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MRS MALORY AND A DEATH IN THE FAMILY
by Hazel Holt
Signet, November 2006
256 pages
$6.99
ISBN: 0451219899


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Sheila Malory is a 50-something widow and a somewhat successful writer who adores her quiet life in a small British country village outside of London. She's happy with her pets and her son and his family, and is busy with her circle of friends.

When her cousin Bernard and his wife Janet suddenly show up for a visit, she is reminded why she doesn't see him all that often. He is a bully towards his wife and even worse, he is a bore who is certain that his hobby of the moment is terribly interesting to everyone.

This time he is investigating their shared Prior family tree, putting together the genealogy and bullying all the cousins to contribute any knowledge or photographs they have of their history. Sheila does her best to show interest in the subject and even finds some photographs and papers in her home and gives them to Bernard to copy.

Bernard and his wife are renting a small cottage house in a nearby village to finish the genealogy work, and to Shelia's horror, he promises her they will see each other again soon.

One day Bernard calls Shelia and tells her that Janet will be returning her photos that evening. Unexpected as the visit is, Shelia finds that Janet, when alone, is a rather nice woman. Because the weather is bad, Shelia gives Janet a ride back to her rented cottage but when they get there they find Bernard dead in a chair, his head bashed in. The police are called.

Feeling protective of Janet, Shelia has her come back to her home afterwards and she discovers more about their rather sad family life. Bernard had broken off all communications with his son Luke when Bernard found out he was gay. This broke Janet's heart as Luke was her favorite child. Their daughter Christine was Bernard's favorite and is like him in too many ways. She is also a controlling person and a bully.

At first the police think that Bernard was killed by a burglary gone wrong, but the medical examiner soon discovers that the man died of a heart attack hours before his head was bashed in. That brings any investigation to a halt as hitting a dead body isn't a high priority crime for the police to investigate.

But all of this makes no sense to Shelia. The person who broke into the cottage must have had a motive for bashing Bernard's head in because it obviously wasn't a burglary since nothing was taken. Shelia is certain that, in as much as Bernard was looking into every corner of their family history, he might have unearthed information that might hurt some branches of the family financially, or with a scandal

It bothers Shelia that no one cares to look for the one who did the deed, so she investigates the mystery herself.

MRS MALORY AND A DEATH IN THE FAMILY is a classic, gentle murder mystery cozy. It has lots of interesting and likable characters and the lovely English location of a small country village. There is no undue violence or sick, sexual psychological illness here. There's just a quiet murder, that turns out not to be a murder anyway.

Though this is the first I've read in the 17-volume series, I found it stands well on it own while still letting the readers in on some of the happenings of years past. I enjoyed this book immensely. It's a nice, civilized, quiet cozy and a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

Reviewed by Sharon Katz, November 2006

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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