Book Review and Giveaway - Ink and Intrigue at Ivy Tree Inn: An Ariadne Winter Mystery by Ellen Butler

My Review

Ink and Intrigue at the Ivy Tree Inn is a cozy mystery set in 1958.  Ariadne Winter, a writer for Ladies' Lifestyle Magazine, is on a light story assignment when she discovers a body and decides to solve the mystery.

I wanted to read this novel because I love cozy mysteries, enjoy Mid-Century settings, and found the premise unique and interesting.

This is a wonderful start for a new series!  I enjoyed the 1958 setting.  Ariadne has extra challenges as a woman working during this time period as a writer and also as a sleuth.  

The mystery is well paced with several twists.  I enjoyed it, and look forward to future books in this series.  I recommend Ink and Intrigue at the Ivy Tree Inn for other cozy fans, and especially for readers who also enjoy historical mysteries.

Book Synopsis

Stumbling across a dead body could be the making … or breaking of an aspiring reporter.

During 1958, when the workforce is predominantly male, societal norms dictate women should be compliant, fashionable housewives. To Ariadne Winter, the sole tradition she aims to embrace is that of being fashionable. Amidst the ambiance of Ivy Tree Inn, where she’s been dispatched as a writer for Ladies’ Lifestyle Magazine, her focus wavers as she grapples with an interview assignment concerning a Hollywood starlet on the cusp of royal matrimony—an event hailed as the “Wedding of the Century.” While Ariadne dutifully attends to her task, her heart yearns for the pursuit of her collegiate ambition: to be an investigative reporter for a renowned newspaper.

However, fate intervenes when she discovers a dead body and recognizes the opportunity it presents to write her way into the role she desires. Yet, as Ariadne delves deeper into the lives of the inn’s inhabitants, she uncovers a labyrinth of intertwined relationships and long-buried secrets among guests and staff alike, yielding a plethora of suspects. With a murderer on the loose, her magazine deadline looming, and the inn cordoned off by authorities, Ariadne faces a race against time to untangle the web of deceit and solve the murder before she loses more than just her job.

Author Bio

Ellen Butler is the international bestselling author of the Karina Cardinal mystery series. Her experiences working on Capitol Hill and at a medical association in Washington, D.C. inspired the mystery-action series. Multiple books in the series have hit #1 on Amazon bestseller lists in the US and abroad. Book critics call the Karina Cardinal mysteries, “intelligent escapism.” Butler is also the author of the award-winning historical suspense novel, The Brass Compass. The Brass Compass has won multiple awards for historical fiction including: 2022 Speak Up Talk Radio Firebird Book Award, 2018 Indie Reader Discovery Award, 2019 Readers’ Favorite Silver Medal Winner. Butler started writing in the romance genre and won the The Romance Reviews Readers’ Choice Award 2015 with her novel Planning for Love. Her 12th book Operation Blackbird, a Cold War Spy novel, was published in October 2022 and won a Next Generation Indie Book Award gold medal for historical fiction.

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