MURDERWELL

In this novel, a freshly downsized New York City woman on the cusp of being divorced embarks on an Oregon adventure that combines Harry Potter vibes with Miss Marple–type murders and a champion alpaca.

Forty-five-year-old Gina Biletti, newly unemployed and separated—with thoughts of her soon-to-be ex frequently “flooding back, like a bout of acid reflux”—flies across the country to join her friend Danielle LaTour on one of her job assignments. Danielle owns a high-profile public-relations firm, and a client, Matthias Loneskum, is one of the “top three billionaires in the world, a titan in the tech world, but very eccentric.” No kidding; he has a secret, quaint English village–style hamlet in Oregon called Maidenwell, which Gina, Danielle, and a few others can only reach via an old-fashioned steam train that looks “like something out of Harry Potter, with red lacquered wood cars with gold trim.” Roughly 300 people live in self-sustaining Maidenwell, and the town is all atwitter because occurring there shortly is the “most significant alpaca auction in the last ten years,” where the champion Florrie will be sold. Whoever wins Florrie “will basically control the fate of the alpaca industry in North America.” Gina, Danielle, and the auction attendees stay at Haverford Hall, a mini-version of Downton Abbey and the home of Austrian Frau Loneskum, Matthias’ mother and Florrie’s owner. The auction has created huge industry buzz, as alpaca wool is very valuable, and many of the bidders are at odds with one another. When a bidder shows up dead under suspicious circumstances, Gina assumes the auction is off. She guesses incorrectly, and soon there’s another corpse. This is a brisk, fun read that requires common sense to be put aside, not because of the murders or the auction, but because it assumes Maidenwell could be built and operated under the radar. Humor runs rampant, and dialogue can be crisp. The schooling on the alpaca industry is a bonus. And Wood’s descriptions can be amusing: An alpaca ranch owner “had a long neck and held herself upright, almost like she was posing for a photographer who wasn’t there.” Gina herself would approve of this book, as she says she enjoys mysteries—“Nothing too bloody, but I do like my twists.”

An entertaining mystery that should give readers the willies.