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Brother and sister Robert and Lily Brewster live together and run a guesthouse, the Grace & Favor, in the cottage their uncle left to them. Franklin Delano Roosevelt has just been elected and sworn in as President and there are hopes that the Depression will soon come to an end under his guidance. But times are hard, so Lily and Robert both take on work in a private nursing home run by Miss Twibell, a diligent and hard-working nurse whose bunions are acting up and who needs temporary additions to her cleaning staff in the home. The Brewsters contribute their substantial goodwill and strong backs to help the patients in the home. Most are recuperating, but one elderly person, a not at all pleasant man, is failing fast. When he passes away, Miss Twibell discovers evidence that the man had been smothered. Chief of Police Howard Walker is called in to investigate and Lily and Robert help him, as they have in the past. This is the latest in Jill Churchill's fifth book in the Grace & Favor mystery series and a cozy reader couldn't find herself in a nicer story. The siblings are both down to earth but plucky and delightful, the Chief of Police is a man who knows his job but has the self-knowledge to ask for help when it's needed, and the rest of the large cast of secondary characters are all well thought out and interesting. There's no heart-stopping action here, no modern examples of beastly and psychotic activities. It's just a straightforward murder that seems to have been brought about by simple old-fashioned greed. Though not all the loose threads are tied up, and some suspects are seemingly saved for the next in the series, IT HAD TO BE YOU is nicely put together. The time period, its politics, (including a fast tutorial on the reason FDR closed the banks) social standards and everyday life are introduced to the readers in a very personal way. I thoroughly enjoyed IT HAD TO BE YOU. A more pleasant cozy would be hard to find.
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, April 2005
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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