high alert. Can any of these townsfolk be responsible for the murder of Martin Jonas, waiter at the Wheat Grass restaurant? Did Sam West kill his wife who vanished a year ago without a trace?This cozy started out well, and I liked the idea of an aspiring writer living with and working for her favorite novelist. Their interactions throughout the book were endearing, and it was nice to see how their relationship evolved from the time they met to the book's end. Camilla's dogs, Rochester and Heathcliff; and Lena's cat, Lestrade, were a welcome addition to the story. Their antics were amusing and I never tired of reading about what they were up to. While the characters were interesting, I would like to have seen some of them more fully developed. There was so much more potential for fleshing them out. Perhaps we'll learn more about them in book 2. What put me off a little with this book was the insta-love between Lena and one of the other characters, the double murder plot which at times made me wonder which one was taking center stage, the easy way I determined who the killer was, and the To Be Continued ending. All in all, I liked this cozy but I didn't love it. I wanted to love it so much. It began on a high note but gradually started to lose steam for me when I was about 3/4 of the way in. Nevertheless it was a pretty good read. But hey, judging from the 4 and 5 star reviews it's receiving you might think differently so I'd say give it a try. You may very well think it deserves more merit.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Picture a molten lava chocolate cake. Rich, decadent and oozy... Now picture it covered in supermarket icing shaped like the little mermaid, complete with airbrushed colours and lifelike coral. That's how this book ended up working for me. The premise offered something richer, more sophisticated than your average modern cozy; the reality of the writing produced something more akin to the mass market confections that are a dime a dozen. That's not to say it was a bad read - it wasn't. The MC - Lena - was likeable, if irritatingly naive and way too hero worship-y not to want to occasionally smack. Her boss, Camilla, is the quintessential famous British author of romantic suspense: smart, kind, resourceful, generous, wealthy. (The hero-worship, the perfection of Camilla and comments made about how special authors are in general (because they have imagination) lead me to suspect that Buckley indulges in a bit of hero worship herself.) Two romantic interests are introduced, but no love triangle exists by the end of the book. Both men are, of course, gorgeous and, of course, one is boy scout good and one is bad boy good. Buckley gets extra points though for finding a more creative way of stringing out the romance than the tried and true tropes. There were two plots running concurrently: the obvious omg-there's-a-dead-body one that is cleverly plotted and resolved neatly by the end of the book, and a longer more complicated missing-person plot that's left hanging (presumably because the author was offered a multi book contract). There are many dark and stormy nights throughout the book, but the mysteries and the overall atmosphere fail utterly to evoke the romantic suspense novels of Mary Stewart, Barbara Michaels, Victoria Holt or Phyllis Whitney. I'll likely give the second book a go, because I'm quite curious about the longer mystery arc, but my expectations and hopes will be lowered accordingly.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a great debut. I can’t imagine anyone who has a favorite author and wouldn’t jump at a chance to possibly work with them, even on a limited basis. Camille Graham, who is modeled after several of the Gothic authors my mom used to read, hires Lena London to help hone her newest novel. In the small community of Blue Lake, everyone quickly learns about the new face in town, particularly since it’s Lena who finds a local man dead next to the Graham’s lakefront home. In addition to the local murder, neighbor Sam West, while not completely hiding from his past, is trying to forget that he’s been the main person of interest in his wife’s year long disappearance. Lena has her writer’s brain full of possibilities about what may have happened when. It was a fast paced, exciting read and I can't wait for the next one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Camilla Graham is a famous suspense writer and has been Lena London’s inspiration and idol since Lena first discovered her books as a girl. Now, it seems the impossible has happened: Lena is hired to be Camilla’s assistant and help with her newest book. The two women work well together, but all is not happy in this little community. Befriending a reclusive neighbor who is suspected of, but not charged with, killing his wife, she becomes the subject of unsavory gossip. And when she finds a body on the shore by Camilla’s house, speculation on the man’s unfortunate demise encompasses them all. It is up to Lena and Camilla to put the fiction book on hold to solve a real-life murder. This book is a good introduction to a new series, and has interesting, well-defined characters in an intriguing plot. But the book really has a none-ending conclusion, setting up the next novel in the series. And while some readers might not consider this a flaw, others will want the book to end with a clear conclusion, not introducing the next adventure.