Shadows of Death

November 18, 2013
Orkney, the group of islands just off the north Scottish coast, provides the setting for Dams’s enticing 14th Dorothy Martin mystery (after 2013s Murder at the Castle). While on holiday, Dorothy and her husband, retired chief constable Alan Nesbitt, attend the annual meeting of the Friends of Ancient Orkney. When flashy American Henry J. Carter, the sole funder of an excavation on one of the more remote islands, announces that he expects to unearth and sell Viking gold, Dorothy and Alan Nesbitt realize he has rubbed the archeologists and locals the wrong way. Less than 24 hours later, Carter turns up dead at the dig. An otherwise engaged police force allows Alan and Dorothy to poke around for answers, but scant evidence leads to no clear perpetrator and some false trails. Amid ample historical lore and gorgeous descriptions of scenery, Dorothy uses her amateur investigating skills to arrive at a clever solution. Agent: Kimberley Cameron, Kimberley Cameron Agency.

May 13, 2013
Despite its contemporary setting, Dams’s enjoyable 13th Dorothy Martin mystery (after 2012’s The Corpse of St. James’s) features many hallmarks of the traditional British cozy. Retired American teacher Dorothy is vacationing in Wales with her husband, Alan Nesbitt, who is a retired chief constable, along with some young friends—one of whom will perform at a music festival being held at Flint Castle. Classical choral music and a renowned conductor are anticipated, but the fluke accident that takes a choir member’s life is not. After a similar fatal incident, Dorothy and Alan work with local police to investigate the deaths. Dams unfolds her plot with a sure hand, but music takes center stage. The story sometimes threatens to turn into melodrama, but the characters always have time for a pint or a cup of tea before the line into absurdity is crossed. Anglophiles, music lovers, and cozy readers will sing “alleluia.” Agent: Kimberley Cameron, Kimberley Cameron Agency.

June 15, 2013
A music festival in Wales is both moving and deadly. Retired Chief Constable Alan Nesbitt and his sleuthing American wife, Dorothy Martin, have come to Wales to stay at a lovely B&B with their friends Nigel and Inga Evans. Although Nigel is a computer wonk, his first love is music, and he's thrilled to have been invited to sing at the festival founded by renowned conductor Sir John Warner. Disaster strikes when one of the festival singers falls, or is pushed, to his death from a canal boat traveling over a high aqueduct. The much-disliked soloist suffers a similar fate when she takes a tumble from a high wall at the ruined castle where the festival is being held. Although the local police dismiss both deaths as unfortunate accidents, Alan and Dorothy share a strong feeling that they were clever murders. Appealing to them for help, Sir John reveals that the dead woman was his first wife, who had been declared legally dead after she apparently perished aboard a sinking ship. When the girlfriend and best friend of the man killed in the canal boat tragedy vanish, Dorothy, Alan and their friends pull out all the stops to discover the truth. Dams, well-known for her classic British cozies (The Corpse of St James's, 2012, etc.), supplements a solid mystery with current and historic details of the Welsh border area.

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May 15, 2013
The latest Dorothy Martin mystery finds the retired American schoolteacher (now living in England ) and her husband, former copper Alan Nesbitt, invited to a Welsh music festival. Excitement turns to concern when a passenger on a tour boat falls to his death. Later, when one of the music festival's performers dies under similar circumstances, Dorothy realizes it's time to start sleuthing. Like earlier series volumes, this one is firmly in the Agatha Christie mold: a mystery, a cast of likely suspects, an interesting setting, a brook-no-foolishness heroine. Sure, it's a pretty strict formula, but a Dorothy Martin novel always delivers good fun for lovers of traditional mysteries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)