Absent Beauty – Large Print Edition – Cozy Small Town Mystery Novella: Agnes Taylor Mystery - Short Read - Prequel

by Eva Bernhard

For Fans of Classic Whodunit Mysteries
A Two-Hour-Read Novella—Plotted in Canada

When best friends Agnes and Rachel attend a conference at a Halifax university, they expect some intellectual thrills. But they never dreamed of running into a murdering predator.

While Rachel gets to meet a charismatic professor she admires, nothing goes right for Dr. Agnes Taylor. As a job-seeking philosopher, she wants to impress fellow academics with a brilliant paper on a thorny ethical issue. She soon comes under attack and her one-man audience threatens to kill her knock-down argument.

Even the lunch date with her mother, Sera, who teaches at the university, does not pan out. There’s too much upheaval caused by Tania, a student no-show who was to pick up the famous keynote speaker at the airport. No one knows where Tania is.

The trip to the foggy Maritimes challenges not only Agnes’s moral beliefs, but her deductive skills.

Can Agnes stop the evil?

This Short Read Prequel—a murder mystery novella—introduces budding professor sleuth, Dr. Agnes Taylor from Ontario, Canada. It is set a few years prior to Silent Sands, Book 1 of the Agnes Taylor Mystery series. Bonus chapters included with this prequel!
The books in this series can be read in any order.

Genres: Mystery Thriller, Short Stories, Fiction

138 pages, Paperback

Published June 9, 2024

Reviews

[Jerry B · Rating 1 out of 5]

We were expecting a compelling short novella to introduce (new to us) Eva Bernhard’s series to feature Canadian Agnes Taylor, a university student/teacher. There was no hook early on, and it took about five of the 20 short chapters for something to happen, which we almost immediately sensed was the “crime”. Soon thereafter, it became obvious who would be the villain; and without further fanfare, and only a modicum of suspense regarding one of Agnes’ roommates, the crook gave up and the whole mess was over.

Agnes, her girlfriends, and her mother, did little to charm or engage our interest. The plot was amateurishly simplistic – and bottom line there was just not much to appreciate with this short work. It wasn’t even obvious it did a good job introducing what the self-published writer hopes to be more than a one-book outing. We have our doubts. Sorry.

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an ARC reader, I feel that this little novella does the job it's meant to. It introduces the characters that will, I imagine, play the major parts in the following mystery series. It was actually number 3 in the series that was on offer but if I'm going to read a series I prefer to read each episode in order. I did get the feeling, in the story, of watching an innocent walking into a trap and wanting to say "No don't go!" But of course this is the suspense so that we can be relieved when the hero saves the day. I'm looking forward to reading further episodes and seeing the main characters developing

[Mary Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a nice short prequel introducing us to Agnes and involving the murder of a student. There's enough here to make me want to read the proper first book in the series and see Agnes properly come to the fore.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Susan Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and not so sweet

Straight into the story. Very little explaining about who etc you learn as you read. From missing to murder occurred quickly along with finding the culprit.

[patricia sendelbach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short read to hook you into reading another mystery. Is it a series? not sure yet.