I’ve never read any cozies by the prolific Julia Buckley, here writing under pen name Veronica Bond. In Death In Castle Dark, the first of the “dinner and murder mystery” series, I’m sorry to say I find the book a mess. My positive first impression proved short lived. I appreciated the floor plans of the titular castle at the beginning of the book, although the layouts seemed a bit odd and north was placed at the bottom of the maps instead of the top. Those maps soon became the bane of the book. Besides my struggling to keep track of too many vaguely drawn characters simultaneously introduced to the reader, I found a bigger problem stemmed from the contradictions between the narrative and the maps. On page 10, when Connie takes protagonist Nora on tour of first floor rooms, among the rooms viewed is the small ballroom. But this is impossible because it is on the second floor, according to the map, and later the narrative mentions the ballroom as being on the second floor. On page 54, Bond writes the characters use the north stairway. The narrative then contains directions that contradict the map if one is using the north stairway - victim Garrett’s room should not be the “first on the left” but, according to the map, is the last on the right. On page 64, Bond, voicing Nora, writes “I went out of the entrance nearest the kitchen, an unobtrusive door flanked by flower beds.” According to the map, that entrance would be the main one. Does that mean the main entrance looked like an unobtrusive door despite having been described as a “massive wooden door” with a gold knocker on page 7? You get the idea, and these problems persist. To make it work, you need to actually not pay attention.Map problems aside, Bond failed to correct other continuity errors. On pages 51-52 Nora and Connie seemingly reenter the house with no problem after stepping outside and noting they wouldn’t be locked out. But then on page 65 Bond details another character’s use of a key to reenter the house. Bond underscores this point by Nora explaining the castle owner had issued numbered keys to everyone and kept doors locked at all times.I became so frustrated, I nearly set the book aside. I did manage to finish it and thought the last third was polished. By that point, I hadn’t really connected with the characters. Although they were individually conceptualized, they were thinly sketched and underdeveloped. It stuck me as odd that 16 year old Jade Balfour, a very minor background character, was more memorable than many of the suspects and key players who appear throughout the book.I’m not sure if the author rushed to publish this. Did she leave no time for the editorial assistants to fix the egregious inconsistencies and errors? Has proofreading and editing suffered to this extent because of the pandemic? Whatever the reason, I can’t help but wonder if someone at Berkley Prime Crime or on Buckley’s team realized along the way that the finished product had too many flaws to publish under Buckley’s name.I struggled with rating this 2 or 3 stars. While the mystery and gothic elements are okay, and the last third reads fine, I can’t overlook the fact a major publisher is behind this, and the author is very experienced. Ultimately then it’s 2-1/2 stars for me, not rounded up, because the first third is in such rough shape, and left in that state by people who should know better. The overall book is analogous to a product not passing muster and destined for the factory store.