Assassins at Ospreys

Antonia Darcy and her husband Major Hugh Payne are invited to the home of Beatrice (“Bee”) Ardleigh, a super-fan of Antonia’s detective books, and Ingrid, the friend-cum-caretaker of Bee, who is in a wheelchair. Some decades earlier, Bee had been engaged to Ralph Renshawe, but their engagement ended when he caused a car accident in which Bee lost the use of her legs and Ingrid, in another vehicle, lost her pregnancy. Now Ralph is back in England, rich and living at the mansion of Ospreys, but he has terminal cancer and has converted to Catholicism; his fortune is meant to be left to his nephew Robin but perhaps he is rethinking that legacy. Meantime, he has a Catholic priest, Father Lillie-Lysander, coming to his home to hear his show more confession frequently, and Bee has married Len Colville, a man who had a huge childhood crush on Bee, and Ingrid is not pleased at all…. I enjoyed this, the third book in the Country House Crime series, but it was a mistake to read it immediately after finishing the second one (“The Death of Corinne”) because there were too many similarities to that earlier book, which I would not have noticed if my reading had been more spaced out. Specifically, there are too many characters who turn out to be insane, so much so that the old Slade song “Mama, We’re All Crazee Now” was constantly on my mind while reading this! That said, the plot is nicely complicated and the resolution somewhat unexpected, so I will give it a mild recommendation. show less

A very good traditional mystery, quite witty. Should appeal to readers who like Louise Penny, etc.