The Dizzy Heights are playing a private party this time at a pretty swank out-in-the-country house in Oxfordshire. And though some of the family are welcoming (notably the youngest son and the music producer uncle), there are definitely undercurrents of animosity as the wealthy father has recently remarried and the new wife is only a year older than his oldest son. With a fortune built on biscuits, he has money to divide up and there is some indication that he may be changing his will and that most of his children (if not all four) seem to have a problem with that. No surprise, of course, that he ends up dead. It appears to be a suicide at first glance but Skins and Dunn quickly realize that there is more than meets the eye.
A highly enjoyable story, as usual from Kinsey. The author capture the feel of the time and place and acknowledges things like "Oh, we couldn't possibly find ANOTHER secret passage.."

Four stars
This book came out March 1, 2021
Follows The Deadly Mystery of the Missing Diamonds
ARC kindly provided by Amazon Publishing UK and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

This is the second book in a new series by TE Kinsey. I read both book 1 and book 2 back to back, making for a great few days being immersed with the Dizzy Heights, a highly regarded jazz band in London.. Dizzy Heights has been engaged to play at a country home Midsummer Ball. Unfortunately, the family patriarch is found in a locked room, apparently a suicide.
The band searches for clues, and another death occurs. Due to flooding, the band remains stranded at the estate for a few days allowing them to find the killer, and how they managed a murder in a locked room to look like a suicide.
This was an engaging read, and I liked the characters immensely. Besides the funny puns that pop up frequently, these characters seem very real for the time and place, making the situations they find themselves in, believable.
I am also a fan of Kinsey's Lady Hardcastle and Flo series. Now i have another one to highly recommend in the English cozy realm. Thanks to Net Galley for the eARC.

It is a really wonderful book. I couldn't stop reading it because I really liked the main characters, the whole atmosphere and there was a huge desire to figure out what had happened behind the closed door.
If you like the locked-room mystery and jazz, it is a perfect choice for you. I really hope that the author will continue this serie and I can enjoy the next book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for a digital copy of this amazing book in exchange for an honest review.

The Dizzy Heights jazz musicians go by bus to Oxfordshire to perform for a gala party hosted by the Bilverton family at Bilverton House. However, a storm with lots of rain has caused flooding all around the home, and they are stuck there for longer than planned. They are housed in the old chapel on cots. There is also a recording studio in the chapel run by Malcolm Bilverton, the brother of the owner and a former army officer. The day after the ball, the band entertains the entire family with their music, and Malcolm records several of their pieces. That afternoon, when Ellie, wife of Skins who with Dunn founded the band, goes to the main house to see about tea, she hears a gun shot from John Bilveton's office. The door is locked, and it appears the key is in the keyhold on the inside. John's daughters Veronica and Elizabeth help Ellie break into the office, and find John dead with his gun on the floor nearby. There is also an almost full glass of Scotch on the desk. They find the phone isn't working.

As long as they are stuck at the Bilverton's, Ellie, Skins, and Dunn decide they might as well try to solve what happened to John Bilverton. They get help from Veronica. They are sure that Bilverton was murdered, because the wound in his head would have been worse if the gun was closer to his head. However, how did a murderer get out of the study without Ellie seeing him or her. The house is very big, and parts of it are very old, so they begin to try to find secret tunnels and or rooms. That night when Ellie goes back to the Chapel, the rest of the band is all asleep on the floor. They had the decanter of Scotch from the house, and Ellie quickly realizes that the Scotch must have been drugged and John must have been asleep when he was shot.

However, it still takes quite awhile before they figure out how the murder could take place in a locked room, and meanwhile someone else is dead and a third person fell or was pushed downstairs. They continue sleuthing while the floods hold. Finally, the doctor gets through to the house, and the coach is hired to take the Dizzy Heights home to London. Suddenly as the amateur sleuths have figured everything out, the the guilty killer shows up with his gun.

This is a great second Dizzy Heights book, with with humor, suspense, and great characters.

A locked room. A mysterious death. Just another gig for the Dizzy Heights. This is the second in this delightful series involving the musical group, Dizzy Heights. Yes it takes place in a country manor house (so overdone) but this author keeps it fresh and original and it was a really fun read and a great mystery! Looking forward to book #3. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced readers copy for review.

