Tracy Kiely's "Murder at Longbourn" is an excellent first mystery novel. It will be of particulary interest to the cozy-lovers among the mystery reading set.
The sleuth is newspaper reporter (fact-checker, actually) Elizabeth Parker, who goes to Cape Cod to assist her Aunt Winnie at the aunt's B and B for a mystery dinner. Things heat up quickly when a guest is shot and it becomes apparent that the mystery play is being used as a cover for murder. Parker pits herself against a police detective who seems bent on fitting the evidence to point toward Aunt Winnie as the prime suspect.
While Kiely presents a fairly conventional cozy, she never lets it get too predictable nor the characters too stereotypical. For these reasons, I found it hard to put the book down once I started it and I polished it off in a couple of holiday weekend sittings.
I look forward to more Elizabeth Parker mysteries, with or without the B and B setting.
Liz Nichols
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
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