Questions About Murder in an English Village (Beryl and Edwina Mystery, #1)

by Jessica Ellicott (Goodreads Author)

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Answered Questions (3)

Am I the only English teacher who thought the editing was dreadful? I found comma splices, sentence fragments and other punctuation errors scattered about with wild abandon. Additionally, the uses of "whoever" and "whomever" were used incorrectly. I did enjoy the story; it was just difficult not to grab up a pen and make corrections.

Melissa Hartfiel I got this out from the library and whoever had it before me, did just this and then seemed to give up half way through. It definitely needed a good p…moreI got this out from the library and whoever had it before me, did just this and then seemed to give up half way through. It definitely needed a good proof-read and a good edit.(less)

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Is this book on the short list for an Agatha?

Eva It was nominated according to this website: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/e/je...

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Has anybody talked about this book in their book club? If so what were the discussion questions. Also, does anyone know more about the author than she knits socks? Thanks

S Anderson These are the questions my book group plans to use (although we later found some on Jessica Ellicott's webpage we liked ours better).

Discussion questi…moreThese are the questions my book group plans to use (although we later found some on Jessica Ellicott's webpage we liked ours better).

Discussion questions:

1) Jessica Ellicott lives in New England. Both the USA and UK amazon sites had one customer rate the book as 1 star because they felt that she failed to accurately portray life in an English village.
Did you feel that she did a good job describing the characters and setting?
2) Beryl Helliwell is a rich and infamous divorcee adventuress. Her old school chum Edwina Davenport is a prim and proper upper class spinster living in reduced circumstances after WWI and the flu epidemic of 1918.
How realistic is the relationship between them?
3) Several references are made to Edwina and Beryl as “being of a certain age.”
What decade of their lives did you feel they were in? Their 50S? 60S? 70S? 80S?
4) Beryl’s well-intentioned fib set the story in motion.
How important was gossip to the story?
Were the townsfolk more forthcoming with Beryl because she of her fame?
5) When reading a mystery do you prefer a lone detective or a team?
Did Beryl and Edwina work together well?
Which of them was the better investigator?
Would this story have worked as well had one of them been working on their own?
6) Were the secondary characters well developed?
Did you have any favorites?
7) Were you surprised that the Women’s Land Army existed during WWI or that some woman continued to hold their wartime positions in traditionally male roles such as postmaster or police constable in the post war society?
8) During the war most people dedicated themselves to the greater good. Many of them also bought black market goods from those who taking advantage of their position to supply those goods. Were these transactions harmful to society?
9) How different were the lives of the characters in Walmsley Parva from those in other books our group has read that take place in the same time period?
10) For those who listened to the book on audio: With so many characters was the story easy to follow?
11) How successful was Jessica Ellicott in maintaining suspense in the story? Was the ending surprising? Realistic?(less)

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Unanswered Questions (1)

Who else noticed Crumpet, the dog mentioned in the first chapter, was described as a black & white dog while all of the book covers feature a reddish brown dog?

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