<i> Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me an ARC for this book! </i>

A Baffling Murder at the Midsummer Ball is a cozy mystery in which a band, stranded at a mansion because of a flood after playing at a party for the rich family that owns it, tries to solve the murder of the family patriarch.
There are enough pieces in this to keep the reader guessing and suspecting everyone, but after a while it's pretty obvious who the murderer is. Still, the investigating bits in itself are engaging and fun, moving from one member of the Bilverton family to the next and delving into all the intrigue that families produce best.
The cons in this book are what keeps the excellent writing from shining through: first, the fact that it spends so much time focused on the band and its members, which are honestly not that interesting to someone who decided to pick up a thriller, especially considering that it takes a huge leap of faith already to accept that their investigation isn't a hell of a meddling job already. Second, there is a lot of repetition, especially when people retell stuff to one another and excruciatingly at the end, in which a narration of events by the main character tries to mimic Agatha Christie or Sherlock Holmes, except we already knew everything being told because every single information had been revealed before.
Overall a fun experience, do check this out if my complaints don't sound like the sort of stuff you'd mind. The overall mood and mystery are worth overlooking those details if you're looking for a cozy thriller to spend the time.

A Baffling Murder at the Midsummer Ball is the second instalment in The Dizzy Heights Mystery series set in 1925 Oxfordshire. The unstoppable, prominent jazz band known as the Dizzy Heights are back on the road performing concerts and touring when they are invited to the Bilverton Estate to play at the lavish annual Midsummer Ball for a family members birthday in the grand house situated in the grounds, all thanks to their intrepid new manager. Ellie, Skins and Dunn, the members of the band, arrive expecting it to be an evening like any other; everything goes to plan and the guests seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed themselves dancing their way through the evening despite the balmy temperatures. However, the following day, the weather becomes horrendously stormy leading to flash flooding and the roads are deemed impassable in the current circumstances so they must all sit tight. Everyone ends up stuck inside Bilverton House whether they like it or not and this prevents anyone, including the band, from leaving. When their host is found dead in a locked room in the house the band put down their trumpets and trombones and put on their amateur sleuthing hats to investigate.

He has been shot in the temple and whilst others believe it could've been at his own hand, the musicians know, due to their wartime experiences, that this was no accident or suicide. The family are all pretty eccentric and through investigating the band members discover the man was disliked by the rest of the extensive, argumentative family of millionaires who accumulated their fortune through the retail of biscuits. It becomes known that there was some kind of family ruckus over the dead patriarch’s will, so now all the band have to do is ascertain which one of them was desperate enough to murder him and how exactly they locked the door behind them, a seemingly impossible feat. This is a compelling and richly atmospheric cosy style mystery set in the hot summer days in the mid-Roaring Twenties. The characters are an idiosyncratic bunch who are all engaging and developed well. Laced with drama, secrets and ill intent, the author leaves a trail of clues and a puzzle for you to follow and the mystery element is taut and thoughtfully plotted. It very much reads like and has the zeitgeist and atmosphere of a Golden Age locked room mystery. Lighthearted, charming and thoroughly entertaining escapism. Highly recommended.

More Jazz Age mayhem in the UK...

A Baffling Murder at the Midsummer Ball is the second in TE Kinsey’s historical mystery series featuring the Dizzy Heights, an eight-piece jazz band based in London. In the first book, the band’s founders, Skins Maloney and Barty Dunn, together with Skins’ American wife, Ellie, tracked down a murderer among the clubs and nightlife of London. For their second outing, however, the Heights are visiting Oxfordshire, where their brand-new manager, Katy, has booked them to play at Bilverton House’s midsummer ball. I had read and enjoyed the first in this series when it came out (see my review here), so I was happy to receive a review copy of this second title as well. And I liked it a lot, even a bit more than the first one.

At first, it seems that all is going to go well with the Heights’ venture to the country, aside from a spot of travel sickness for the band’s singer, Mickey Kent. Sure, Ellie overhears some rather tense bickering between some of the members of the Bilverton family (of Bilverton’s Biscuits). And with all of the guests staying in the main house, the band ends up sleeping on some cots in a converted chapel on the property. But the party goes well, the food is good, and they get a chance to riff with a new singer with a great voice. Even cooler, Malcolm Bilverton has set up a very professional first-generation recording studio in part of the former chapel, and he makes some records of the band the next morning.

Then things start to go wrong. The bus that is supposed to take them back to London doesn’t show up, and John, the patriarch of the family, is found shot, inside his locked study. Everyone assumes he committed suicide, but when the youngest Bilverton, Howard, tries to go for the doctor and the police, he discovers that the estate is surrounded by floodwater. So when Skins and Barty, who saw some grim stuff during the war, recognize that the gunshot wound doesn’t look self-inflicted, thus begins a classic locked room mystery, neatly wrapped inside an isolated country house mystery. Author Kinsey provides a lot of motives and clues, and even more red herrings, but eventually Barty, Skins and Ellie figure it out.