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I found A Dark and Stormy Murder to be very slow-moving. Poor Martin Jonas was found dead on Camilla Graham's beach on pg. 40, and not much more was done about him for over 120 pages. Martin's murder didn't actually seem to be the main focus of this book. The disappearance of Sam West's wife was the more compelling mystery, and this has been carried over to Book 2. Will have to see how this series develops.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It was a dark and stormy night...Aspiring author Lena London lands her dream job as assistant to her most favorite writer, Camilla Graham. Lena never dreamed that she'd be pulled into a real murder mystery, but that's exactly what happens when she spots a dead body not far from Camilla's Victorian home.I enjoy books about books, and this one in particular was a delight because it was all about classic Gothic romantic suspense, and the main character getting to live inside one. Lena went full on fangirl around Camilla, which I could totally relate to.Readers are presented with two mysteries in this book, first, the dead body Lena finds, and also, a mystery involving Camilla's brooding and handsome neighbor, Sam West. Sam's wife has been missing for a year. What happened to her? Was Sam somehow involved? Public opinion says yes, though Lena feels otherwise. I thought it was a bit strange that Lena had a fierce insta-loyalty toward Sam, to the point where she embarrasses herself in front of the police. *shrugs*This was a fun read, a bit different than a typical cozy in that it leaves part of the mystery open-ended. I'm looking forward to continuing with the next book.Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A Dark and Stormy Murder by Julia Buckley is the first book in A Writer’s Apprentice Mystery series. Lena London has finished graduate school and is looking for a job when she receives a call from her friend, Allison. Allison has the perfect job for Lena. Allison happens to be in a knitting group with Lena’s favorite writer, Camilla Graham. Camilla is looking for a ghost writer (of sorts). Camilla is a writer of romantic suspense and Lena has been a fan since she was a teenager. Camilla needs someone to brainstorm with her, do research, and do some writing. Lena is the perfect candidate. She did her graduate thesis on Camilla and her work. After a phone interview, Lena is hired. She will get to live in Graham House with Camilla. Lena arrives and quickly settles in. She is looking out a window and notices someone on the beach—and they are not moving. Camilla and Lena go to check and find Martin Jonas dead. Martin was a waiter at Wheatgrass, a restaurant owned by Adam Rayburn (who visits Camilla regularly). This is just the first incident. It seems that someone is coming onto the property at night. If it was not for Camilla’s dogs, they would never know. However, whenever they investigate the person (or persons) have disappeared. What is going on? Then Lena hears about a “secret” regarding Graham House. Does the house have a secret? Then there is the matter of Sam West. Sam is Camilla’s closest neighbor. He came to Blue Lake, Indiana to get away from the press and rumors in New York. A year ago Sam’s wife disappeared. Sam was accused of the crime, but there is no proof (and no body). Now people are accusing Sam of Martin’s death. Lena does not believe that Sam is guilty and is quite vocal on the matter. Then blood is found in Sam’s New York apartment and it belongs to his wife, Victoria (and Sam was in New York recently). Lena wants to find a way to prove Sam innocent. Looks like life is not so quiet in Blue Lake as Allison indicated. Join Lena as she sets out to get answers.A Dark and Stormy Murder was not bad for a first book in a new series. The book is easy to read, but had some slow parts (especially when Lena got off on her thinking tangents). The murder occurred too early in the book which made the novel seem really long (thought it was not). There was one thing that I found just odd. I did not understand Lena defending Sam so vehemently. She had just met the man, but she was absolutely convinced of his innocence. How can you be certain a man is innocent if you just met him (and know nothing about him)? I give A Dark and Stormy Murder 3.5 out of 5 stars. There was some repetition of information (an example is Camilla’s books and how much Lena enjoyed them). I enjoyed the two mysteries especially the one regarding the murder of Martin Jonas. They were interesting (if I say more it would be a spoiler) and complicated (especially the Sam West case). Unfortunately, only one case gets wrapped up in A Dark and Stormy Murder. We will have to wait for the next book to see what happens regarding Sam West and his missing wife. A Writer’s Apprentice Mystery series has potential. I think with more character development it can be a good series to enjoy. I will be reading the next book.I received a complimentary copy of A Dark and Stormy Murder from NetGalley (and the publisher) in exchange for an honest evaluation of the book.