Goodbye, Nanny Gray

While former nanny Phoebe Gray was loved by the many children she had cared for in the small English village, not all adults felt the same way about her. Nanny had Parkinson's and was prone to falls, so when her body was discovered in a wooded area, it was assumed that she had fallen and hit her head. However, the Superintendent Bone and his partner are unable to find anything in her home that matches the fatal injury. Nanny had recently inherited a large sum of money from a former charge. Was this the motive for her murder? Or did she know a secret that one of her families would kill to keep?

There were several things I liked about this debut mystery, but it had a few problems. The development of characters and motives wasn't show more consistent. A few suspects received a lot of attention, while a few others weren't developed very well. I frequently felt like something was missing from a description or a conversation. I think the book needed a little more detail. There was a nice balance between the investigation and Superintendent Bone's personal life. I liked his relationship with his daughter Charlotte, who is recovering from a serious brain injury from the accident that killed Bone's wife and young son. The book's good points outweigh its flaws, and I'll be on the lookout for more books in this series. show less

Published in 1989, this cozy English mystery is short by modern standards at 188 pages, but the authors (a duo of long-time friends who penned this series) managed to give both plot, characterization, and a bit of social commentary all in less than 200 pages. I gave this mystery four stars for the deft plotting and overall entertainment that Superintendent Bone provided. I have the next two books in this series, acquired from a Little Free Library in Seattle, and I'll start the next one soon. The series is out of print and not available in eBook format, so I had to resort to thrift stores online to find the others.

The first in the Superintendent Bone series - and a great light read in the cosy tradition of the Queens of Crime. If you like Agatha Christie et al you'll thoroughly enjoy this series. Here we are introduced to Superintendent Robert Bone, as his investigates the murder of the elderly Nanny Grey whilst coping with single parenthood of his injured daughter Cha after a car crash has taken the life of his wife and baby son. Recommended.

pretty good cozy mystery