As I mentioned above, I liked this book even a bit more than the first one. The characters are more developed, and Ellie (a nurse during the war) has a bigger role, which she fills nicely. I especially liked learning more about the early days of music recording - it’s easy to tell that once again, TE Kinsey has done a stellar job of research for the background of his book. Kinsey also slides in occasional spots of wry humor as when he comments after the patriarch’s final exit before his death, “The band, as bands do, played on.” And finally, the plot kept me guessing until the end, as mysteries mostly should.

Please keep in mind that I try not to give too many 5-star reviews, so my 4-star rating for A Baffling Murder at the Midsummer Ball is a solid “read” recommendation. I very much hope that there are more titles to come in this series. And finally, my thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for the advance review copy.

This is a good follow up to the first book in the series, and it is equally well written and entertaining. The Dizzy Heights jazz band have been hired to play at a country house and the whole gang travel there in a charabanc. (when was the last time you used that word ?)

I love the way Kinsey brings 1925 to life with references to small things like songs which have just become popular and the latest Agatha Christie book just published. The main characters are beginning to win me round especially Ellie, who takes control of the detective work and the whole book in a delightful fashion. There is a lot of witty dialogue too which always keeps a good story rolling along.

Of course there is a mystery - this time a locked room murder which has a fairly complicated solution, involving secret tunnels and a slightly crazy murderer. The author peppers the story with clues and makes it entirely possible for the reader to discover the guilty party before the amateur detectives do.

All good fun and I look forward to the next book:)

Oh, how this book made me giggle! The wit is just unreal, as it is in the Lady Hardcastle series by this author. Locked room mystery elements in an isolated manor house, puzzles, passages, quirky characters, raucous shenanigans and peppy music adds up to tremendous fun. It practically induced me to frolic around the garden!

Set in Oxfordshire in 1925, a kaleidoscope of a band called Dizzy Heights travels to Bilverton House to play for an eccentric family and guests. Murder interrupts the jocularity and the band members and their two helpers/followers inveigle and search the house and the family's brains. I just love the buildup to the murder. In fact, following the thoughts and conversations of the characters is as as delightful as figuring out the guilty party. The wound-coloured hole, "Regency Ghastly" and the Hamlet bits are brilliant...and the wit is all over the place, yet not over the top. The characters are just...well, you'll find out.

Don't miss reading the author's notes about his inspiration and touches of history. Historical Fiction, Mystery and General Fiction readers, especially those hankering for smart and snappy writing really should read this. I'm now going to read everything by this author I can get my hands on.

My sincere thank you to Amazon Publishing UK and NetGalley for the pleasure of reading this charming book. Pure joy.

England, rural, murder, murder-investigation, amateur-sleuth, situational-humor, verbal-humor, jazz-age, jazz-musicians, family-dynamics, friendship*****

It's 1925 at a country house in rural England the Dizzy Heights jazz band is there to play for a party and meet someone who is just getting into the business of creating phonograph records. But then a man is found dead in a locked room (and the rain is causing severe isolating flooding) but the band members who had been in The War knew that it wasn't suicide. There is a lot of fun (including a bit about a city guy chasing a chicken around the kitchen to get eggs) and there is a rabbit warren of concealed doors and secret stairs to confuse things as they investigate everyone and everything. The story is really good and full of jazzy cant and references to musicians and films from America. I loved it!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Thomas & Mercer/ Amazon Publishing UK via Netgalley. Thank you!

Rating added here, as there is a spoiler towards the bottom of the review.
3 out of 5 stars.

I love T E Kinsey's Lady Hardcastle series, and enjoyed Skins and Dunn in those books. I admit, though, that I'm struggling to enjoy this spinoff series as well as the original one. "A Baffling Murder at the Midsummer Ball" is the second Dizzy Heights mystery. Kinsey's writing is witty, the characters are engaging, and the story well-told. I adore country house and locked-room mysteries, and this combines both.

But...

I figured out whodunnit about 22% of the way in. Normally, that doesn't bother me too much, but since the quality of the writing is so high, I think I expected the puzzle to be a bit more, well, puzzling.

The band and entourage comprise a large number of characters, which, in addition to the family and servants at the country house, sometimes made it hard to keep up. Also, some of the characters, such as Skins and Izzie, are called by both their given and nicknames by other characters.

Spoiler question: How did the murderer know there would be someone by the study when the gunshot sounded?

I received an advance copy from Amazon Publishing UK/Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Note: A huge thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for providing me with an ARC of the book.

