A- #AudioBookReview: A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith

A Case of Mice and Murder: The Trials of Gabriel Ward by Sally Smith
Narrator: Matthew Lloyd Davies
Format: audiobook, eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss, supplied by publisher via Libro.fm
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: historical mystery, mystery
Series: The Trials of Gabriel Ward #1
Pages: 336
Length: 9 hours and 58 minutes
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing, Raven Books on June 17, 2025
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

"I was immediately besotted . . . Brilliant." -Janice Hallett, internationally bestselling author of The Appeal
The first in a delightful new mystery series set in the hidden heart of London's legal world, introducing a wonderfully unwilling sleuth, perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Nita Prose.
When barrister Gabriel Ward steps out of his rooms at exactly two minutes to seven on a sunny May morning in 1901, his mind is so full of his latest case-the disputed authorship of bestselling children's book Millie the Temple Church Mouse-that he scarcely registers the body of the Lord Chief Justice of England on his doorstep.
But even he cannot fail to notice the judge's dusty bare feet, in shocking contrast to his flawless evening dress, nor the silver carving knife sticking out of his chest. In the shaded courtyards and ancient buildings of the Inner Temple, the hidden heart of London's legal world, murder has spent centuries confined firmly to the casebooks. Until now . . .
The police can enter the Temple only by consent, so who better to investigate this tragic breach of law and order than a man who prizes both above all things? But murder doesn't answer to logic or reasoned argument, and Gabriel soon discovers that the Temple's heavy oak doors are hiding more surprising secrets than he'd ever imagined . . .

My Review:

In May of 1901, the world was on the cusp of change. The old century had gone, and taken the queen who had ruled Britain through most of it along with it. The game of empires was already on the road to a war that would reshape the fate of the British Empire and redraw the map of the world.

But Sir Gabriel Ward KC, senior barrister of the Inner Temple, faced changes in his own personal world that he didn’t so much confront as stumble over as he entered his office on the morning of 20 May.

Just as, at first, he stepped over the corpse of the Lord Chief Justice as it lay across his office doorway.

Sir Gabriel’s day, and indeed the rest of his life, had just been knocked out of its appointed path and his eccentric comfort zone. Neither will ever be the same.

Because Sir Gabriel, in spite of his inclination – indeed in direct conflict with the conduct of his whole, entire life – is about to be thrust into the middle of a murder investigation. Not in his usual position as counsel for either the prosecution or the defense, not as a judge as so many of his fellow KCs aspire to and have achieved, thankfully not as a possible suspect – but as the detective.

The man couldn’t be further out of his depth if he had dived into the Channel!

But he’s stuck, caught on the horns of a dilemma forced upon him by the Inner Temple’s powerful – if often petty and self-aggrandizing – treasurer. The Treasurer desires to keep the investigation of the Temple and its members in house. Which he can actually do as a result of old, obscure but still valid legal privileges given to the Inner and Middle Temples centuries ago.

The Treasurer also wants the investigation to exonerate any and all members of the Temple – without divulging any of their secrets – so that the police can focus on outsiders. Whether that is remotely true or possible or even makes any sense at all.

Sir Gabriel wants to keep his comfortable rooms in the Inner Temple, a comfort that the Treasurer has the power to take away at a whim – or any hint of disobedience. Sir Gabriel, knowing the side on which his bread is buttered, acquiesces in spite of the wreck it will make of his life, his meticulous plans for an important upcoming case, and whether or not he is willing to cover up whatever truths he may manage to uncover.

His life will never be the same. Ironically, considering that the man is already well into middle age when this story begins, the investigation is going to be the making of him, and he’ll be all the better for it – if not half so comfortable as he was before he stepped over the Lord Chief Justice’s corpse.

Escape Rating A-: At first, I thought this was a VERY traditional ‘golden age’ kind of mystery, and that Sir Gabriel Ward KC was a very traditional, if more than a bit eccentric, sort of amateur investigator. As much as I generally enjoy mysteries in audio – because it’s so difficult to thumb to the end to find out ‘whodunnit’ – the audio in this case wasn’t helping at all.

Sir Gabriel’s speech patterns are slow and thoughtful, the voice actor read him in rather lugubrious tones, and it made the whole thing feel exaggeratedly slow. The reading absolutely did match the character, but it drove me personally bananas. Changing the speed of the reading from 1.0 to 1.1 changed my picture of everything entirely as I still got the flavor of Sir Gabriel’s manner of speaking without feeling as though I could paint dry as he spoke.

I started out wondering if I could bear to listen to the story, and ended up loving it.

What makes A Case of Mice and Murder so fascinating turns out to BE the character of Sir Gabriel, and the eccentric but methodical way he conducts the two cases that confront him in his first outing.

The one is familiar, he has taken on the case of the publisher of a children’s story ABOUT the Inner Temple, and the story has become an international bestseller. Which one would think would be a good thing for the publisher, but the VERY thorny problem at law is that the manuscript was found dropped on the publisher’s literal doorstep. He’s never known who the author was – and now that there is money to be made – well, there are claims to be made and answered.

This is just the kind of case, complete with difficult questions and debatable precedents, that Sir Gabriel loves to argue in court. For either side.

But it’s his investigation of the Lord Chief Justice’s death in which he really shines – in a way that is totally unexpected both to Sir Gabriel and to the reader. Because his investigation forces him to take an open-minded look at the lives of the people around him. Not just his fellow barristers, but all the members of the Inner Temple community.

With his innate endless curiosity as well as a mind that is compelled to search out ALL the facts and weigh them equally, to not ever go into a case with preconceived notions on any side, what he discovers opens his mind to the lives of those around him. It doesn’t change his eccentricities at all, rather it uses them to present an even-handed view of everyone and everything, from the petty jealousies of his fellow barristers to the stifled intellects of their wives to the pride and desperation in the lives of the workers who keep the Temple functioning.

And it’s in that open-mindedness that he finds the solution to both the cases before him, and combines them into one terrible but inevitable conclusion.

In the end, what made this work is the exact thing I initially thought was going to drive me away – the eccentric, curious, deliberate speech and character and mental processes of Sir Gabriel Ward KC. Now I’m looking forward to Sir Gabriel’s next investigation in A Case of Life and Limb, coming just in time for the Christmas holidays in which it is set.

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