DEATH OF A COZY WRITER

TITLE: DEATH OF A COZY WRITER
AUTHOR: G.M. MALLIET
Pages: 286
Date: 26/06/2009
Grade: 4.5
Details: no. 1 St. Just Mystery
Library

It is always a joy to discover a good new mystery series, and with this book, the first in the St. Just Mysteries, I've found a beauty.
Sir Adrian Beauclerk-Fisk is the successful author of a series of cozy mysteries, who is far from cozy himself when it comes to his personal life. He takes great pleasure in playing his four children of against each other with constant threats of disinheritance.
No he has announced his upcoming marriage to Violet, a widow with a dubious past. Shocked and worried the children return to their father's mansion only for matters to get worse when Ruthven, the eldest son and favourite in the inheritance stakes, is brutally murdered.
Detective Chief Inspector St. Just finds himself dealing with a family where no one seems to mourn the death, no one tells the (full) truth, and soon, with a second murder.
In the end only a look at the past and a trip to Scotland provide the clues to solve this mystery.
G.M. Malliet has called this book an homage to the golden age of classic British mystery, and that is exactly what this is. The country house setting, a limited and closed group of suspects,and a conclusion more intricate than expected all remind the reader of Agatha Christie. The only difference being that this time it is the police rather than an amateur who solves the crime.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will be looking forward to the next one.