Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Murder most foul is the least of the problems shaking up the household of Sir Julian Marston-Lang. When his stepcousin, Celine, finds her sister, Mona, dead in the garden of Oak Lodge, Julian naturally calls Bea Abbot, whose business running an employment agency has a long history of being upstaged by criminal investigations, to come out from London to help. And no wonder, since the Axton constabulary are practically invisible and Julian can’t take a leading role: his household is beset by more pressing issues. Now that Oak Lodge is a crime scene, Celine and her brother-in-law, Marcus, who married Mona while he was still a billionaire, have to find somewhere else to lodge. But Marcus has disappeared, and house-rich, cash-poor Julian can’t possibly put up Celine in the manse he’s slowly rehabbing, since there’s barely enough livable space for his wife, Polly, and their two children. In addition, Julian has to deal with the armed thieves who’ve been stealing the healing waters on his property, marketing them as Marston Spring Water. The thieves will stop at nothing: One runs Polly’s car off the road, and another dumps a lorry full of manure at Julian’s gate. Not to be outdone, Polly’s poisonous father, Mr. Colston, who’s never approved of her daughter’s marriage to a changeling and former charity student of his, storms into church and interrupts the service by denouncing her and her family at the top of his lungs. Even though there are surprisingly few suspects for Mona’s murder, the relatively straightforward whodunit will have to wait its turn in a long queue. A wonderfully hectic antidote for readers who think English village mysteries are too sedate. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.