Vilja Reads

A long-lost relative shows up on Mrs Shackleton's doorstep asking for help: Her husband is missing, perhaps dead. Reluctantly, Kate is drawn into an investigation that reveals the interplay of relationships and secrets in a little country town, as well as putting her face to face with a part of her own past that she'd hoped to forget. 

While I unashamedly enjoyed the previous installment in this series, I can tell that between A Medal for Murder and Murder in the Afternoon there's been a conscious effort to improve. Character introductions and scene settings seemed more tactile. While before I wasn't ever sure a shift between narrators was necessary, here it was instrumental in distributing information. The plot is a slow reveal as secret after secret falls into place, without, once more, giving away the solution until Kate has all the information she needs. These novels are not puzzles to be solved, but stories - and I am fine with that!

Brody is a knack conjuring scenes and characters that seem tangible and memorable. That's something I find essential in a story; too often in detective novels characters fade into faceless game pieces.

I may be too generous. I often end up rating according to how much I enjoyed a story, and I enjoyed this quite a lot. I could also appreciate Kate's hesitation about Marcus. She's much too sharp and decisive to be shuffled into a position she won't enjoy, simply because it's the done thing. I can't explain it, but somehow that makes me trust Brody - to think I will continue to like Kate, and to like reading about her. We'll see.