I have to admit...this book surprised me. I expected a flash-back style crimemurder mystery novel...but got something richer and much more interesting. This is a mystery novel with a touch of espionage, hidden war-time secrets, cover-ups, Nazis, POWs, traitors....and two old women still determined to learn The Truth. Great story!

It all starts when a storm damages a mausoleum in a cemetery in 1967 and Cordelia Hemlock sees a body that shouldn't be there -- the corpse of a man clad in a brown suit still clutching a satchel. The local Scottish police don't believe her story. They think she is just distraught over the recent death of her young son. Her new friend, Felicity Goose, believes her. And the two spend decades trying to find out the truth.

This is the first book by David Marks that I have read. The story caught my attention from the start and kept my attention clear to the end. Well-written and with a nice depth, The Mausoleum was a very enjoyable read. I will definitely be reading more by this author. The story progresses a bit slowly at first, but once the stage is set, the plot builds suspense and moves a bit more quickly. I wasn't quite sure what the women would find out in the end, but I just let the tale carry me along revealing facts in its own time.

The use of Nazis and World War II hidden secrets can be a bit tropey, but David Marks pulls it off with style. Enjoyable, well-written story!

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Severn House. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.** ( )

I finished this a while ago & have been mulling over how I felt about it. And I realized the longer I thought, the more I appreciated the story & how it was told. If (like me) you’re a fan of the author’s Aector McAvoy series, the first thing you need to know is this is a huge departure. Don’t go in expecting thrills & chills. This is a dense & detailed historical read that takes its time.

It begins in the present as 2 elderly women sit vigil at the bedside of a dying man. We have no idea who the characters are but it’s obvious they have a long & complex history. We then go back to how it all began.

Cordelia (Cordie) is an educated woman whose husband has sent her to live in the country. She’s a fish out of water & initially dismissive of her rural neighbours. Felicity (Flick) is a wife & mother who has lived in the area all her life. They first meet in a graveyard & when lightening strikes an old mausoleum, they’re horrified to see a body come tumbling out. An ancient skeleton perhaps? Nope. There’s flesh on those bones & the snazzy suit suggests the wearer is of a more recent vintage.

What follows is the story of Cordie & Flick’s great adventure. On one level it’s a murder mystery with disturbing undertones & a slow rising tension. But it’s also the story of these 2 women & how their investigation & relationship permanently alters their lives.

Most of the book is set in a rural Scottish village in the 1960’s but it feels at least a decade earlier. The pace, descriptions of village life & frequent allusions to the war all combine to create a story that’s more in keeping with the era of golden age mysteries.

To be honest, it took me a while to settle in with this one. I think I went in with certain expectations based on Mark’s previous books. Setting the stage takes the first half. Not much happens but you become immersed in the lives of the characters & history of the area. It’s heavy on dialogue which the author delivers using local vernacular to great effect. More than anything else, that’s what helped me find the book’s rhythm & just sit back & let Cordie & Flick tell me their story.

The pace picks up for the last 20% as we begin to glimpse the big picture. War atrocities, secrets & lies with startling local connections are exposed. The village is shaken & for Cordie in particular, it’s the beginning of a new life.

After pondering it a bit, I realized what I enjoyed most was the relationship between the 2 women. It gradually evolves as they rub off on each other, both deeply affected by their shared experience. There’s a subtle power shift as they learn to appreciate their differences & the result is a long friendship based on mutual acceptance, trust & affection.

So from an initial rating of 3.5, I’m bumping it up to 4 stars. There’s a beautiful simplicity to the prose that makes the setting & characters come across as completely authentic. Kudos to the author for branching off in a new direction. ( )

‘1967. In a quiet village in the wild lands of the Scottish borders, disgraced academic Cordelia Hemlock is trying to put her life back together. Grieving the loss of her son, she seeks out the company of the dead, taking comfort amid the ancient headstones and crypts of the local churchyard. When lightning strikes a tumbledown tomb, she glimpses a corpse that doesn’t belong among the crumbling bones. But when the storm passes and the body vanishes, the authorities refuse to believe the claims of a hysterical ‘outsider’. Teaming up with a reluctant witness, local woman Felicity Goose, Cordelia’s enquiries all lead back to a former POW camp that was set up in the village during the Second World War. But not all Gilsland’s residents welcome the two young women’s interference. There are those who believe the village’s secrets should remain buried … whatever the cost.’

The Mausoleum by David Mark takes place mostly in 1967. Cordelia Hemlock has just lost her young son to illness. She's taken to finding odd places to sit and read, to remember, to mourn. Cordelia lives in remote Gilsland and has yet to bond with any of the locals. One day, Cordy startles Felicity Goose who stumbles across her as Cordelia is resting among the gravestones of the little church cemetery. The two begin to talk, and when it starts to storm, Felicity invites Cordelia back to her own cottage, which is closer. Before they can even clear the cemetery, the storm worsens, spitting lightning. One bolt hits a dead tree and topples into a mausoleum, breaking it open. And there, amidst the rubble, lies a fresh body only days old. Thus begins the friendship of Cordelia Hemlock and Felicity Goose.

The two women, pluckier than they seem at first, begin to dig into the corpse's mysterious appearance after they tell Felicity's neighbor, Fairfax who then dies in a car accident after he rushes out in the storm to locate the body and alert the constable. The fresh mausoleum corpse vanishes, leaving few clues behind. Fairfax's home lends a few more clues, harkening back to a terrible war-time atrocity and governmental devil's deals. This mystery and its unfortunate aftermath give Cordelia something to focus on to let her grief over her son begin to soften and heal.

I adore Cordy and Flick! They each helped t'other to grow and learn. Both women had steel underneath, that began to show through more and more. They each still have vulnerability though, and I love how at times Felicity's pragmatic country nature takes over, leading her to treat Cordelia as a daughter, or younger sister. Likewise, there are times Cordelia treats Flick as a sister. Despite the circumstances, or as like as naught because of them, they develop a close friendship that lasts decades. Each grows over the course of the story, especially Cordelia. She ends up with a pretty sweet job from the whole affair! I'd love to read about her further adventures.

I would have loved to have interacted more with Fairfax. He was a gentleman after my own heart, with his interest in writing. He was quite the historian! As for other secondary characters, I liked John, Felicity's husband. I think I could have liked her son James too, but we didn't get to see him as much as his brother Brian. I'd love to have gotten an explanation over James’ notebook, but we don't get final follow-up with him, and there's not enough page time with him for me to gauge personality. If he was supposed to be a foil to Brian, it didn't work for me. He was easy to overlook. Brian, on the other hand, was a pita, and needed his ass tanned.

I really enjoyed the slow unraveling of the mystery. It was less suspense/thriller, and more a historical investigation. Through Fairfax's papers, and Cordy and Flick's persistent research, we get to learn about events that happened during World war II, and there were some surprising revelations toward the end. Thinking back, I see the hints, but it really stunned me at first. Overall, a great read! If you enjoy historical mysteries, be sure to check it out!

***Many thanks to Netgalley/ Severn House for providing an ecopy in exchange for a fair and honest review. Reviewed for Love Books Tours ( )