July 31, 2017
In Brody’s tightly woven eighth mystery set in 1920s England (after A Death in the Dales), PI Kate Shackleton takes a holiday in the resort town of Whitby. There she visits the jeweler’s shop where she once accompanied Gerald, her husband who died in WWI, to pick out a wedding ring. In a back room, she has the misfortune to find the shop’s proprietor lying dead on the floor. When she reports the death to the police, a sergeant asks her if she knows anyone in Whitby. She does: her school friend Alma Turner, whom she’s supposed to meet later. The sergeant asks her not to mention the jeweler’s death to Alma. Could Alma somehow be involved? When Kate finally gets together with her friend, she learns that Alma’s 16-year-old daughter, Felicity, has recently disappeared. Kate focuses on looking for the missing Felicity, but she also lends a hand in what develops into a murder case. Brody provides plenty of period flavor and just enough clues to point armchair sleuths to the solution. Agent: Judith Murdoch, Judith Murdoch Literary (U.K.).