Missing Susan

Rowan Rover, British expert on historical true crimes, is twice divorced and hounded by creditors. As he prepares to lead a two-week mystery tour of the UK, he is approached by a man who wants him to murder one of the tourists, Susan Cohen. Financially desperate and maintaining an admirable sense of denial about the crime itself, Rowan agrees. Amateur sleuth Elizabeth McPherson, whose new husband is on a six-week work engagement, is a member of the tour.

Susan turns out to be almost hilariously obnoxious, talking continually about how things are done in her home town of Minneapolis and reciting the plots of mysteries she has read. As Rowan contemplates how to do the deed, we see that almost any of the tourists might be willing to do it show more for him. His early attempts are deflected onto the other tourists, making one quite ill and another injured. When Elizabeth receives an electric shock in the hotel room that had been assigned to Susan, she wonders if someone might actually be making unsuccessful attempts on Susan's life.

There are several funny moments in which Rowan, contemplating his assignment, is startled by tourists' questions or exclamations about the other murders featured on the tour. Ms. McCrumb stops short of slapstick hilarity and leaves us to wonder what will happen. Can he do it? Can he get away with it? How can he survive if he fails? The final solution is almost inevitable, but it includes a nice twist. A quick, fun read, which will be especially appealing to those with an interest in the company's tour of the UK's historical true crime scenes. show less

Interesting! Very different sort of murder mystery. And the first one where I was thoroughly rooting for the demise of the intended victim!

I hadn't actually read this one previously like I have the other Elizabeth MacPherson novels, so that was a nice change. This book is an amusing romp into the world of traveling with a theme tour - in this one the theme is mysteries and murder. There are lots of interesting side stories about famous murder mysteries in Britain's history. The actual "murder" of the novel is a twist. A fun read.

Newlywed Elizabeth MacPherson decides to go on a mystery tour of England when her husband must go on a 6 week marine biology tour. She lands on a tour guided by Rowan Rover, author of a book on British crime and an expert on Jack the Ripper who has been hired by the family of one of the other tourists to do away with their family heiress. This is a very enjoyable read as accidents befall the group along their tour of England. Will Rover achieve his goal? Will Elizabeth figure out what is going on and stop him? I'll let you read it to find out!

Newlywed Elizabeth MacPherson finds her husband has a prior commitment: a six-week marine biology expedition. Undaunted, she sets off on a two-week “murder tour”—unaware that her tour guide has agreed to murder a member of the tour, the supremely annoying Susan Cohen. It’s entertaining enough, but not as engaging as some other novels in the series. The ending, though, manages to both (mildly) surprise the reader and raise an interesting question about responsibility.

Light and amusing summer read for us. However, the mystery was slight and not a whole of chuckles.

Elizabeth MacPherson joins a tour of Americans visiting England's most famous murder sites. When one of the group is murdered, she investigates. Average. While these mysteries have some funny moments, I don't like them that much. They are okay, but they don't compel me to re-read.