This is  the first book that I have read by author T.E. Kinsey. Of course this is the second book in the Dizzy Heights Mystery series, but it can be read as a stand alone book. This story follows the Dizzy Heights band as they arrive at Bilverton House to play at the Midsummer Ball. What is expected to just be a band performance for an evening turns into a situation of house arrest due to the rains. With the Bilverton family members and the Dizzy Heights band stuck together, the plot becomes more interesting when there is a death - in a locked room that is almost ruled a suicide.

As the story progresses, we are introduced to the various members of the band as well as the Bilverton family. It is indeed quite a mix of interesting characters, each with their own quirks, personalities and habits. It also looks like everyone in the Bilverton family is up to something and is keeping secrets. When Ellie hears a gunshot and finds the dead body, she along with Skins and Dunn agree that the circumstances are suspicious and suspect murder.

This turns into an interesting investigative few days for them while the band also plays music and mingles with the family to pass the time. I love how the plot unravels and Ellie's perceptive nature. She is one of my favourite characters in this story. The author has done a great job in building up the atmosphere and describing each situation and person to the readers! It feels as though we are involved in the investigations and discussions along with the band. I would also like to point out that there are some great references to music from the time period of the setting ( a lot of which I don't even know), but I felt like I could relate anyway due to how it was described.

This is one murder mystery I would recommend to all fans of the genre and I cannot wait to join the Dizzy Heights band on their next performance and adventure!

I did read book one in the series, so was familiar with the delightful performers of the Dizzy Heights, their relationships and the banter amongst them. This aspect of the series is most enjoyable.

This is a much more of a typical cozy mystery than the first and there were many elements that didn't surprise me (could be because I read more in this genre) with a couple of red herrings along the way. I guessed. whodunnit, you can follow the clues, and I love that! I like an author that provides 'bread crumbs' for the reader to follow, although I do still find it a bit of a stretch that the jazz band identifies clues and resolves the murder so effectively.

The rest of the ensemble of characters were OK, I struggled a little with the lack of mourning amongst them, they also felt a little hard-hearted. Hmm!

I really do enjoy this period, the author's style and his exploration of the rhyming Cockney slang etc. I think the next in the series will benefit from the change in scenery.

With thanks to Thomas & Mercer, #Netgalley and the author for my advance reader copy in return for an honest review.

The Dizzy Heights are hired for the Midsummer Ball at the Bilverton Estate. While the weather cooperated for the ball, the rain caused flooding stranding the Dizzy Heights at the manor. On par for the band mates, there's a murder to solve. While there were times that I really felt like the book just needed to get on with it. But the banter between band mates is actually quite fun. Thank you #NetGalley for allowing me to give my honest and voluntary opinion of #ABafflingMurderAtTheMidsummerBall.

A new novel in the series of the adventures of the Dizzy Heights Jazz Band.

It's 1925 and Ellie, Skins and Dunn of the Dizzy Heights jazz band have a new manager and scored a great gig at a family party at the Bilverton Estate. Following the festivities there is a violent event. But is it a murder, or is it a suicide? Hidden passages, secrets, clues, and foreshadowing lead you on a merry romp through this charming mystery novel.

If you like locked room mysterious and charming cozy (but murderous) scenes with incredibly witty dialogue than this is the book for you! A Baffling Murder At the Midsummer Ball is book 2 in a series, but it can be read as a standalone.

Ellie, Skins and Dunn of the Dizzy Heights jazz band. and 1925

The Dizzy Heights mysteries are fun, entertaining stories with interesting characters and a unique look into the Jazz Age in London during the 1920s. This particular mystery kept me guessing until the end with secret passageways, a plethora of suspects, and a victim no one likes. I look forward to the next Dizzy Heights book. Thank you to #NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of #ABafflingMurderatheMidsummerBall.

I loved the Last Hardcastle books and now I love the Dizzy Heights books too. This one picks up just after the end of the first and Ellie,Skins and Dunn now consider themselves equipped enough to try and work out who is the murderer in the house they are staying in. This book has everything locked room mysteries, secret passageways and of course Jazz music. Another fine outing for the trio and the rest of the band. Please can we have another soon.

This is quickly becoming one of my favourite series; it’s unusual, but might book 2 be even better than book 1? The characters are fun, dialogue is witty, and the mysteries are intriguing. Even more, they actually work to solve the mysteries by looking for clues and not just bumbling into them. And, just it’s the right length being neither too long nor too short; I cannot wait for the next one!

This was my first Dizzy Height mystery and I really enjoyed it, interesting characters, a well thought through an interesting complex story set in a country house isolated by a large storm. A fun read, am downloading the others now!