A COLLECTION OF LIES

Murders past and present provide a puzzle for newlyweds.

While DI Tom Mallory and his American wife, Kate Hamilton, are on honeymoon in Devon, they consider a proposal from Tom’s friend Grahame Nash, who runs an international private detective agency and wants their help. Grahame has been hired by the Museum of Devon Life to authenticate a blood-soaked dress thought to have been worn by Victorian lacemaker—and murderer—Nancy Thorne. Because Kate has antiques expertise, they’re asked to establish whether the blood on the dress is human and the dress an actual period creation. When Tom and Kate arrive at the museum, the curator describes the dress, donated by eccentric local Gideon Littlejohn, as beautifully constructed, probably by Nancy’s seamstress sister, featuring an exquisite lace collar, and fully worthy of being the centerpiece of an upcoming exhibition on famous Devon crimes. Littlejohn, who dresses and lives as a Victorian gentleman, has not donated the trunk, purchased at auction, that contained the dress, but he does let Tom and Kate examine it. After a museum fundraiser during which Littlejohn is wounded, local MP Theodore Pearce announces that he was the shooter’s probable target. The local police ask Tom for his help as Kate starts researching in local libraries and churches and online. Although her extensive search turns up a connection between the dress and a 19th-century Romany family, she can’t document a murder. When Littlejohn is killed, the pressure intensifies on both sleuths to learn more about suspects from two different centuries.

Fascinating historical research combines with modern murder in this charming page-turner.