Cleeland’s Doyle & Acton series bring its 23d offering with Murder by Mistake.
Featuring the fey Kathleen Doyle, the detective is married to the renowned Scotland Yard Chief Inspector, and they two have been involved in and solved many cases together.
But this time Doyle is on maternity leave at her husband’s ancestral estate with her third child, a girl to join two boisterous brothers. Several weeks earlier she’d spoken at a school career day. One little boy named Beck caught her attention, as he asked each speaker if they’d ever killed anyone.
Her new daughter broke her attention to him, but now in her dreams, she’s been told she must speak to the boy, as that will lead to a murder by mistake, possibly more than one mistake.
Reluctantly. and with the sense of prior cases being involved, the family return to their London home and Doyle is plunged into a new case when it turns out the boy’s father is missing, and there is a connection between the man and her own family.
Juggling motherhood, baby feeds, nannies and the like, Doyle nevertheless champoions the cause, helping Beck to find out the truth about his missing father, while danger mounts and the threads she pulls will unravel more than she could have imagined.
This series is a delight, full of charm, and this entryhits the mark, with returning characters at times interwoven into the plot. One of my favorites is their London butler and cook, Reynolds, who teaches Doyle the many lines that staff must not cross.
Nicely plotted, this is a bright and delectable read.
Auntiemwrites Crime-Mystery Author M K Graff 