THE CASE OF THE MISSING MORRIS DANCER

Wedding plans are made even more difficult when a man goes missing.

Henry Twyst, the 18th Duke of Chellingworth, is about to marry Stephanie Timbers in a grand ceremony at his Welsh estate. A quiet and pompous fellow, the duke is overwhelmed by all the arrangements. Luckily, his mother, the sprightly Dowager Duchess Althea, has things well in hand until the musician for the Morris Dancers vanishes. Althea is an honorary member of the WISE Enquiries Agency, whose other members have made their homes on or near the estate since solving an earlier case for the duke and dowager duchess (The Case of the Dotty Dowager, 2015, etc.). The roster of WISE includes the heavily pregnant Carol Hill, a Welsh computer expert; the Honorable Christine Wilson-Smythe, a well-connected Irishwoman; retired Scottish nurse Mavis MacDonald; and Annie Parker, a Londoner born in the Caribbean. Their very different strengths and skills come in handy as they search for Aubrey Morris, a respected but secretive local handyman who plays for the Morris Dancers and keeps all the tools of their trade, which have vanished as well. Everyone pitches in to try to keep the wedding plans on track while the ladies of WISE explore Aubrey’s background, hack his computer, and pick up every bit of local gossip in hopes of finding the missing man.

The diverse sleuths are charming enough to raise WISE’s latest adventure above the rather mundane mystery.