Where It Lies by K.J. Egan

This mystery by lawyer and adjunct instructor in fiction at Westchester Community College, K. J. Egan, gives a refreshing look at life as a golf pro. It took me back to my childhood when we lived along the 3rd fairway of the Minneapolis Golf Club next door to the club's pro. I enjoyed going out with my mother on her late afternoon practice rounds.

The protagonist, assistant pro, Jenny Chase, is in the middle of preparing to play in her first U.S. Open when she discovers the body of the club's grounds keeper hanging in the golf cart barn. The police declare it a suicide, but Jenny and the grounds keeper's widow are not so sure. There are enough twists and turns in the plot, and enough well-honed character development to keep this book interesting from start to finish. I especially like the kind of relationship Jenny is building with her teenage son as a single mom, and I can empathize having gone through some of the same issues.

The book treats the characters as three dimensional people with real lives beyond what they do for a living. That makes the book so much more interesting and so much easier to identify with than some of the flat, cartoon-like mystery novels that are so prevalent out there.

I found it difficult to put it down and literally flew through this book in two or three days. I look forward to more Jenny Chase mysteries from Egan. I'd like to see Jenny actually make the U.S. Open cut and go out on the circuit in an upcoming book. That would make a great setting for murder.

Liz Nichols

The Brothers of Glastonbury by Kate Sedley

The peddlers in medieval England were among the few, outside of knights and royalty, to see more than a few miles within a radius of the place they were born. Peddlers owed no special allegiances, which makes the character of peddler, Roger Chapman, an ideal one for moving around the country solving mysteries in this series by Sedley.

In this mystery Roger is hired by the Duke of Clarence to take the daughter of one of this vassals to Glastonbury to be married to the girl's cousin, a paper maker. The paper maker was supposed to meet her at the town where the royal entourage is staying, but never made it. Once Roger and his charge get to Glastonbury Roger helps the mother of the missing paper maker and her other son discover what happened to the erstwhile bridegroom. Along the way there is another murder and the solution to a mystery about who is involved in a string of highway robberies in the area.

The mystery is so obvious that it actually makes a good puzzle with an exciting end.

Liz Nichols

Murder in the Dark by Kerry Greenwood

Greenwood's book is a good companion to the last one I read by Carola Dunn because both are set in the pre-World War II era-- Dunn's in England and Greenwood's in the Melbourne, Australia area. Both use quaint phrases and situations that were unique to that era and those localities. I appreciate the degree of research that went into both books in order to come up with realistic dialogue and situations for these novels. It makes them fun to read, if a little obtuse at time in terms of understanding all the dialogue.

The theme of "Murder in the Dark" is an elaborate, private Last Best Party of 1928 held over four days and nights at the mansion of a rich Australian brother and sister. The games that are played, the costumes and themes for each evening's dinner and entertainment, the music provided by a famous Billie Holiday-like jazz singer, all contribute to the fabric of the story and carry through from chapter to chapter building interest along the way.

The mystery revolves around trying to catch a "Joker" character who has threatened to kill the host and has also kidnapped the adopted son and daughter of the host and hostess. Finding the kids becomes the first priority while following a set of clues each day to get closer and closer to figuring out when and where the Joker will strike. He has also threatened the heroine, Phryne Fisher, a socialite sleuth, who is retained by the host to foil the Joker before it is too late.

The book does contain considerable episodes of drug use and sex, and the author explains that this is historically accurate activity. In the 1920s in Australia recreational drug use was not illegal, and was very common among certain elements of society.

I'd recommend this book for those who like historical mysteries from the 1920s era, and enjoy Australia as a setting.

Liz Nichols

Black Ship by Carola Dunn

It's been awhile since I've read one of Dunn's prolific Daisy Dalrymple Mystery series. I'd forgotten how much I like Daisy and her Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher husband. They make quite a team.

The theme is interesting and fresh. A man who claims to be a U.S. Treasury agent looking for people who are supplying shipments of alcoholic beverages to American crime families during the Prohibition of the 1930's shows up on the Fletcher doorstep in their new Hampstead Heath neighborhood. He's quite bumbling and has had his identity papers, passport and money stolen. Is he a real U.S. agent, or is he mixed up in the murder that very quickly happens in the communal garden on the Fletcher's street? If this Agent Lambert isn't involved, then what do the neighbors and their servants know and what have they seen? Are any of the neighbors involved?

Alec and his team of investigators do the usual thorough and methodical job that Scotland Yard and local bobbies do in Britain to investigate murder-- and they usually get the suspect in the end. It's also fund to see how Daisy interjects herself in the investigative team, and how Alec and his men use her skills without admitting too much publicly how much she helps them out.

Dunn's characters, right down to the minor ones, are always finely drawn and very memorable so it is easy to keep interest and easy to develop strong positive and negative feelings for the people you meet through her books.

The plot also raises a thought-provoking question about the role of British wine merchants in supplying American gangsters with merchandise during the Prohibition Era, and the different viewpoint that the British public had during that time about the use of alcoholic beverages versus that of Americans.

I recommend "Black Ship" for anyone who likes the quaintness of 1920's era British mysteries and that historical period.

The Matters at Mansfield by Carrie Bebris

I generally enjoy period mysteries where characters are either real historical figures or characters we came to know and love from 19th century novelists. This is the case with Bebris' take-off on Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park" and the characters Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy.

The problem is, this novel is both plodding and forgettable. I found it difficult to care whether Darcy and his wife solve the mysteries of what has happened to a star-crossed relative's lover, and to others at Mansfield Park.

Instead of following Bebris' "A Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mystery" I recommend instead, Stephanie Barron's "Jane Austen Mystery" series, which I have always found delightfully in step with the spirit and language of Jane Austen herself.

Liz Nichols

Can't Never Tell by Cathy Pickens

This is a little different take on a Southern U.S. cozy mystery. It is set in a small town in northern South Carolina and is infused with the flavor of the rural, deep south. The heroine is a small town lawyer who had worked for a time as a law professor and is just getting used to small town politics and people again.

She gets embroiled in two potential murders when she finds a skeleton at a fun house at a county fair and then witnesses another victim falling off a cliff at a local falls on a family picnic. Both mysteries are woven effectively into the plot lines of the book. It is fun to get to know this character, Avery Andrews, and I'll enjoy getting to know her better in more editions of A Southern Fried Mystery series.

The author, Cathy Pickens, is an attorney and university professor in the law school at Queens University of Charlotte. She grew up in South Carolina, so she is very familiar with the territory.

Liz Nichols