Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of Shadow Waltz by Amy Patricia Meade. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
Shadow Waltz by Amy Patricia Meade
A Marjorie McClelland Mystery
Midnight Ink (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-7387-1249-3 (0738712493)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7387-1249-9 (9780738712499)
Publication Date: May 2008
List Price: $13.95
Synopsis (from the publisher): Newly betrothed and looking forward to the future, wealthy Englishman Creighton Ashcroft and mystery author Marjorie McClelland would like nothing better than to enjoy some quiet time in which to write about their adventures and plan their impending nuptials.
Fate has different plans for the couple when a young mother shows up on Marjorie's doorstep asking for help to find her missing husband. Accepting the case, Marjorie and Creighton are led to an abandoned house and the dismembered body of the husband's mistress. When the husband is convicted of murder, Marjorie feels a nagging doubt that he might not have been guilty. Can her fiancé keep Marjorie's sleuthing nature under wraps or will he be willing to jump in and help her solve another mystery?
Review: Though planning her upcoming nuptials, mystery writer and amateur sleuth Margorie McClelland takes time to help a woman find her missing husband and child in Shadow Waltz, the third mystery in this series by Amy Patricia Meade.
The young women is Elizabeth Barnswell who, after reading about Marjorie's success in helping the police solve recent homicides, comes to her door and pleads for her help. She has been to the police but since her husband, Michael, and infant son have only been gone for a few days, the police are reluctant to help. Marjorie and her fiancé Creighton agree to help her. Elizabeth gives Marjorie a key and a slip of paper with an address on it to get them started. They find the house and they also find a mutilated woman's body. Detective Robert Jameson, Marjorie's ex-fiancé, and his partner have also been drawn to the crime and have begun an investigation. The competition begins again for Marjorie and Robert: Who will identify the body first and who will apprehend the murderer?
The police, of course, have systematic methods of deduction, but Marjorie has her gifted insight. When the dead woman is identified as Michael's lover, the police waste no time in locating him and arresting him for her murder. Marjorie's intuition, however, tells her to look further. There's more to this than meets the eye.
Shadow Waltz serves up a reasonably complicated romantic murder mystery yet is easy to read. It's also somewhat comedic offering plenty of laughs. It would be a perfect book to enjoy while on vacation this summer, even if "vacation" is just a few hours relaxing in the backyard.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Shadow Waltz and to Midnight Ink for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
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