The Framed Women of Ardemore House
Ratings6
Average rating3.8
An abandoned English manor. A peculiar missing portrait. A cozy, deviously clever muder mystery, perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Anthony Horowitz. Jo Jones has always had a little trouble fitting in. As a neurodivergent, hyperlexic book editor and divorced New Yorker transplanted into the English countryside, Jo doesn’t know what stands out more: her Americanisms or her autism. After losing her job, her mother, and her marriage all in one year, she couldn’t be happier to take possession of a possibly haunted (and clearly unwanted) family estate in North Yorkshire. But when the body of the moody town groundskeeper turns up on her rug with three bullets in his back, Jo finds herself in potential danger—and she’s also a potential suspect. At the same time, a peculiar family portrait vanishes from a secret room in the manor, bearing a strange connection to both the dead body and Jo’s mysterious family history. With the aid of a Welsh antiques dealer, the morose local detective, and the Irish innkeeper’s wife, Jo embarks on a mission to clear herself of blame and find the missing painting, unearthing a slew of secrets about the town—and herself—along the way. And she’ll have to do it all before the killer strikes again…
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The Framed Women of Ardmore House is about Jo who inherits an estate along with its mercurial groundskeeper and is thrown into the mystery of the family history as well as a murder that happens in her new house.
Read if you like: small town settings, British mysteries, ancestral(?) mysteries (I might have made this up), very mild will they won't they, flawed characters
Narration: Third person past tense, dual perspective
Diversity: Autistic main character
This was a very enjoyable read for me. Especially once the mystery started, it was difficult to put down.
Rating Description:
1.0 - DNF/Despise
1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had
2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring
2.5 - Alright with lots of notes
3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it
3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it
4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot
4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes
5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive
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I was torn about giving this a 3.0 or 3.5. The reason I settled for 3.0 is because, while I think this is well written and an enjoyable enough read, there was nothing really outstanding about it. I didn’t get particularly irritated when reading it. But I wasn’t exactly at the edge of my seat either.
Pros:
1. Prose is good.
2. Pacing is good.
3. Characterization is good.
4. Audiobook performance --- Great.
Cons:
1. The title was a bit misleading. I thought this book was going to go into how women related to the house were getting framed for crimes. Turns out a big part of the story was about a woman in a painting. So, it was a woman is a frame in Ardmore House.
2. I expected there to be more clues to lead to the actual perpetrator and that person’s motive. However, there were only quite a few of those so the ending was a surprise but not in a good way.
Would I read sequels to this book? Maybe. I don’t consider myself a “Mystery Girlie”, despite the fact I seem to be reading mysteries since the start of the year. But this was an okay book.
Side Note:
- This is the 2nd Book Club pick where the house burned down. As a person who pays a mortgage, it was very upsetting.
