DEATH AT DOVECOTE HATCH

A quiet British village hardly seems the place for a murder, much less two.

Now that Florence Norris, the housekeeper at Mullings, has quietly helped the police solve a murder at the home of the young Lord Stodmarsh (Murder at Mullings, 2014, etc.), she’s waiting to marry publican George Bird until she feels she can leave Mullings in good hands. The recent death of their neighbor Kenneth Tenneson has been ruled an accident, leaving his two nasty sisters and a beautiful ward in residence at his exceedingly ugly Victorian mansion, Bogmire. Although Florence has her suspicions, she says nothing until Inspector LeCrane, recalling her keen observation skills from the earlier case, asks for her help. She's suddenly deeply involved when her closest friends, Doris and Alf Thatcher, are called to a law office and told that Doris, who was switched at birth with Kenneth Tenneson, is the heir to the Tenneson house and fortune according to Kenneth’s new will. Shocked by this discovery, Doris wants nothing to do with it, but Kenneth’s death puts her life in danger. In the meantime, young Lord Stodmarsh has taken an interest in Mercy Tenneson, whose own inheritance is not part of the estate. Mercy senses that she’s being followed, and her identity is shrouded in mystery. Could she be the killer or the next victim? Florence needs all her local knowledge and sleuthing skills to help solve the convoluted case.

Agatha Christie meets Downton Abbey in Florence’s second case, a charming reminder of all the country house murders of Britain’s golden age.