Veronica
Heley is an English author of more than 70 books. She’s best known for her two
contemporary mystery series, one about Ellie Quicke, a recently widowed
middle-aged woman in the London suburbs who is finding her voice and her life
after an unhappy marriage. She is a classic amateur sleuth, learning by
happenstance that she has a gift for investigation. The other is about Bea
Abbot who runs a catering and domestic services agency with a little
investigation here and there. Both series are long running: there are 22 books
about Ellie Quicke and the 17th book about the Abbot Agency will be
released on 2 July 2024.
In False
Witness (Severn House, July 2024) Bea Abbot is asked by former client Sir
Julian Marston-Lang to look into odd occurrences at Marston Hall. He’d been
shot at while out riding. A local woman was found murdered in a stall in one of
the Marston Hall barns, and someone has started a rumor that Marston-Lang is
the killer. The police are very interested in establishing his alibi. The locals
are upset by the loss of their jobs while Marston-Lang renovates the buildings
and brings them up to current building codes, so he supposed it could be one of
them. But then cousins had thought to inherit the estate and they were still
grumbling so maybe one of them was angry enough to step outside the law. The
estate itself is bankrupt and Marston-Lang has sunk every penny of his own
money into building supplies and contractors to try to return grounds to a
self-supporting state so why anyone might want it in its current state is
unknown.
Abbot moves
in and brings one of her best operatives masquerading as a personal assistant
to help sort through the endless paperwork. The seemingly innocuous assistant
carries a gun and is a skilled combatant. She deserves a few books of her own.
While the assistant protects Marston-Lang, Abbot searches for the person behind
the strange goings-on at Marston Hall.
A smoothly
paced and tightly plotted story, which might reasonably be expected from an
author as experienced as Heley. An interesting subplot involves Abbot’s artist
husband who is in a politically unstable Caribbean country; whether he will
escape before the unrest turns into outright rebellion is unclear.
Followers of
the series will welcome this addition to the adventures of the Abbot Agency.
Readers of cozy mysteries looking for a new series should consider this one and
the books about Ellie Quicke.
· Publisher: Severn House; Main edition (July 2, 2024)
· Language: English
· Hardcover: 224 pages
· ISBN-10: 1448312566
·
ISBN-13: 978-1448312566
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3L8aR89
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
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