A MURDER IN MARYLEBONE

A trip home offers an English widow who’s been living abroad family stress, romantic befuddlement, and, of course, murder.

After many happy years on the Greek island of Corfu, Minnie Harper reluctantly returns to London in 1898 to help her daughter, Cleo, settle into her Hampstead boarding school. Although Minnie stays at her Aunt Agatha’s apartment, she spends enough time at her childhood home to realize her father has deteriorated both physically and intellectually in the 15 years since she left. On the other hand, her sister, Delia, who was only a child when Minnie went to Greece, has blossomed into a talented artist. Sadly, Delia’s talent comes with a hefty dose of willfulness. Her love affair with shady antiquities dealer Charles Pearson comes to an unhappy end when Charles, who turns out to be married, also turns up dead. Fearing the police will blame Delia, Minnie needs to find out who really killed Charles. She has an ally in mystery writer Stephen Dorian, whose novels she typed back in Corfu to keep her family financially afloat after the death of her husband, Oliver. But Minnie’s relationship with Stephen is complicated. Minnie is strongly attracted to Stephen but resents him for suggesting Oliver may have been involved in illegally trafficking Greek antiquities. The will-they, won’t-they between Minnie and Stephen sucks up most of the oxygen in Sullivan’s narrative. There’s a splash available for the rest of the family drama, and just a smidge left over for solving the titular murder.

For readers who like their love stories with a suggestion of mystery.