Mystery on Hidden Lane is thirst of the Eve Mallow mysteries, a series that is longer than I realized when I picked this audiobook up at NetGalley. Eve is an obituary writer (think feature length obituaries for magazines), which is a career I haven’t run into before. She also holds a job at a school to supplement her income, but she’s taken a small break from that to head off to the small village of Saxford St Peter to research recently deceased cellist, Bernard Fitzpatrick. On the day of her arrival, however, the police release news that the man had been murdered.

Turns out Eve is in the perfect position to investigate the case, especially when she thinks the detective in charge of the case is incompetent. Eve makes a good amateur sleuth. She’s naturally curious and has practice putting people at ease as she pumps them for information. She’s observant and does her research on both her subject and those around him. Eve also has an adorable little dachshund, Gus, who goes most everywhere with her and who she talks to regularly, which I can relate to. She fits easily and quickly into village life.

The mystery is well done. There are a lot of secrets being hidden in the town and Eve has several potential suspects. I was surprised by who the killer turned out to be.

I listened to the audio and the narrator did a good job. She brought out Eve’s emotions and thoughts well and kept the other characters. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and this one was fine, the narrator stayed out of the story’s way, if that makes sense. I’ll probably pick up the next one on audio at some point.