{"id":6244,"date":"2026-05-21T10:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T10:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/?p=6244"},"modified":"2026-05-21T10:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T10:36:14","slug":"review-petterils-party-by-mary-lancaster-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/21\/review-petterils-party-by-mary-lancaster-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Petteril’s Party by Mary Lancaster (2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\"\"This is book 9 in the series, and although the initial freshness has worn off and the disparity between April\u2019s background and Piers\u2019 rank is of less importance now, the author still manages to come up with an entertaining and intriguing mystery.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the premise: April and Piers have arranged a get-together for all Piers\u2019 old friends from his days as an academic, before he inherited a viscountcy and was forced to give it all up. They\u2019ve rented a house for a couple of weeks, but the owners have taken most of the servants to London with them, there are weird noises in the night and odd things disappear. Then there\u2019s the sole remaining manservant, who\u2019s insolent and lazy. And then there\u2019s the lady who has some history with Piers, so that April is torn by jealousy. And then there\u2019s an attempted murder\u2026<\/p>\n

From then on, the plot rumbles on almost under its own steam. The intrepid duo investigate the attack on the footman, while the lesser mysteries are rather easily resolved. For Piers, there\u2019s the question of whether his academic friends could possibly be involved in bopping the footman over the head, and his loyalty to his friends is counterbalanced by April\u2019s clearer vision of these people she\u2019s only just met. For April, there\u2019s the huge gulf between her own background and Piers\u2019 highly educated upper-class friends. And the friends have their own uncertainties and insecurities.<\/p>\n

It all comes to a satisfactory conclusion, naturally, although (as usual) I didn\u2019t guess the identity of the villain. One line near the end shocked me, though – apparently only a little over a year has passed since Piers and April first met. Considering just how many murders and other mysteries have been squeezed into that time (including a trip to Portugal), and how much April has been required to change, from street urchin and thief to gracious viscountess, my suspension of disbelief is hanging by a thread. But the series is so entertaining, I\u2019m happy to pretend it\u2019s plausible. Five stars (again).<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is book 9 in the series, and although the initial freshness has worn off and the disparity between April\u2019s background and Piers\u2019 rank is of less importance now, the author still manages to come up with an entertaining and intriguing mystery. Here\u2019s the premise: April and Piers have arranged a get-together for all Piers\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[149],"class_list":["post-6244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-lancaster"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6246,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6244\/revisions\/6246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}