Death on the Isle is the second book in the Astrid Swift mystery series by M.H. Eccleston and features an art restorer finding her way in the English countryside after leaving a life in London behind.
Title: Death on the Isle
Author: M.H. Eccleston
Series: Astrid Swift #2
First Published: July 7, 2022
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Genres: Mystery
Acquired: from the publisher via Netgalley
*** Thank you to the publisher, Head of Zeus, for providing me with an e-copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review. ***
It’s high summer, and with the grisly events at Dorset’s Sherborne Hall behind her, Astrid Swift sets sail for the Isle of Wight. She’s been asked to value a collection of maritime art owned by a recently deceased millionaire – his surviving daughter has inherited the art along with the family’s seafront mansion, The Needle’s Eye, and wants to sell up. There are too many memories of her twin sister, a sailing prodigy who went missing at sea three years earlier.
When Victor Leech, the local busybody, is found washed up under the town pier, Astrid thinks lightning has struck twice. She’s stumbled on a fresh case that only she and her new art club friends can solve. But getting to the bottom of the unexplained death will draw out powerful new enemies…
A fresh start for Astrid Swift
I really enjoyed the first book in the Astrid Swift series, The Trust (you can read my review of that book here) so was excited to see more adventures with Astrid. These two books can be read as standalones – there is enough of an introduction that new readers won’t feel like they’re missing anything. If anything, I felt that this was a separate book from the first. Astrid’s personality has really shifted – she’s gone from the city-girl who loves her modern luxuries to someone who embraces the simple living in the country. She’s given away almost all of her belongings and is enjoying life on her houseboat.
She’s also left the locale of the first book for a new location. Astrid has “temporarily” moved to the Isle of Wight for a new job, but it feels more permanent. She has surrounded herself with new friends, who help her with her sleuthing.
Of her new mystery-loving friends (members of The Art Club), I really liked Wren the best. She’s independent and talented, and while she is in a wheelchair, that detail is so subtly mentioned that it’s easy to miss it and it doesn’t define her as a character.
Sailing into intrigue
The mystery itself was quite intriguing and mixes old mysteries with new murders. I loved the complex backstory and the new setting of the Sailing Club. I have absolutely no knowledge of boating whatsoever and this book made it sound so exciting, while introducing the nautical appeal (and technical terms) in a very easy to understand way.
Because one of my favourite reasons to read cozy mysteries is to return to the same familiar characters and settings, I was a bit thrown off with the new setting and new set of friends. It really feels like a completely separate book, with only Astrid as the common link to the first book. It’s not a bad thing and is done really well, it’s just a bit jarring when I was expecting to return to the lovely characters I enjoyed from The Trust.
One thing I wasn’t going to mention at first because I wasn’t sure if it would be a tiny spoiler, but after thinking long and hard about it, I don’t think it counts (but please feel free to skip the rest of this paragraph if you don’t want to know anything at all about the plot). I know that authors always have to come up with clever ways to get the protagonist into a “sticky situation”, but Astrid, agreeing to go on a date… on a boat… without her phone. Let’s just say you could see trouble coming a mile away (I also had Ted Lasso season 3 flashbacks but let’s not go there today).
Overall, I enjoyed the book immensely and am already halfway through the third book, Death Comes to the Costa del Sol. Astrid is off to another, sunnier location (so, I guess, we’ll be meeting another set of characters?)
Quote from Death on the Isle
