Madrigals and Mayhem

Cambridge Bookshop Mystery Book 4

Elizabeth Penney

Minotaur Books

Nov 26^th, 2024

Madrigals and Mayhem by Elizabeth Penney is a fun read.  There is a vintage toy store, dolls, doll houses, not so nice family members, and a story within a story, Charlotte’s Dollhouse by Emilie Dunbarto.

“I wanted to write a Christmas theme which is why I incorporated doll houses and a musical. There is a lot of nostalgia with toys, where people think about the toys they had as children.  This is why I made the toys vintage. People collect toys.  Everyone loves toys whether toys they had or now the toys of their children/grandchildren. In this story I incorporated real dolls like the Madame Alexander and Sasha dolls. There are real dolls with fur and real diamonds. Some that are worth a lot of money. I even put this quote in the book, ‘You’d be amazed how many adults buy toys for themselves.’ Another huge industry is the doll house industry where people collect them and objects for the interior.”

The plot has the main character, Molly Kimball, experiencing her first Christmas in England.  She makes a new friend, Charlotte Pemberly, who has decided to reopen her late grandfather Arthur’s vintage toy shop, Pemberly’s Emporium. Unfortunately, Charlotte has a whole host of awful stepfamily members including her Arthur’s wife, Althea Winters, to contend with, all of whom think Charlotte stole what is rightfully theirs by inheriting the toy shop and family home. They are looking for a rare Madame Alexander doll to steal, suspected to be hidden in the toy shop.

“I wrote Althea Charlotte’s stepmom as manipulative, selfish, and uncaring. She is the matriarch who tries to pull everybody’s strings. Tori, Barnaby’s sister is trying to deal with rejection and loss. While Charlotte is outgoing, self-determined, extroverted, sweet, kind, and must deal with many in her family who are her enemies.” 

After seeing how charmed Molly is by a toy dollhouse, Charlotte offers her a tour of the shop. They stumble across a nearly dead man in the toy shop’s back room. Seems Barnaby, Charlotte’s cousin, has been poisoned by sweet treats supposedly from Molly’s friend Daisy’s shop. Then his sister Tori shows up, followed by the police. Now both Charlotte and Daisy become people of interest in the poisoning.

The first mystery that Molly gets wrapped up in is finding a Madame Alexander doll that is rightfully Charlotte’s, which her grandfather hid so that his new wife’s family couldn’t get it. The second mystery is who poisoned Barnaby since Molly believes that both Charlotte and Daisy are innocent.

Playing a role are dolls, doll houses and the made-up children’s story. “I made up the children’s tale, Charlotte’s Dollhouse, and it was a lot of fun to write. This fits into the theme because in the story there is a little girl who is grieving because she wants a family.  I love those old books with doll houses where the dolls come to life. There are some magical books that have that feature. The “real” character, Charlotte, who owns the toy story and the main character, Molly, have had loss in their lives. They can relate to the little girl in the story, Charlotte’s Dollhouse, who also had lost her parents.  The theme is finding a new family. Both Molly and Charlotte started over with a new family and finding support.”

As in all her books, readers will be transported to Cambridge, England where they will feel like they were helping Molly solve the case. People should look forward to the next stories. The next book in this Cambridge Series titled Vows and Villainy out in the fall.  The plot has Molly’s best friend Daisy getting married to Tim, with a body turning up. The new series, “The Raven Sea Castle Mystery,” will be out the end of May titled Bodies and Battlements.  The heroine starts renting rooms of her Scottish Castle and of course someone dies.

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