DEATH OF A STRANGER

Even before she abandoned him 30 years ago to run off with Geoffrey Lorimer, who died soon afterward, Tim Le Page’s mother has never exactly been the maternal type. But now Tim worries that she’s crossing a new line, showing up for his wedding on the island of Guernsey with a new boy-toy in tow, this one even younger than his predecessors. Although Simon Shaw maintains an air of mystery by whispering that he’s a private eye investigating a suspicious fire that leveled Bernard and Marjorie Charters’ greenhouse and the pair of Italian master paintings stored inside, he and Lorna Le Page both behave beautifully at Tim’s wedding to veterinarian Anna Weston—until Lorna, leaving her hotel, is struck down by a hit-and-run driver. Early and often, Lorna insists that the driver was Constance Lorimer, the widow who tried to run her down half a lifetime ago. But Tim, who’s postponed his honeymoon because he’s not only his mother’s closest relative but the detective inspector in charge of the case, doesn’t have to wait long for a second, more successful, vehicular assault, one that ties the case more closely to the fire at the Charters’ and to some uncomfortable secrets about his mother’s affairs. Veteran Dewhurst (Dear Mr. Right, 1990, etc.) manages to surprise you without shocking or outraging you—just the recipe for a whodunit of the old school.