Last month, I accepted an offer of advance copies of two books featuring Susan "Sukey" Reynolds, a civilian scene-of-crime officer who works with the local police department (Death at Dearly Manor, which I read, is the second in a fairly lengthy series and this is the third). Despite reservations about both being so-called cozy mysteries, I thoroughly enjoyed the previous book and was eager to start this one.It's also enjoyable, though not quite as much as its predecessor. Mostly, I think, the plot just wasn't quite as interesting to me personally, and the cast of characters was a little harder to keep straight. On the other hand, I didn't lose a whit of enthusiasm for Sukey (nor her police colleague and significant other, Jim Castle); if I can get my hands on other books in the series, I fully intend to read them. I love that while Sukey gets deeply involved in ongoing investigations, unlike most cozy heroines, she actually listens to what others tell her and doesn't go off the deep end on her own.
This one begins as Sukey is called to a manor house at which there's been a break-in. It is, it appears, one of several such art-and-valuables burglaries in the Cotswolds. Better still, the police reel in a suspect - a man Sukey has never laid eyes on before - but when he sees Sukey, he looks shaken and calls her by a different name. Confusion abounds, and when the suspect turns up missing, the safety of Sukey (and by extension, that of her son Fergus, who lives with her) is called into question. That fear escalates when other bodies turn up, all murdered in the same fashion.
Is Sukey next on the list? Can Jim and his department cohorts get to the bottom of things before something dreadful happens to her? Needless to say, since there are several more books in the series, readers can safely assume that Sukey makes it out alive. But as for the details, you'll just have to read it for yourself. Excellent series!
Death at Beacon Cottage by Betty Rowlands (Bookouture, June 2019); 249 pp.
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