Originally published in the UK by Quercus Editions Ltd. in 2024. Series is given on title page as: A Ruth Galloway Mystery. However, title is not part of the author's Galloway series per publisher's website and book reviews on Library Journal and Kirkus. On an unnumbered page at end of work ("The World of Elly Griffiths"), author's books are listed with cover images and this work is not included in the Ruth Galloway mysteries section. On that page, this title is included as book four in the "Stand-alones featuring the Detective Harbinder Kaur." Work also given as book four in Harbinder Kaur series on GoodReads.com. title page indicates A Ruth Galloway mystery - it is in fact Harbinder Kaur # 4.
Summary:
Natalka and Edwin are perfect if improbable partners in a detective agency. At eighty-four, Edwin regularly claims that he's the oldest detective in England. He is a master at surveillance, deploying his age as a cloak of invisibility. Natalka, Ukrainian-born and more than fifty years his junior, is a math whizz, who takes any cases concerning fraud or deception. Despite a steady stream of minor cases, Natalka is frustrated. She loves a murder, as she's fond of saying, and none have come the agency's way. That is until local writer Melody Chambers dies. Melody's daughters are convinced that their mother was murdered. Edwin thinks that Melody's death is linked to that of an obituary writer who predeceased many of his subjects. Edwin and Benedict go undercover to investigate and are on a creative writing weekend at isolated Battle House when another murder occurs. Are the cases linked and what is the role of a distinctly sinister book group attended by many of writers involved? By the time Edwin has infiltrated the group, he is in serious danger.
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