A LIMITED EDITION MURDER

A year in an English village proves just the thing for a brokenhearted American bookseller.

Addie Greyborne means to return home to Greyborne Harbor, but not just yet. Working in Reginald Pressman’s Second Chance Books and Bindery in West Yorkshire has proved a good way to get over her shattered relationship with Simon Emerson, the fiance who left her for a former wife he forgot to mention when he proposed. She’s made friends with her co-workers and with the locals who gather at the village pub. They’ve even reworked their trivia night into a weekly murder mystery contest in tribute to Addie’s knack for solving crimes. Her latest investigation, though, is no game. The police suspect Addie’s good friend Hailey Granger of murdering a guest at a party honoring Hailey’s engagement to acclaimed mystery writer Anthony Radcliff. A stolen first edition of Wuthering Heights and a one-of-a-kind sapphire necklace provide the initial leads in Addie’s hunt for the real killer. DI Noah Parker, recently rusticated to Moorscrag from London’s Metropolitan Police, is the main frustration. As arrogant as he is handsome, Parker obstructs Addie at every turn, mocking her ability to solve crimes. As she perseveres, a tangled web of clandestine affairs, unfounded accusations of misdeeds, generational conflicts, and mixed motives unfurl in dizzying profusion. The solution to the murder proves convoluted, but the course of Addie’s relationship with the handsome DI is as predictable as the fog rolling in over the moor. The biggest mystery is which side of the Atlantic she’ll end up on.

Few surprises and fewer thrills, but ticks all the English village murder boxes.